SHA Special Publications 4: Papers in Honor of Dr. Yosihiko Sinoto

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10524/84533

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Commentary: Recent Approaches to Digitizing Hawaiian Archaeological Collections at Bishop Museum
(2014) Wong, Charmaine; Mulrooney, Mara; Moore, Summer
The growing demand for digitizing collections, including archaeological assemblages, has driven many institutions to initiate programs that utilize current technologies to facilitate both curation efforts and access. Bishop Museum’s Anthropology Department began digitizing its Hawaiian collections in 2008 through the Hawaiian Archaeological Survey (HAS) project. This project is conducted in collaboration with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) and other organizations. Through the continued efforts of interns, volunteers, researchers, and staff members, more than 80,000 items have been inventoried, re-housed, and digitized as part of this effort. This paper outlines recent approaches by the Anthropology Department at Bishop Museum to digitize large and unique collections of related artifacts, field documents and maps, photographs and negatives, and project reports and department publications.
The Historical Role of Bonefishes (Albula spp.) in Polynesian Fisheries
(2014) Allen, Melinda
This paper is a tribute to Yosi Sinoto, a pioneer in the study of indigenous Polynesian fishing technologies and East Polynesian prehistory. It builds on his research by considering the historical role of bonefishes (Albula spp., family Albulidae) across Polynesia. Bonefishes are relatively large, schooling, nearshore species which, on several grounds, constitute high-return resources as defined by foraging models, especially in relation to Polynesian fishing technologies. Ecological, life history, and sportfishing data is compiled in support of this claim, while their role in indigenous fisheries is assessed with linguistic, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence. The latter shows that, despite being naturally distributed across the region, and recognized by a common Polynesian referent (kiokio or a close cognate), only two Polynesian localities (Cook and Hawaiian Islands) provide unambiguous historical evidence for well-developed Albula fisheries; their historical importance also is suggested on Tubuai (Austral Islands) where they have declined. In Tokelau and in the Tuamotu Islands they play a modest role in contemporary fisheries, while the evidence compiled here suggests more incidental use elsewhere in Polynesia. Three hypotheses are examined to explain the disjunction between the highreturn potentials of bonefishes and the available evidence for their traditional importance: 1) ethnographic and archaeological preservation and/or collection biases are factors; 2) bonefishing was once more widely practiced but has declined as a result of harvesting pressures, climate change, or other processes; and/or 3) geographic variability in conditions favoring bonefish abundance (e.g., habitat, food sources) have led to a discontinuous and uneven pattern of cultural use across Polynesia. The available evidence suggests that all three factors may be relevant.
New insights from the Wai‘ahukini Rockshelter Site (H8), Ka‘u District, Hawai‘i Island from non-destructive EDXRF geochemistry
(2014) Lundblad, Steven P.; Mills, Peter R.; Kahn, Jennifer; Mulliken, Katherine; Cauley, Christina
We report on non-destructive Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis of 1,562 volcanic glass and 295 basaltic artifacts from the Wai‘ahukini Rockshelter (H8) near South Point, Hawai‘i Island. Volcanic glass found at the site is divided into three geochemical groups as found elsewhere on Hawai‘i Island, including material from the trachyte cone at Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a (PWW). Basaltic material is subdivided into nine geochemical groups with the provenance of a majority of the adze related material inferred to be from non-local sources. These results are consistent with a model of centralized control and distribution of stone tools on Hawai‘i Island.
New Dates from Old Samples: A Revised Radiocarbon Chronology for the Wai‘ahukini Rockshelter Site (H8), Ka‘u District, Hawai‘i Island
(2014) Mulrooney, Mara A.; Esh, Kelly S.; McCoy, Mark D.; Bickler, Simon H.; Sinoto, Yoshioko
In the Ka‘ū District of Hawai‘i Island, several sites were excavated by Bishop Museum archaeologists during the 1950s and 1960s, and have been noted by previous researchers as a possible location of initial settlement by Ancient Hawaiians. This paper presents the results of a recent re-dating effort that was initiated at the Wai‘ahukini Rockshelter Site. Samples housed in the collections of Bishop Museum and the University of Hawai‘i, Hilo were selected, identified, and re-dated using AMS radiocarbon dating in order to refine the chronology for the settlement of this key site. The results suggest that the site was probably initially occupied from at least the 14th to early 15th century A.D. onwards, with the wellknown pavement probably being laid down sometime during the mid-17th to early 18th century A.D. This is much later than the original radiocarbon dates suggested.
A Re-examination of Kenneth P. Emory’s Theory of Necker Type Marae in the Summit Region of Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i: Many Marae or Shrines Later
(2014) McCoy, Patrick C.; Nees, Richard
In 1923-24, Kenneth P. Emory, a pioneer in Hawaiian archaeology, recorded a number of small structures with upright stones on Nihoa and Necker Islands that he described as marae, the East Polynesian name for a wide variety of religious or ceremonial structures found in other parts of East Polynesia. In 1937 Emory described a small number of similar structures in the adze quarry on Mauna Kea, which not only resembled those on Nihoa and Necker, but others in the Society and Tuamotu Islands as well. Emory developed a theory which suggested that: (1) the Nihoa and Necker Island marae and the shrines on Mauna Kea and a few others from remote places in Hawai‘i, such as Pu‘u o ‘Umi on Mauna Loa, were an archaic style from an early period in the settlement of the Hawaiian Islands, and (2) these same archaeological remains had escaped replacement by later, more complex structures called heiau because of their geographical isolation. In this paper we re-examine Emory’s two-part theory based on a preliminary stylistic analysis of more than 200 shrines recorded in recent archaeological surveys in the summit region of Mauna Kea. We conclude that Emory and some of his contemporaries who held to the same general theory, such as Sir Peter Buck, were partially correct, but that geographical isolation is not an adequate explanation for all of the “non-monumental” religious structures on Mauna Kea. We point to inherent limitations in the comparative study of structural types based on architectural similarities alone, and suggest that more attention needs to be given to identifying the organizational principles and beliefs manifested in Polynesian religious architecture.
A Re-examination of Robert Suggs’ Marquesan Fishhook Collection from Nuku Hiva
(2014) Swift, Jillian A.
Fishhooks are among the most widely distributed and frequently excavated artifacts in Eastern Polynesia. Their analysis contributes to understanding such wide-ranging topics as Polynesian migration and inter-island contact, subsistence and resource utilization and depression, and the establishment of relative chronologies. Emory, Bonk, and Sinoto conducted the first systematic analysis of Polynesian fishhooks in 1959. Continued work by Sinoto laid the groundwork for East Polynesian fishhook studies and their utility in comparative analysis and chronological applications. This paper reviews previous Polynesian fishhook arrangements and suggests possible variables for the construction of a function-oriented classification. A selection of these variables are applied to the collection of fishhooks excavated by Robert Suggs on Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, revealing a more nuanced picture of spatiotemporal trends in fishhook size and morphology than previously established.
Front matter
(2014)
front matter
Papers in Honor of Dr. Yosihiko Sinoto
(2014) McElroy, Windy Keala; Komori, Eric
Papers in Honor of Dr. Yosihiko Sinoto
Introduction: July 4, 1954, A Great Day for the Archaeology of Hawai‘i
(2014) Komori, Eric
introduction

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