Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Qualities and Contributions of Agroforestry Practices and Novel Forests in Pre-European Polynesia and the Polynesian Outliers

  • Published:
Human Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Agroforestry systems have long played a central role in Polynesian societies, contributing to food production, building and craft production, and ritual activities. Until recently, however, archaeological studies of these important systems were limited. Recent methodological improvements and a growing number of macro- and micro-botanical studies have provided opportunities for a more empirical exploration of the role of agroforestry in pre-European Polynesia. Here we integrate the findings of several key studies to assess the qualities and contributions of agroforestry across the region. We highlight the expansive and enduring qualities of these systems and contrast them with other forms of production used in this region. Overall, processes of novel forest formation in Polynesia shared key characteristics that affected a suite of activities ranging from subsistence practices to the construction of cultural landscapes. Integration of agroforestry research ultimately provides a nuanced understanding of landscape transformations that are broadly characteristic of island socio-ecosystems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Addison, D.J. (2006). Feast or Famine? Predictability, Drought, Density, and Irrigation: The Archaeology of Agriculture in Marquesas Islands. PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa

  • Allen, M. S. (2004). Bet-hedging strategies, agricultural change, and unpredictable environments: historical development of dryland agriculture in Kona, Hawai’i. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23: 196–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, M. S. (2010). Oscillating climate and socio-political process: the case of the Marquesan Chiefdom, Polynesia. Antiquity 84: 86–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, M. S. (2014). Marquesan colonisation chronologies and post-colonisation interaction: implication for Hawaiian origins and the ‘Marquesan homeland’ hypothesis. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 5: 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, M. S., and Ussher, E. (2013). Starch analysis reveals prehistoric plant translocations and shell tool use, Marquesas Islands, Polynesia. Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 2799–2812.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, M. S., and Murakami, G. M. (1999). Lana’i island’s arid lowland vegetation in late prehistory. Pacific Science 53: 88–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Athens, J. S., Rieth, T. M., and Dye, T. S. (2014). A paleoenvironmental and archaeological model-based age estimate for the colonization of Hawai’i. American Antiquity 79: 144–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atherton, R. A., Lockhart, P. J., McLenachan, P. A., de Lange, P. J., Wagstaff, S. J., and Sheperd, L. D. (2015). A molecular investigation into the origin and relationships of karaka/kōpi (Corynocarpus laevigatus) in New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 45: 212–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balée, W. L., and Erickson, C. L. (eds.) (2006). Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands, Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber, I. (2012). Archaeological art debates and Polynesian images in place. World Archaeology 44: 436–451.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber, I. (2013). Molluscan mulching at the margins: investigating the development of a South Island Māori variation on Polynesian hard mulch agronomy. Archaeology in Oceania 48: 40–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber, I. G., Maxwell, J., and Hemi, R. (2014). Growing images: generating 3D digital models to investigate archaeological Moriori carvings on live trees. World Archaeology 46: 63–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaglehole, J.C. (1967). The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery (Volume III, Part Two). Published for the Hakluyt Society at the University Press, Cambridge.

  • Bell, M. E. (1974). Toxicology of karaka kernel, karakin, and beta-nitropropibnic acid. New Zealand Journal of Science 17: 327–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaikie, P., and Brookfield, H. C. (eds.) (1987). Land Degradation and Society, Methuen, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bougainville, L. de. (1772). A Voyage Round the World, Performed by Order of His Most Chris-tian Majesty, in the Years I766, I767, 1768 and I769, by Lewis de Bougainville. J. R. Forster, trans. J. Nourse and T. Davies, London.

  • Brookfield, H. (2001). Intensification, and alternative approaches to agricultural chance. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 42: 181–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burley, D., Edinborough, K., Weisler, M., and Zhao, J. (2015). Bayesian modeling and chronological precision for Polynesian settlement of Tonga. PLOS One. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120795.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, M. (2003). Productivity, production and settlement in precontact Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Archaeology in Oceania 38: 9–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase, A.K. (1989). Domestication and domiculture in Northern Australia: a social perspective. In: Harris, D.R., Hillman, G.C. Foraging and Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation. Unwin Hyman, London. pp. 42–54

  • Chazine, J.M. (2012). Wet taro cultivation on atolls: a techno-cultural paradox? In, Spriggs, M., Addison, D., Matthews, P.J. (eds.). Irrigated Taro (Colocasia esculenta) in the Indo-Pacific. Senre Ethnological Studies 78, Osaka. pp. 83–93.

