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Apia, Samoa — Ancient rock faces, buttes and ditches discovered in Samoa reveal the origins of Polynesian social hierarchy.
A study published in the journal PLOS One links rapid population growth and fertile agricultural land in parts of Samoa to the beginning of differentiation over land and social status.
Fieldwork in the dense jungle of Upolu’s Falefa Valley was carried out using airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a mapping technology that uses laser pulses to measure distances between dense foliage to create maps of the terrain.
“This technology has been used in the Pacific for the last 15 to 20 years, and its big advantage is that it can remove dense jungle environments,” said lead researcher Ethan Cochrane of the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
“This is the first time it was used in Samoa, so all these impressive rock faces, platforms and mounds, dating back 600 to 900 years, can be clearly seen.”
Using the maps created by LiDAR as a guide, archaeologists found the site.
“Looking closely at these structures, you will see that they are simply stunning masterpieces of architecture. Some were family homes built of stone and mud, like you would see in some Samoan villages today, others were probably civil building projects or ceremonial projects. Some are called ‘star mounds’ and are up to 2 metres high,” Cochrane added.
This is not the first time such a structure has been discovered in Samoa, but it is the first time its construction has been linked to a “collective action problem”.
This refers to individuals in a society that would be better off if they cooperated, but are unable to do so due to competing interests.
“We found that these things were built – the kilometre-long stone walls that restricted land access, the ditches used for irrigation to create a highly productive wetland agricultural system – in response to the massive population growth that was taking place in Samoa at the time,” Cochrane explained.
“In this case, it makes less sense for everyone to share resources with everyone, so the question becomes ‘When does it become advantageous for an individual to contribute to the collective defense at his or her own expense and prevent other groups from using the group’s resources?'”
Soil samples confirmed that the walls protected people’s access to more fertile land and valuable resources. The team believes that population growth may have been a catalyst for the development of Samoa’s system of chieftainship, which existed throughout Polynesian societies.
Cochrane thinks similar pressures may have led to the emergence of hierarchical systems in early societies around the world.
“We often wonder why hierarchical societies emerged on Earth over thousands of years, when about 20,000 years ago, most human societies were more egalitarian, with less status and power among hunter-gatherers,” Cochrane added.
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