Networks and Monumentality in the Pacific ed. by Aymeric Hermann et al. (review)

This slim edited volume presents papers from Sessions 38-1 and 38-2 of the International Union of the Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences hosted by the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2018. Chapter 1, written by Hermann and Sand, lays out the goal of the volume: to study materiality and diachronic change in Pacific Island monuments and networks. The following six chapters include several discussions concerning monuments in Vanuatu (n = 2), Western Micronesia (n = 1), Western Polynesia (n = 2), and Eastern Polynesia (n = 1). Additional chapters relating to mobility and networks include a comparative study of reception ceremonies in New Caledonia and Wallis and an analysis of the production and exchange of shell goods in the Solomon Islands. In terms of regional focus, the edited volume is Western Pacific and Western Polynesia focused, with less coverage of Eastern Polynesia and Micronesia. In terms of temporal focus, case studies in the volume deal with the more recent history of the region, that is, the last 1000 years.

This edited volume shines in highlighting regional case studies that use diverse methods, data sources, and theoretical perspectives. Datasets include historic documents and photos, archaeological survey data, material culture analysis, lithic analysis, and biological data. In terms of theoretical perspectives, it is refreshing to see the use of strong historical anthropological themes from outside the region reflected, namely ethnogenesis, goods versus relationship focused economies, materiality and political authority, structural analysis of ceremonial practices, and anthropogenic impacts to cultural landscapes and archaeological sites. I highlight a few select case studies below.

Impacts to cultural landscapes and archaeological sites is the theme of Sand's discussion of Nan Madol on the island of Pohnpei, Western Micronesia (chapter 2). Now a World Heritage property, Nan Madol is known for its megalithic stone architecture occupied between the tenth and fourteenth centuries. Sand utilizes historic photos from the nineteenth century to track diachronic changes in site vegetation cover at this famous archaeological site in Micronesia. While early European visitors discuss heavily forested sites, oral traditions fail to mention dense vegetative cover. Utilizing proxy archaeological data, Sand argues that the site's vegetation history was complex. Symbolic and economically useful plants and trees such as banyan, breadfruit, and kava were intentionally planted around its ceremonial centers because such taxa had symbolic properties. However, massive overgrowth of vegetation in the later historic period to today threatens Nan Madol's long-term conservation.

Turning to monumentality, Clark describes and classifies 63 stone mound structures across a series of contexts on the island of Tongatapu in Tonga. Clark develops a four-part mound typology, arguing that Type 4a and 4b structures are rare and seem to be additions to earlier earthen mounds. Understanding such additive steps to Tongan monumental stone structures is critical, as dating programs must sample both the fill of the mound as well as the fill associated with the external stonework to understand the staged construction events of such mounds. Interestingly, Type 4b mounds appear to represent later additions of quarried stone to smaller rectangular mounds, which Clark interprets as evidence of junior chiefly lineages. This discussion of junior elites and their use of monumental architecture as representations of status mirrors other work in Eastern Polynesia discussing economic and ideological strategies of junior elites (Kahn 2020), in addition to global studies comparing and contrasting major and minor centers (Chase and Chase 2003). Finally, as Clark notes, it is striking that chiefly mounds at Lapaha-Talasiu include Class 4 structures, with the most massive structures sized between 860 and 1170 m² reserved for the Tui Tonga chiefly line. Like the Hawaiian Islands (Hommon 2013; Kirch 2010) and the Society Islands (Kahn and Kirch 2014), exclusive ritual compounds of Tongan chiefs incorporated chiefly residences, courts, and burials of semidivine leaders, and the most architecturally complex ritual monuments in Tongan centers also...