Un moai para Japón by Ana Maria Arredondo, and: Foreign Visitors to the Cook Islands: 1773 to 1840 (Nga Papa'a mua ki teia pa enua) by Rhys Richards, and: Monumentality and Ritual Materialization in the Society Islands: The Archaeology of a Major Ceremonial Complex in the 'Opunohu Valley, Mo'orea by Jennifer G. Kahn and Patrick Vinton Kirch

Arredondo, Ana Maria Un moai para Japón Hanga Roa: Editorial Aukara, 2013. 103 pages, illustrations by Te Pou Huke, glossary. To order, email aukararapanui@gmail.com

Review by Georgia Lee, Easter Island Foundation

A new children's book, written by Ana Maria Arredondo, is titled Un moai para Japón. It is hardcover and is 8 1/8 inches square and 103 pages, plus glossary. Text is in Spanish and Japanese, and nicely illustrated with black & white pictures by Te Pou Huke. This book was published 2013 by Editorial Aukara, Rapa Nui.

The book tells the story of Tongariki and its destruction by a tsunami, the reconstruction of the site with the help of a Tadano crane from Japan, and various adventures by a small boy called Te Pou, including stories about why the statues were carved, the seasons, the kinds of fishes caught around the island, and how the families sit around a fire at night to talk about the island's history. Then the subject changes to an earthquake and tsunami in Japan and how a group of Chileans offer to finance and transport a moai to Japan as a goodwill gesture.

The story continues about the Rapanui grandfather of Te Pou, who searches for stone from which to carve a moai for Japan. After it is completed, we then learn about the various ceremonies, feasts, and blessings that must be conducted before the statue leaves the island. Finally, the statue is loaded onto an airplane, headed for Japan.

Richards, Rhys. Foreign Visitors to the Cook Islands: 1773 to 1840 (Nga Papa'a mua ki teia pa enua) Wellington: Paremata Press, 2014. 100 pages, 22 illustrations. ISBN 978-0958201391. NZ$25.00 (within New Zealand), US$36.00 (outside New Zealand). To order, contact Rhys Richards: mrhys@paradise.net.nz

Review by Alex E. Morrison, International Archaeological Research Institute and University of Auckland

Foreign Visitors to the Cook Islands: 1773 to 1840 (Nga Papa'a mua ki teia pa enua), by Rhys Richards is a brief but extensive encyclopedic work that documents in great detail foreign travels through the Cook Islands between 1773 and 1840. Richards' book will be of interest to archaeologists, historians, and ethnographers researching a critical time period when interaction with people from new parts of the world was rapidly influencing the traditions and material culture of the inhabitants of some of Polynesia's smallest islands.

The volume is organized into two broad categories. First, Richards provides a chronological description of foreign visits to the various Cook Islands. This part is subdivided into four main sections: The Foreign Discoveries 1773 to 1835, 2) The Traders 1808 to 1840, 3) Missionary Visitors Before 1825, and 4) Whaleships and Whalemen 1823 to 1840. Although organized chronologically, these various chapters provide the reader with a review of the major economic activities that attracted foreigners to the Cook Islands and the unique ways that the indigenous inhabitants adjusted to these newcomers. The majority of the book can be found in the three annexes which provide over half of the pages of the volume. The annexes consist of the most extensive lists and descriptions to date of foreign vessels that visited the Cook Islands during the first half of the 19th century. In contrast to the first section of the book, the annexes are organized according to three themes: Early trading visits from Port Jackson 1808 to 1840, American trading vessels 1824 to 1840, and Whaleships 1823 to 1840.

As Richards notes in the forword, this small book is "primarily a list of ship visits." I will not attempt to try and summarize the extensive detail provided by Richards (instead I suggest the interested reader purchase the book). However, I would like to highlight several reasons why these specific ship records and the documentation of early historic visits in general are of great importance, even when the interpretative discussion provided by the author is limited. Archaeologists and anthropologists are primarily concerned with understanding variation in cultural traits through time and/or space. Understanding why some aspects of culture change requires reference to a set of processes or to a body of theory. Broadly speaking, two processes that influence the speed and the pathway of cultural variation are interaction (homologous similarity) and independent convergence (analogous similarity). For archaeologists in particular, determining what processes led to specific changes in material culture is often difficult. For example, do similarities in fishhook attributes from archaeological sites in the Hawaiian Islands and California's Channel Islands indicate interaction and sharing of cultural information between these two island groups or convergence on a parallel solution to a problem within similar ecological parameters (how to effectively catch and retain a fish)? The extensive details regarding the origins and timing of these sailing vessels to the Cook Islands provides important clues to the processes by which islanders incorporated new material types into their cultural repertoire and at varying rates. Clearly this type of information has great value outside of the Cook Islands and Polynesia in general.