  • Cook, J. (1784). A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, G. Nicol and T, Cadell, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, P. A. (1980). Two Samoan techniques for breadfruit and banana preservation. Economic Botany 34: 181–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doolittle, W. (1984). Agricultural change as incremental process. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 7: 124–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dotte-Sarout, E., and Kahn, J. G. (2017). Ancient woodlands of Polynesia: a pilot anthracological study on Maupiti Island, French Polynesia. Quaternary International 457: 6–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dye, T. S. (2014). Wealth in old Hawai‘i: good-year economics and the rise of pristine states. Archaeology in Oceania 49: 59–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dye, T. S., and Sholin, C. E. (2013). Changing patterns of firewood use on the Waimānalo Plain. Hawaiian Archaeology 13: 30–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, C. L. (2008). Amazonia: the historical ecology of a domesticated landscape. In Sailverman, H., and Isbell, W. (eds.), Handbook of South American Archaeology, Springer, New York, pp. 157–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fall, P.L. (2010). Pollen evidence for plant introductions in a Polynesian tropical island ecosystem, Kingdom of Tonga. In: Haberle, S., Stevenson, J., Prebble, M. Altered Ecologies: Fire, Climate, and Human Influence on Terrestrial Landscapes. Terra Australis 32, Canberra. pp. 253–271.

  • Fall, P. L., Drezner, T. D., and Franklin, J. (2007). Dispersal ecology of the lowland rain forest in the Vava’u island group, Kingdom of Tonga. New Zealand Journal of Botany 45: 393–417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Firth, R. (1936). We, the Tikopia, Beacon, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Firth, R. (1965). Primitive Polynesian Economy, W.W. Norton and Company Inc, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frimigacci, D. (1990). Aux Temps de la Terre Noire: Ethno-archéologie des Isles Futuna et Alofi. Langues et Cultures du Pacifique No. 7. Peeters, Paris.

  • Forster, G. (2000). A Voyage Round the World. Vol. 2. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.

  • Ford, A., and Nigh, R. (2015). The Maya Forest Garden: Eight Millennia of Sustainable Cultivation of the Tropical Woodlands, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, R. C. (2002). A retrospective view of settlement pattern studies in Samoa. In Ladefoged, T. N., and Graves, M. (eds.), Pacific Landscapes: Archaeological Approaches, Easter Island Foundation, Los Osos, pp. 125–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Handy, E. S. C. (1923). The Native Culture in the Marquesas, B.P. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Handy, E.S.C., Handy, E.G., Pukui, M.K. (1972). Native Planters in Old Hawaii: Their Life, Lore, and Environment. B.P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 233, Honolulu.

  • Harris, W., and Te Whaiti, H. (1996). Rengarenga lilies and Maori occupation at Matakitaki-a-kupe (Cape Palliser). Journal of the Polynesian Society. 113: 263–290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiroa, T.R. (1930). Samoan Material Culture. B.P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 75, Honolulu.

  • Hiroa, T.R. (1938). Ethnology of Mangareva. B.P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 157, Honolulu.

  • Hommon, R. J. (2013). The Ancient Hawaiian State: Origins of a Political Society, Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huebert, J.M. (2014). The role of arboriculture in landscape domestication and agronomic development: a case study from the Marquesas Islands, East Polynesia. PhD Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland.

  • Huebert, J. M. (2015). Anthropogenically driven decline and extinction of Sapotaceae on Nuku Hiva (Marquesas Islands, East Polynesia). The Holocene 25: 1039–1046.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huebert, J. M., and Allen, M. S. (2016). Six centuries of anthropogenic forest change on a Polynesian high island: archaeological charcoal records from the Marquesas Islands. Quaternary Science Reviews 137: 79–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huebert, J. M., and Allen, M. S. (2019). Anthropogenic Forests, Arboriculture, and Niche Construction in the Marquesas Islands (Polynesia). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, forthcoming.

  • Hviding, E., and Bayliss-Smith, T. (2000). Island of Rainforest: Agrforestry, Logging and Eco-Tourism in Solomon Islands, Ashgate, Aldershot.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jobbagy, E. G., and Jackson, R. B. (2001). The distribution of soil nutrients with depth: global patterns and the imprint of plants. Biogeochemistry 53: 51–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, O., and Cloke, P. (2002). Tree Culture: The Place of Trees and Trees in their Place, Berg, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, J.G. (2005). Household and community organization in the Late Prehistoric Society Island Chiefdoms (French Polynesia). PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

  • Kahn, J. G., and Coil, J. (2006). What house posts tell us about status difference in prehistoric Tahitian society: an interpretation of charcoal analysis, sacred woods and inter-site variability. Journal of the Polynesian Society 115: 319–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, J. G., Horrocks, M., and Nieuwoudt, M. K. (2014). Agriculture, domestic production, and site function: microfossil analyses and late prehistoric landscapes of the Society Islands. Economic Botany 68: 246–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, J. G., Nickelsen, C., Stevenson, J., Porch, N., Dotte-Sarout, E., Christensen, C. C., May, L., Athens, J. S., and Kirch, P. V. (2015). Mid- to late Holocene landscape change and anthropogenic transformations on Moʻorea, Society Islands: A multi-proxy approach. The Holocene 25: 333–347.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, J. G., Kawelu, S., Wichman, V., Carpenter, A. B., Moore, S., and Hunt, T. (2016). Understanding variability in the hinterlands: settlement and subsistence in Miloli’i, Kauai’i, Hawaiian Islands. Archaeology in Oceania 51: 196–213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, M. (1983). Na Mala o Kona: Gardens of Kona. Department of Anthropology Report, 83–2. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.

