Anthropology Colloquium Series Fall Semester 2006

"Ideology, Political Economy, and Technological Change in the Hawaiian Islands after AD 1778," James M. Bayman, Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Interpretations of European and American contact with Oceania often highlight the rapid changes that took place in the technologies and practices of traditional societies. In the Hawaiian Islands, for example, many writers have assumed that stone adzes were quickly replaced with metal adzes, and that such change was an inevitable consequence of a more efficient western technology. The timing and pace of this particular change is put into a comparative archaeological perspective by reviewing information on the rate at which indigenous Hawaiians selectively modified their clothing and domestic buildings in the context of Euro-American colonialism. This study reveals that although Hawaiian women quickly adopted certain articles of western clothing, indigenous stone adze technology and vernacular architecture persisted for about a century after contact in AD 1778. Throughout this presentation I consider the implications of these findings for the archaeology of contact and colonialism.

James Bayman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, UH Manoa. He has been on the Board of Directors of the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology since 2002. His research interests focus on political economy, craft production, Hawaiian Islands, and the U.S. Southwest. His publications include "Exploring the Past: Readings in Archaeology" (2000, edited with Miriam Stark).

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Anthropology, University of Hawaii at Manoa

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Denise Wandasan, 956-7153, wandasan@hawaii.edu

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