On a minor note, readers should be prepared that Foreign Visitors to the Cook Islands: 1773 to 1840 (Nga Papa'a mua ki teia pa enua) probably will not interest those who are expecting a book they can read cover to cover in a few sittings. Instead, this important work will reach its highest value as a source of reference to those who are interested in the increasing amount of interaction that occurred during one of the most important and thought-provoking periods in Cook Island history.

Kahn, Jennifer G. and Kirch, Patrick Vinton. Monumentality and Ritual Materialization in the Society Islands: The Archaeology of a Major Ceremonial Complex in the 'Opunohu Valley, Mo'orea Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 2014. 267 pages, 71 figures, 11 tables. ISBN 978-1-58178-126-7. US&50.00 (softcover). To order, visit http://store.bishopmuseum.org

Review by Paul Wallin, Uppsala University

This is a nicely-produced volume on recent excavations of ceremonial stone structures (marae) and associated features, conducted at a well-known key site located in the 'Opunohu Valley on the Island of Mo'orea in the Society Islands. The book is dedicated to the memory of Roger C. Green who first surveyed the site about 50 years ago. The book follows the high standards of marae and settlement archaeology carried out in the Society Islands and combines the traditions beginning with Kenneth P. Emory (1933) and Green et al. (1967). This work also follows up on ethnohistorical perspectives in a good way by combining archaeological facts with such notes seen in, for example, T. Henry's classical Bishop Museum Bulletin entitled Ancient Tahiti (1928).

The book contains six chapters that I will comment on in some detail below. In general, chapters 1, 2, and 6 have a wide approach towards the research of monumental structures in the Society Islands as well as across the region as a Polynesian phenomenon. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 give us a detailed field report from the recent excavations of the 'Opunohu ScMo-124/-125 site, which functions as a case study dealing with the problematics of agglomerated marae structures as well as connected terraces and platforms of different sizes. I will start the review by focusing on the case study chapters, which are the main bulk of the book's content, and then turn over to the general themes of the book.

The main part of the book (pp. 65-198) is a detailed report of the excavations at the above-mentioned site carried out between the years 2002 and 2008. Chapter 3 includes detailed surveys, mapping, and descriptions of the sites. Chapter 4 deals with the excavations, and chapter 5 discusses the dating and chronology of settlement activities and the marae structures.

Chapter 3 carefully brings the reader into the ScMo-124/-125 site, beginning with an overall orientation of the site, building materials, and the different construction types including marae, terraces, platforms, pavements, shrines, paepae, house outlines, referent structures (large boulders), and ti'i (stone images). It is all displayed in the informative overall map (Figure 3.2), which, however, lacks a scale. The chapter continues with individual detailed maps and site descriptions, and for the interested reader, it is a pity that some of these very nice and detailed maps are disturbed in the middle when published over the centerfold of the book (See Figures 3.2, 3.3, 3.14, 3.24).

Chapter 4 describes the excavations at the ScMo-124/-125 site. The purpose of the excavations was to get a good sample in the variation of the different stone structures, making it possible to compare site functions and their chronology. The excavations are easy to follow and are covered by photos and detailed plans, as well as stratigraphic profile drawings. The written documentation of each excavation follows the same outline, including: Descriptions of Excavation Units and Stratigraphy, Cultural Content and Subsurface Features, and a Summary. The summary also gives an interpretation of the individual excavated unit. The interpretations are quite well-founded, and are practice-based reflections that concern specific activities that the individual excavated features might have been tied to.

Chapter 5 deals with the chronology of the site complex based on ¹⁴C analyses on identified charcoal samples and U/Th dating on coral from relevant defined contexts. As a control method, the authors also made an occurrence seriation of marae features, which corresponded well with the U/Th dates in that, for example, stepped ahu and pecked basalt correspond with the latest marae building phase. Overall, the ScMo-124/-125 site could be divided into three distinct phases. Phase 1 (15th to 16th centuries) includes cultural activities already in the 15th century. A few marae and other stone structures indicate ritual activities in the 16th century. Phase 2 (17th century) clearly indicates an establishment of ritual activity in the area, with several marae structures built. Phase 3 (18th century) is the expansion phase, when at least nine marae are in use and also were elaborated with additional features such as stepped ahu and cut and dressed blocks, etc. The investigations clearly show the validity of the hypothesis that the importance of religious rituals, monumental structures, and power struggles increased within Society Island chiefdoms over time. This is a pattern that has also been demonstrated in the Leeward Islands recently (Wallin & Solsvik 2010), as discussed in this volume. This leads us to the more general questions discussed in chapters 1, 2, and 6.

