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From Gods to God: Impacts of Historical Ecology in the Christian Co-Option of Hawaiian Sacred Spaces

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Abstract

Over an approximately 1,000-year settlement history, the distribution of Native Hawaiian cultural sites across the landscape has been driven, in large part, by environmental factors. Through an exploration of the precontact ritual, residential, and agricultural sites of Kaupō, Maui, the ways soil nutrients and arable land resulted in discrete zones of production and power can be seen. With the arrival of American and British missionaries in the mid-1800s, however, these environmental influences carried forward in the differential selection of Hawaiian temple sites to be destroyed and rebuilt as Christian churches. As a result, Kaupō’s two churches (which remain functional today) can be best understood as a result of long-term ecological processes often overlooked in historical archaeology today.

Resumen

A lo largo de una historia de asentamientos de aproximadamente mil años, la distribución de los sitios culturales de los nativos hawaianos en todo el paisaje ha sido impulsada, en gran parte, por factores ambientales. A través de una exploración del ritual previo al contacto, los sitios residenciales y agrícolas de Kaupō, Maui, se pueden ver las formas en que los nutrientes del suelo y la tierra cultivable dieron como resultado zonas discretas de producción y poder. Sin embargo, con la llegada de los misioneros estadounidenses y británicos a mediados del siglo XIX, estas influencias ambientales se trasladaron a la selección diferencial de los sitios de los templos hawaianos para ser destruidos y reconstruidos como iglesias cristianas. Como resultado, las dos iglesias de Kaupō (que siguen funcionando hoy en día) pueden entenderse mejor como el resultado de procesos ecológicos a largo plazo que a menudo se pasan por alto en la arqueología histórica actual.

Résumé

Au cours d'une histoire du peuplement couvrant environ 1 000 ans, la distribution des sites culturels des Hawaïens natifs à travers le paysage a reposé en grande partie sur des facteurs environnementaux. Dans le cadre d'une exploration des sites rituels, résidentiels et agricoles de Kaupō, Maui, antérieurs à tout contact avec l’extérieur, on peut relever les manières dont les nutriments de la terre et le sol cultivable ont résulté en des zones distinctes de production et de pouvoir. Cependant, avec l'arrivée des missionnaires américains et britanniques au milieu des années 1800, ces influences environnementales se sont poursuivies dans la sélection différentielle des sites des temples hawaïens ayant été détruits puis reconstruits en tant qu'églises chrétiennes. En conséquence, on peut avoir une meilleure compréhension des deux églises de Kaupō (qui fonctionnent encore de nos jours) comme le résultat de processus écologiques à long terme souvent négligés dans l'archéologie historique d'aujourd'hui.

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    Alexander Baer

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Baer, A. From Gods to God: Impacts of Historical Ecology in the Christian Co-Option of Hawaiian Sacred Spaces. Hist Arch 55, 490–500 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-021-00298-0

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