Collective Action Problems Led to Increased Social Hierarchy in Ancient Samoa: Evidence from Architetural Chronologies and Paleoenvironments

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.

We have identified the evolutionary-ecological processes that explain the rise of increasingly hierarchical society in Samoa over the last 1000 years. Our lidar, ground survey, and rock-wall chronologies in the Falefa Valley demonstrate that the construction of large boundary walls began 900-600 years ago, shortly after dramatic population rise in Sāmoa. Construction of small field walls followed. Densities of both rock wall types are associated with areas of higher dryland agricultural potential. Earliest wall construction was also penecontemporaneous with forest removal that created a more productive wetland environment in an adjacent region of the valley, an area later a focus of agricultural ditching. We propose that with population rise collective action problems associated with the maintenance and defence of valuable agricultural land were mediated by the rise of community leaders. We now further test this proposal with new chronologies of monumental platforms, predicting that they will post-date the rise of these leaders.

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): 50258