After the missionaries: Historical archaeology and traditional religious sites in the Hawaiian Islands

Authors

  • James L Flexner The University of Sydney
  • Mark D McCoy Southern Methodist University, Texas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.125.3.307-332

Keywords:

Religious sites, historical archaeology, Hawai'i, heiau, Captain Cook

Abstract

Archaeology of traditional religious sites in Polynesia tends to focus on the “pre-contact†era, before religions were transformed by European influence. An historical archaeology of traditional religious sites is essential, however, for understanding the relationship between 21st-century traditional or indigenous religious beliefs and practices, and the transformations wrought during the colonial era. Traditional religion certainly did not disappear with the arrival of Christian missionaries, but there would have been some transformations. Using case studies from the Hawaiian Islands (Puhina o Lono or “Cook’s Heiau†on Hawai‘i Island and the leprosarium at Kalaupapa, Moloka‘i Island), we explore some of the ways that sacred sites were transformed in the 18th and 19th centuries. These are initial observations and we offer a number of recommendations for future research, particularly relating to the interpretation of architectural modifications and ritual offerings. The largely unexplored colonial archaeology of traditional religious sites merits a more prominent place in Polynesian archaeology.

Author Biographies

James L Flexner, The University of Sydney

James L. Flexner is a Lecturer in Historical Archaeology and Heritage at the University of Sydney. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and his thesis focussed on Hawaiian historical archaeology. James has been working extensively in southern Vanuatu since 2011, with a current project exploring 3000 years of settlement and interactions in the region, particularly the Polynesian Outliers of Futuna and Aniwa. His book, An Archaeology of Early Christianity in Vanuatu, will be published by ANU Press later in 2016.

Mark D McCoy, Southern Methodist University, Texas

Mark D. McCoy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He is a landscape archaeologist whose research centres on the development of ancient political economies and human ecodynamics. He is an expert in the application of spatial technology in archaeology and directs research in East Polynesia and Micronesia.

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Published

2016-09-25