Wealth Inequality in Polynesia: A Comparison of Evidence from the Hawaiian Islands, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and Aotearoa (New Zealand) from AD 1000–1800

Summary

This is an abstract from the "To Have and Have Not: A Progress Report on the Global Dynamics of Wealth Inequality (GINI) Project" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Polynesia has been largely overlooked in previous archaeological assessments of levels of wealth difference despite the pivotal role that research in the region has played in advancing our understanding of inequality in human societies. The Global Dynamics of Wealth Inequality (GINI) Project will redress this gap by systematically evaluating domestic architecture from the Hawaiian Islands, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and Aotearoa (New Zealand). This update will center on three basic questions: What data appropriate for the project exist for these islands? How can we overcome the challenge of drawing out metrics of wealth that are both useful for cross-cultural comparison but also reflect what we know about wealth in Polynesia from ethnography and ethnohistory? What does the work to-date suggest about wealth inequality in Polynesia? This final question will be discussed relative to how these societies have traditionally been classified by anthropologists as exemplars of different kinds of complex, hierarchical societies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• To Have and Have Not: A Progress Report on the Global Dynamics of Wealth Inequality (GINI) Project   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35630.0