The Functionality of Feasting at Late Prehistoric Residential and Ceremonial Sites in the Society Islands Authors

Much of the research into East Polynesian ceremonial sites focuses on marae- ahu ‘temple-altar’ complexes as sacred sites where varied religious rituals and rites of passage were performed. Yet ethnohistoric documents and the Tahitian lexicon suggest a broader role for Ma‘ohi or ‘indigenous Tahitian’ ceremonial architecture, specifically as the foci of individual and corporate ceremonies of a religious, economic and political nature. Situating ceremonial marae complexes within broader archaeological landscapes likewise speaks to the integrated socio-political and ritual nature of Society Islands ceremonial architecture. This case study investigates the role of feasting on terraces attached to Ma‘ohi marae complexes and within communal spaces found in residential complexes. Utilising a spatio-temporal perspective, I investigate the function of feasting at a range of community and familial level temples and residential complexes found in the ‘Opunohu Valley, an inland valley context on Mo‘orea Island (Windward Society Islands). My goal is to explore the ways that Ma‘ohi household leaders, chiefs and priests may have utilised feasting to materialise their economic or political authority, while at the same time facilitating the formation of communal identities. A second goal is to identify whether the specific function of feasting differed at monumental architectural sites of varying scale and complexity, utilising both archaeological evidence and ethnographic analogy. Finally, a third goal is to investigate change through time in the scale and intensity of feasting at specific locales, in particular, whether community level or corporate feasting intensified and became a strategy used by socio-religious elites to formalise and extend social alliances.