Chiefly Tombs, Lineage History, and the Ancient Tongan State

ABSTRACT

In the small archipelago of Tonga in the Central Pacific an Archaic state developed during the second millennium AD that was one of the most powerful socio-political entities to exist in prehistoric Oceania. The Tongan state was organized by three related chiefly lines who had a profound impact on Tonga's socio-political system over the past 700 years. Tongan elites constructed chiefly tombs and this article considers how their mortuary structures reveal lineage history. During state emergence the first stone-faced tombs were built for the paramount Tu’i Tonga (Lord of Tonga) who is credited with centralizing rule over the islands of the Tonga Group. After state establishment and the creation of a political center at Lapaha, tomb size increased massively with large tombs continuing to be made after lineage fissioning, which is often seen as an event that diminished the power of the paramount. The collapse of the traditional Tu’i Tonga government correlates with the rise of a junior dynasty that constructed large tombs as its influence grew. The comparative study of elite mortuary structures provides new insight to the emergence, rise, and fall of powerful dynasties, and competition among rival chiefly lines in a complex Polynesian society.

Keywords:

• complex society
• islands
• state formation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to the Nobles of Lapaha the Honourable Kalaniuvalu-Fotofili and Princess Mele Siu’ilikutapu Kalaniuvalu-Fotofili, and historian Mr. Nivaleti Melekiola and Lord Vaea (Chair of the Tongan Traditions Committee and Minister of Internal Affairs) for supporting the archaeological documentation of chiefly tombs at Lapaha and Heketa. I thank Melissa Neidorf (formerly TTC) for discussion about Mala’e Kula, the late Elizabeth (Besi) Wood-Ellem for advice on chiefly genealogies, and important comments by the anonymous reviewers that helped to improve the article.

FUNDING

Fieldwork was supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship grant to Clark with assistance from Dr. Christian Reepmeyer who was funded by the School of Culture, History and Language (ANU).