Evolution of political complexity in Maori Hawke's Bay: Archaeological history and its challenge to intergroup theory in psychology.

Abstract

Pomona CollegeArchaeological and historical data from M. W. Allen's (1994) thesis on the developmentof sociopolitical complexity in Maori chiefdoms in Hawke's Bay from 1500-1625 A.D.are presented as an explanatory challenge for social identity theory (SIT) and realisticgroup conflict theory (RGCT). Data indicate that the intensification of horticulture inresponse to population increases resulted in the construction of fortifications atresource-rich locations. This process allowed elites to develop leadership positions byclaiming rights to land and by offering food and security in return for less autonomy andmore labor. The Ngati Kahungunu tribe gained control over Hawke's Bay through aseries of political alliances, fissioned along kinship ties, and then reintegrated throughpolitical marriage. Although SIT explains steady-state relations, it fails to account forthe major transitions; RGCT explains the rise of polities but does not account forsubsequent changes. Both theories appear to lack parameters to describe the impact ofinterpersonal tie structures and leadership hierarchies on group formation and dissolu-tion. A dynamical approach using feedback loops and nonlinear change is advocated.The history of psychology has been, in somerespects, a history of noncumulative paradigmshifts (Liu & Liu, 1997). Issues of substance,such as war and peace, are studied through thelens of the method of the moment. When thesemethods go out of fashion, theories tend to gowith them. Research in psychology is nowfirmly embedded within a cognitive paradigm.In the study of intergroup relations, current