Households and Hierarchy: Domestic Modes of Production in Leeward Kohala, Hawai'i Island

This article describes archaeological evidence for the transformation of Hawaiian society from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries AD. Using archaeological testing of households coupled with high-resolution survey data, we trace changes in the domestic mode of production in late pre-contact Hawai'i. These analyses yield insights into the transformation of Polynesia's most highly stratified society. The traditional land units (ahupua'a) of Makiloa and Kālala, located on the arid, leeward coast of Kohala, Hawai'i, are investigated with both survey and excavation, and detailed information pertaining to subsistence, household extent, and material culture are reviewed. Changes in the economy and configuration of households from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries AD are discussed, as are the appearance of elite residences in the later periods. This microscale perspective on the evolution of Hawaiian economy and society provides a necessary complement to a macroscale perspective of human ecodynamics in the Hawaiian archipelago.