The Functionality of Feasting at Late Prehistoric Residential and Ceremonial Sites in the Society Islands

Abstract

Much of the research into East Polynesian ceremonial sites focuses on temple-altar (marae-ahu) complexes as sacred sites where varied religious rituals and rites of passage were performed. Yet ethnohistoric documents and the Tahitian lexicon suggest a broader role for Ma‘ohi (indigenous Tahitian) ceremonial architecture as the foci of individual and corporate ceremonies of a religious, economic and political nature. Utilising a spatio-temporal perspective, I investigate the function of feasting at terraces attached to a range of community and familial level temples, in addition to communal spaces within residential sites in the Society Islands. My goal is to explore the ways that Ma‘ohi household leaders, chiefs and priests may have utilised feasting to materialise their economic authority, while at the same time facilitating the formation of communal identities. I utilise archaeological data to identify feasting at monumental architectural sites of varying scale and complexity and house sites of differing status. I then turn to ethnographic analogy and social theory to suggest differing functions of feasting at different site types. As I argue, feasting serves as a highly visible social act, representing not only a political leader’s generosity, but delineating boundaries of particular social groups and control over resources. In the Society Island chiefdoms, at both the household and community scales, feasting is strongly correlated, but not uniquely associated with, ceremonial sites and served varied secular and sacred functions. I conclude that feasting actively solidified local and community level leader’s economic, socio-political and ideological power in varied ceremonial contexts of the late prehistoric Society Island chiefdoms.