Land Use and Settlement Pattern Change in Mauka Kawaihae, Hawai‘i Island, 1790-1930

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Pre-1778 land use in Hawai‘i Island’s leeward Kohala uplands has been extensively documented by archaeologists, particularly those studying the ancient mauka (upland) Leeward Kohala Field System. However, “historic” (post-1778) land use – particularly in the uplands – is not as well understood. In this poster, I provide a review of the documentary and oral records associated with the late 18th to early 20th century settlements and agricultural land use patterns in mauka South Kohala, focusing in particular on the ahupua‘a (traditional land tenure units) of Kawaihae 1 and 2. These ahupuaʻa include a detached section of mixed dryland and intermittently irrigated agricultural fields known as the South Kohala Field System as well as the remains of two historic villages – Ho‘epa to the north and Mākelā to the south. Finally, I review some of the prior historical and archaeological work and add to the record using archaeological data collected during Google Earth mapping and archaeological fieldwork between 2017-2022. Overall, these data provide additional context for the timing and nature of agricultural expansion in the pre-1778 field system located makai (downslope) of these settlements.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39422.0