What might the implications of a case study of this kind be? In combination with earlier and other recent research, it is actually powerful in the effort to understand development within the Society Islands. In Chapter 1, the authors provided an introduction to some general problems related to the studies of chiefdoms, ideology, hierarchy, rank, and status. They concluded that studies on these aspects have been a bit Hawai'i-centric, and that such a research concentration fails to represent the wider variability among other Polynesian chiefdoms, and in this respect they conclude that the Society Island chiefdoms "provide a key case study for the development of rank and status hierarchical chiefdoms into larger-scale ones" (p. 18). To trace such developments the authors use what is called the "House Society" model, once developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss, which is useful in the identification of social structures that can be said to be somewhere in between more elementary social structures and complex states. This model is useful in ranked societies when it can be observed that certain chiefs by different actions, for example archery competitions, dancing and feasting, ties non-kin related members to their sphere of power and influence. By such actions and by other alliances (also marriages), these chiefs can expand their land claims outside their own district or island, etc. Chapter 1 also gives a good review of issues concerning social structures, status groups, and specialists, as it has been described in the Society Islands based on ethnographic data. The end of chapter 1 focuses on the key questions concerning the title of the volume, which is focused on big issues, such as monumentality and materialization of ritual and power. The question of monumentality seen in the elaboration of the marae is discussed in terms of increasing labor/ communal investments, and this indicates a more centralized power structure. These growing claims are also materialized in visible corporate investments seen in the monumental expressions. When it comes to the concept of materialization of things, it would have been interesting to follow a discussion concerning why materialization is necessary, especially in connection with the marae /malae as an open space concept, since sometimes meeting grounds do not need to be materialized at all. In this connection one may ask: When are words not enough to state the place? Is materialization of monuments initially necessary to secure and protect a distant memory? Or is it the beginning of making history, the beginning of a fixed text (read ritual)? The increasing monumentality may thus be seen as a re-writing of the fixed text…a manipulation of the context in favor of certain individuals…. Such reflections can be theoretically founded in, for example, practice theory (as stated by Pierre Bourdieu, 1977) and in theoretical works concerning memory based societies vs. history based societies as discussed by, for example, Pierre Norá (1996). Such foundations would have been in line with the theoretical foundation used in this study when explaining the house society model.

When it comes to the statement in Chapter 1 concerning the general chronology of the 'Opunohu Valley, it is stated "The current chronology begins with intermittent use of the valley c. AD 900, initiation of slash and burn cultivation on the upper slopes by c. AD 1000, and establishment of inland habitation by the 13th century" (p. 29). Personally, I think it may be plausible, but others may consider AD 900 as too early and instead argue for an initial settlement of the Society Islands in the time frame of AD 1025-1120 (Wilmshurst et al. 2011). This of course may indicate that we still need more work on early settlements in Central East Polynesia.

Chapter 2 is a detailed inventory of marae in the Society Islands and deal with used marae feature definitions, its wider pan-Polynesian context, ethnohistorical aspects, as well as archaeological investigations and typologies, including wider chronological frames. When it comes to the Pan-Polynesian discussion of marae chronology I have a slight problem in following the line, especially the dispersal from Central Polynesia. The authors state that people from Western Polynesia brought some kind of concepts of a ritual space in the late first millennium AD, and uprights were probably one of the ideas (which I agree on). The ideas were recreated in Central East Polynesia and the marae were materialized, and this happened "within the first few centuries following the discovery and settlement of the central East Polynesian archipelagoes, for they were carried not long after by voyagers who extended the search for new lands to the margins of the Polynesian world, to Easter Island, New Zealand, and Hawai'i. Most likely, early Eastern Polynesian marae were fairly simple and small affairs" (p. 33). If this happened in the "first few centuries" after the settlement of the Society Islands, it would be around AD 1300-1400, since the earliest marae in the Society Islands are claimed to appear in this time frame by Kahn (2011). In this time frame, the ahu structures on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) are no "simple and small affairs", they are large megalithic stone structures, a fact that has been discussed lately by Martinsson-Wallin et al. (2013). In my view, this relationship needs further discussions (but not here).

Finally, Chapter 6 deals with interpretations of ritual practices, site functions, ritualized depositions, and discusses large ritual centers in 'Opunohu as well as in Tahiti (Papenoo District) and Maeva Village in Huahine (Leeward Islands). When it comes to Huahine, I became a bit confused when the authors refer to 'Opoa as if it is located in association with the Maeva site (p. 212), since I personally tie 'Opoa to the district in Raiatea, where the big marae Taputapuatea is located. The authors clearly show that the centers display late power concentrations with certain divine rights, both concerning ritual rights and depositions tied to the marae, and secular rites such as feasting, etc., tied to terraces and house foundations connected to these ritual centers. This is an important distinction showing a chiefly society in its creation process. We can actually, through repeated practices, see the formation of complexity through archaeologically-detected material expressions.

To conclude, this book is a well written (and produced) contribution in the longstanding interest dedicated to the marae structures in the Society Islands. It is a nice combination of good archaeological work and ethnohistorical notes, and displays the ongoing struggles within a chiefly-based society. I strongly recommend the book to all interested in Polynesian archaeology, and it is a must for all researchers and students dealing with marae structures.