How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawai'i

In How Chiefs Became Kings, Patrick Vinton Kirch addresses a central problem in anthropological archaeology: the emergence of "archaic states" whose distinctive feature was divine kingship. Kirch takes as his focus the Hawaiian archipelago, commonly regarded as the archetype of a complex chiefdom. Integrating anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, traditional history, and theory, and drawing on significant contributions from his own four decades of research, Kirch argues that Hawaiian polities had become states before the time of Captain Cook's voyage (1778-1779). The status of most archaic states is inferred from the archaeological record. But Kirch shows that because Hawai`i's kingdoms were established relatively recently, they could be observed and recorded by Cook and other European voyagers. Substantive and provocative, this book makes a major contribution to the literature of precontact Hawai`i and illuminates Hawai`i's importance in the global theory and literature about divine kingship, archaic states, and sociopolitical evolution.

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface 1. From Chiefdom to Archaic State: Hawai‘i in Comparative and Historical Context What Are Archaic States? Theories of Primary State Formation Hawai‘i as a Model System for State Emergence Marshall Sahlins’s Challenge A Phylogenetic Model for Polynesian Cultural Evolution The Nature of Ancestral Polynesian Society How Did Contact-Era Hawai‘i Differ from Ancestral Polynesia? Was Hawai‘i Unique in Polynesia? 2. Hawaiian Archaic States on the Eve of European Contact Sources for Reconstructing Contact-Era Hawai‘i Hawaiian Polities: Size and Scale Class Stratifi cation and Divine Kingship Elite Art, Craft Specialization, and Wealth Finance Political, Administrative, and Settlement Hierarchies Systems of Production The Hierarchy of Priests and Temples The State Cults and the Ritual Cycle Land and Labor War Summary 3. Native Hawaiian Political History Genealogies of Renown, Traditions of Power Founding Traditions of Settlement and Voyaging Political Developments of the Fifteenth to Mid-sixteenth Centuries Usurpation and Political Consolidation in the Hawai‘i and Maui Kingdoms Dynastic Histories of the Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries Political Developments of the Contact Era Agency in History: Ali‘i Routes to Power 4. Tracking the Transformations: Population, Intensification, and Monumentality The Hawaiian Cultural Sequence Population and Demographic Trends Contrastive Agroecosystems Temporal Pathways of Intensifi cation Marine Resources and Aquaculture Monumentality and the Temple System Royal Centers and Elite Residence Patterns When Did the Hawaiian Archaic States Emerge? 5. The Challenge of Explanation Previous Explanations for Hawaiian Cultural Change Ultimate Causation: Population, Intensifi cation, and Surplus Proximate Causation: Status Rivalry, Alliance, and Conquest Why Did Archaic States Emerge First on Hawai‘i and Maui? Hawai‘i and Archaic State Emergence Notes Glossary of Hawaiian Terms References Index

About the Author :
Patrick Vinton Kirch is Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology and Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of many books, including Feathered Gods and Fishhooks and On the Road of the Winds (UC Press).

Review :
“Concise, but data-rich and sophisticated in its dissection of social theory.” “Rich and wide­ranging. . . . Kirch cements his reputation in this book. . . . Here we see the master at the top of his game.” “Complete and compelling. . . . This is an important book, and everyone with a serious interest in Hawaiian history should read it.”