From the valley to the shore: A hypothesis of the spatial evolution of ceremonial centres on Tahiti and Ra‘iatea, Society Islands

Abstract

This article compares the geographic and organisational patterns of four major chiefly ceremonial places in the Society Islands. On the island of Tahiti, archaeological data relating to monumental temple (marae ari‘i) architecture is integrated with ethnohistoric records and toponymic analysis to reconstruct local ethnohistories of the Tahitian chiefdoms of Vaiari, Papara and Manotahi (Puna‘auia). The ethnohistoric records identify a shift in the location of major religious and ceremonial centres, from original inland locations to coastal sites, around the end of the 17th and 18th centuries in the context of strong political influences from the Leeward Society Islands. The patterns of late Tahitian ceremonial complexes are compared with archaeological and ethnohistorical data from the chiefdom of Opoa on Ra‘iatea Island, where the same model of spatial and diachronic evolution seems to have previously occurred. This analysis suggests that chiefdom of Opoa, focused on the great marae Taputapuatea, had a strong influence on Tahitian polities, through the foundation of new marae Taputapuatea in the Windward Islands and accompanied by new boundaries which demarcated sacred landscapes.