Illustrations

unless otherwise noted, illustrations are by yosihiko sinoto or from the collection of yosihiko sinoto and the sinoto family, including photographs by kenneth emory and mari mari kellum, taken in the society islands and the marquesas in the 1920s and 1960s.

opening suite of illustrations:

page i

Children of Hane. Ua Huka, Marquesas, 1965.

page ii

Dr. Sinoto excavating a shoreline site at Hane. The dune site turned out to be one of the earliest known habitation sites in East Polynesia. Based on radiocarbon dating, occupation of the site was estimated to have occurred between ad 1100 and 1200. Ua Huka, Marquesas, 1965.

page iii

A page from Dr. Sinoto’s field-specimen book for the Hane dune site. He documented over 2,000 artifacts, including adzes, adze fragments, harpoon heads, pounders, files, bonito-lure shanks, fishhooks, hook fragments, and potsherds.

page iv

Dr. Sinoto at a friend’s house. Mo‘orea, Society Islands, 1964.

page v

Lapita Pottery (detail). The image on this plate features a motif found on an ancient Melanesian vessel made by the ancestors of today’s Polynesians. Painting by Bobby Holcomb.

page vii

Dr. Sinoto at Ha‘atuatua, assisted by Mari Mari Kellum and a local foreman. Kellum grew up on Mo‘orea and later attended the University of Hawai‘i, obtaining her master’s degree in 1968. Her thesis, “Sites and Settlement in Hane Valley, Marquesas,” expanded on Dr. Sinoto’s research. Dating from the same period as the Hane site on Ua Huka, the occupation sites on Ha‘atuatua are estimated to be about 1,000 years old. Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, 1965.

At Honolulu International Airport before traveling with Roger Duff to Tahiti in 1961. From left to right: Kenneth Emory, Roger Duff, Ben Finney, Marguerite Thuret Emory, Yosi Sinoto, and Joan Pratt. Ben Finney co-founded the Polynesian Voyaging Society with Tommy Holmes and Herb Kawainui Kane in 1973.

Yosi Sinoto with Marguerite Thuret Emory at Honolulu International Airport in 1962.

Yosi, Kazuko, and Aki Sinoto at Honolulu International Airport prior to Yosi’s departure to Tahiti in 1965. Kazuko is wearing a fishhook pendant. Behind them is Marion Kelly, who was hired as a researcher at Bishop Museum by Kenneth Emory in 1950.

Kelly became an eminent anthropologist, land-use historian, and Hawaiian rights activist; as a professor at the University of Hawai‘i, she helped establish the Ethnic Studies Department in 1968.

Honored as a chief during Bishop Museum’s 1962 Samoa expedition, Dr. Sinoto wears a traditional lavalava and holds an offering of kava root.

Kazuko and Aki Sinoto with Aurora Tetuni Natua, a Tahitian cultural historian and expert from the Pape‘ete Museum. ‘Āfareaitu, Mo‘orea, 1962.

Dr. Sinoto is an avid photographer who records the cultural life of the places he travels to; the images in the following portfolio are from his first trip to Tahiti, in 1960.

page 45

Small outrigger canoes are used for fishing in lagoons or close to shore. Woven bait traps (ha‘ape‘e), like the one hanging on the tree, keep bait fish alive.

page 46

After taking live Tridacna clams from the reef, fishermen remove the meat and discard the shells.

page 47

Young man holding an adze found on the surface at a coconut plantation. The adze is a classic reverse triangular shape.

page 48

Bonito for sale at the large municipal market in the center of Pape‘ete. Bonito are caught with pearl-shell lures that are made in the traditional style; however, the lures now have metal points.