Challenges to Chiefdoms: Māori Leaders in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Acquiring Status and Power in Transegalitarian and Chiefdom Societies" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The title of this paper reflects two themes. First, the environmental and demographic reality of Polynesian settlement of temperate islands with substantial rainforests and marginal horticultural potential which prevented the development of large complex chiefdoms such as those of Hawai’i or French Polynesia. Māori chiefdoms were limited in size, frequency, and scale by these constraints as well as the proliferation of effective fortifications organized and funded by chiefs starting two centuries after initial colonization. The second meaning of the title refers to limitations to better understanding these societies due to dominant theoretical perspectives and methodology. New Zealand has described by Timothy Earle as the type “hillfort chiefdom,” with other examples from Metal Age Europe and the Americas. Yet, this model is not widely recognized by New Zealand archaeology. The second goal is to encourage scholars to recognize that the Māori case reflects a common pattern of dynamic small-scale chiefdoms built because of and despite fortifications which made conquest by force a difficult undertaking. The utility of the “hillfort chiefdom” model is supported by over three decades or archaeological research partnered with the tangata whenua (people of the land) of Heretaunga in the Hawke’s Bay province.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Acquiring Status and Power in Transegalitarian and Chiefdom Societies

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53048