Ethnoarchaeology in Polynesia
 

A number of reviewers of my grant proposals suggested that the results of my feasting research among transegalitarian societies were not relevant to understanding chiefdom societies. Therefore, in conjunction with Suzanne Villeneuve, I began to examine the relationship of feasting to political dynamics in the Polynesian island of Futuna. Futuna is perhaps the most traditional Polynesian society in existence. Two rival chiefdoms still vie for importance on this small island, only 20 km in length. Competitive feasting is certainly a vibrant feature in family and village life today. This mirrors family and larger scale rivalries in chiefly politics. We document these features in a preliminary report (Feasting in Futuna-.pdf file) and conference paper (Who Benefits? The View from Futuna-.pdf file).

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