Tonga And Samoa: The Polynesian Homeland “Havaiki”

Question 1

Title Page

Answer 1

1. Soft g in Tonga like singing
2. Havaiki referring to mythical place but lots of islands named it
   2.1 Hawaii is example

Question 2

Polynesia as a Region - it really isn’t one

Answer 2

1. Term invented as meant to describe people of vast region
   1.1 Partially based on what they look like and partially languages
2. People refer to selves as Polynesian and kinda hazy
   2.1 Usually Tongan, Samoan, Hawaiian
3. Lots of diversity so just geographically Polynesia

Question 3

Polynesia as a “Phyletic Unit”

Answer 3

1. Kirch and Green
   1.1 Common origin for people
   1.2 Phylogenetic unity (branching/hierarchical structure to cultures in region)
   1.2.1 Language (Stepping stone effect as people move through islands)
   1.2.2 Cultural traditions
   1.2.3 Material items (Same tools altered to fit local conditions)
2. Language tree
   2.1 Y axis time
   2.2 X axis languages
   2.3 First proto-Eastern Oceanic (Polynesian, proto-nuclear Polynesian, east Polynesian, central, Tahitian)

Question 4

Concept of “Hawaiki”

Answer 4

1. Associated with mythical underworld
   1.1 Red flowers
   1.1.1 Float on water know hawaiki close by
   1.1.2 In Moana crab world
2. Hawaiki shared concept among Polynesian islands
3. Where spirits go when they die
   3.1 Jump off cliff and go to hawaiki
   3.2 Usually a path/trail there and don’t walk on it when alive because might get lured by spirits to underworld
4. Where the first people came from in their canoes to find the islands
   4.1 Island names are a “renaming”
   4.1.1 Hawai’i Island (Hawaiki with a glottal stop)
   4.1.2 Savai’i Islands (Hawaiki with a S and a glottal stop)
   4.1.3 Old name for Raiatea in Tahiti

Question 5

Home of Ancestral Polynesia

Answer 5

1. Tonga
2. Samoa
3. Futuna/Wallis (‘Uvea)
4. Niuatoputapu
   4.1 Split between these islands
   4.2 Region where beginning of ancestral Polynesian culture started and originally founded
   4.3 Lapita people there first

Question 6

Kingdom of Tonga

Answer 6

1. Tongatapu, Ha’apai group, Vava’u group
2. Giant vault where two plates smack together and slid past each other which created Tonga
   2.1 Volcanic and upraised seafloor
3. Tongatapu very flat giant island
   3.1 Makatea island
4. Mixed resources because of volcanic and upraised islands

Question 7

Tongan Society

Answer 7

1. Villages with households of extended families
   1.1 Grandparents, one or two adult children, grandchildren
2. Family focused
   2.1 Grandchildren feed grandparents dinner and a requirement
3. Elder brothers and fathers make decisions
4. Traditional ngatu (barkcloth) made communally by koka ‘anga
   4.1 Needed for every social occasion
   4.2 Given as gift by community for particular events like wedding and funerals
   4.3 Have to be very large
   4.4 People in community make sections of it and adhere it together as a community
   4.5 Women’s job
   4.6 Kupesi patterns passed down through generations and added to ngatu
   4.7 Begins with song and prayer
   4.8 Kids learn young how to make it and will pass it down to their children and grandchildren
   4.9 Soft inner bark used to make ngatu
   4.10 Tutu (pounding the bark) has musical effect and when death in village it is forbidden
   4.11 Make dye out of bark from another tree
5. Kuo Hina E Hiapo

Question 8

Archaeology in Tonga

Answer 8

1. McKern 1929
2. Poulsen 1964
3. Davidson 1969
   3.1 Three above focused on burial mounds
   3.2 Skeletons distributed between museums in USA and New Zealand but repatriated to Tonga
4. Spenneman 1986
5. Burley 1991
   5.1 Specifically looking for Lapita because wanted to specifically identify colonization time
   5.2 Lapita people arrived on beach and made earth oven on it and sediment from using them was on top 2 m deep
6. Early focus on mounds and tombs

Question 9

Lapita Colonization

Answer 9

1. Lapita on all island groups
   1.1 All about same age cause can see next island
2. 2800 BP for Tongatapu
   2.1 South to north colonization
   2.2 Vava’u colonized within 50-100 years of Tongatapu

Question 10

Uranium/Thorium Dates on Coral Files

Answer 10

1. Nukuleka Lapita site, Tongatapu
2. Coral files from base of deposit
   2.1 Uranium turned into Thorium from these coral deposits
   2.2 Better in this case than radiocarbon dating
3. Directly dated to 2838 +/- 8 years BP (838 BC)
4. Shell with abraded coral for making bracelet

Question 11

Colonization sites

Answer 11

1. Small hamlets
2. Along lagoon of Tongatapu
   2.1 This side colonized first
   2.2 Lagoon attractive place to live
3. Exploited local foods first
   3.1 Shellfish
   3.2 Birds
   3.3 Turtles
   3.4 Agriculture later?

Question 12

Eastern Lapita

Answer 12

1. Mostly simplified decoration
2. A few pots directly transported from the Reef/Santa Cruz group
3. Fewer vessel forms
   3.1 Globular pots
   3.2 Bowls
4. Few Western Lapita motifs from site on Nukuleka, Tonga

Question 13

End of Lapita in Tonga

Answer 13

1. Loss of decoration occurs relatively quickly
   1.1 Quicker than other places
2. 2650 BP
3. Why?
   3.1 Loss of ritual functions?
   3.2 Declining exchange networks?
   3.3 Not much clay on Tonga
4. Modern barkcloth patterns were found on early Lapita pottery

Question 14

Ancestral Polynesian Culture

Answer 14

1. Perhaps this period? 2650 BC - 2550 BP
   1.1 Probably time where emergence of Tongan society starts and Lapita ends
2. Small societies
   2.1 Division into smaller groups
3. Proto-Polynesian language subgroup

Question 15

Post-Lapita Transformation 2650-2550

Answer 15

1. Plainware pottery
2. Sites increase in size
   2.1 Populations starting to grow
3. Native species go extinct
   3.1 Birds can’t fly away
   3.2 Marine animals
4. Domesticates appear
   4.1 Chickens

Question 16

Tongan “Dark Ages”

Answer 16

1. Time where we know the least about Tonga
2. 1000-700 BP
3. Pottery no longer produced
   3.1 If no pottery, then places and things where can easily find sites goes away so less likely to find sites
4. Few sites
   4.1 Maybe barkcloth more common and less likely to last to be able to find archaeologically
5. Tongan Chiefdom emerge at this time
   5.1 Only true monarchy still around (Same family for 1000 years)
6. Tombs and mound burials
   6.1 House dead on landscape