Prehistoric Agriculture in Kohala, Hawaii

Abstract

The general context of the present paper on Hawaiian archaeology is the nature of cultural adaptation in island environments and the expansion of agricultural systems into unoccupied territory. The control of agricultural production was one of the sources of power for the leaders of Hawaiian societies, societies which were among the most highly stratified in Polynesia at the time of European exploration. Population growth and expansion, elaboration of the agricultural system, and the development of socio-political complexity provide a series of problems of recent concern in Hawaiian archaeology. Within this framework archaeological research focusing on prehistoric agricultural change was conducted for three seasons in windward valleys of the NW section of the Island of Hawai'i. A summary of the evidence regarding agricultural change in two of these valleys is presented in this paper.