  • Kennedy, J. (2012). Agricultural systems in the tropical forest: a critique framed by tree crops of Papua New Guinea. Quaternary International 249: 140–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, J., Clarke, W. (2004). Cultivated landscapes of the Southwest Pacific. RMAP Working Papers No. 60. Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.

  • Kirch, P. V. (1977). Valley agricultural systems in prehistoric Hawaii: an archaeological consideration. Asian Perspectives 20: 246–280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V. (1978). Indigenous agriculture on Uvea (West Polynesia). Economic Botany 32: 157–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V. (1982). Ecology and the adaptation of Polynesia agricultural systems. Archaeology in Oceania 17: 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V. (1984). The Polynesian outliers: continuity, change, and replacement. Journal of Pacific History 19: 224–238.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V. (1989). Second millennium BC arboriculture in Melanesia: Archaeological evidence from the Mussau Islands. Economic Botany 43(2): 225–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V. (1991). Chiefship and competitive involution: the Marquesas Islands of Eastern Polynesia. In Earle, T. K. (ed.), Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 119–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V. (1994). The Wet and the Dry: Irrigation and Agricultural Intensification in Polynesia, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V. (2006). Agricultural intensification: a Polynesian perspective. In Marcus, J., and Stanish, C. (eds.), Agricultural Strategies, Cotsen Institute, Los Angeles, pp. 191–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V. (2007). Three islands and an archipelago: reciprocal interactions between humans and island ecosystems in Polynesia. Earth and Environmental Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 98: 85–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V. (2010). How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawai'i, University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P.V. (2017). On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. Revised edition. University of California Press, Berkeley.

  • Kirch, P. V., and Swift, J. A. (2017). New AMS radiocarbon dates and re-evaluation of the cultural sequence of Tikopia Island, Southeast Solomon Islands. Journal of the Polynesian Society 126: 313–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V., and Yen, D. E. (1982). Tikopia: The Prehistory and Ecology of a Polynesian Outlier, B.P. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V., Conte, E., Sharp, W., and Nickelsen, C. (2010). The Onemea site (Taravai Island, Mangareva) and the human colonization of southeastern Polynesia. Archaeology in Oceania 45: 66–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V., Molle, G., Nickelsen, C., Mills, P., Dotte-Sarout, E., Swift, J., Wolfe, A., and Horrocks, M. (2015). Human ecodynamics in the Mangareva Islands: A stratified sequence from Nenega-Iti Rock Shelter (site AGA-3, Agakauitai Island). Archaeology in Oceania 50: 23–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolb, M. J., and Murakami, G. M. (1994). Cultural dynamics and the ritual role of woods in pre-contact Hawai’i. Asian Perspectives 33: 57–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krämer, A. (1902–3). Die Samoa-Inseln. 2 Vol. E. Nagele, Stuttgart (1978 translation by T.E. Verhaaren, Palo Alto)

  • Krusenstern, A.J. von. (1813). Voyage Round the World, in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, & 1806, by Order of His Imperial Majesty Alexander the First, on Board the Ships Nadeshda and Neva, under the Command of Captain A. J. von Krusenstern of the Imperial Navy. Translated by Richard Belgrave Hoppner. Vol. 1. Printed by C. Roworth for J. Murray, London.

  • Kurashima, N., and Kirch, P. V. (2011). Geospatial modeling of pre-contact Hawaiian production systems on Moloka’i Island, Hawaiian Islands. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 3662–3674.

    Google Scholar 

  • La Billardiere, J. J. H. (1800). Voyage in Search of La Perouse Performed by Order of the Constituent Assembly, During the Years 1791, 1792, 1793, and 1794, J. Stockdale, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • La Perouse, J.F.G. (1799). A Voyage Around the World Performed in the Years 1785,1786,1787, and 1788 by the Bussole and Astrolabe, Under the Command of J.F.G. de Le Perouse/ Published by Order of the National Assembly, Under the Superintendence of L.A. Milet-Mureau. A. Hamilton, for GG. and J. Robinson, London.

  • Ladefoged, T. N., Kirch, P. V., Gon, S. M., Chadwick, O. A., Hartshorn, A. S., and Vitousek, P. M. (2009). Opportunities and constraints for intensive agriculture in the Hawaiian archipelago prior to European contact. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 2374–2383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latinis, D. K. (2000). The development of subsistence system models for Island Southeast Asia and Near Oceania: the nature and role of arboriculture and arboreal-based economies. World Archaeology 32: 41–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leach, H., and Stowe, C. (2005). Oceanic arboriculture at the margins: the case of the karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus) in Aotearoa. Journal of the Polynesian Society 114: 7–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lepofsky, D. (1994). Prehistoric agricultural intensification in the Society Islands, French Polynesia. PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

  • Lepofsky, D. (1999). Gardens of Eden? An ethnohistoric reconstruction of Maohi (Tahitian) cultivation. Ethnohistory 46: 1–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lepofsky, D. (2003). The ethnobotany of cultivated plants of the Maohi of the Society Islands. Economic Botany 57: 73–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lepofsky, D., Kirch, P. V., and Lertzman, K. (1996). Stratigraphic and paleobotanical evidence for prehistoric human-induced environmental disturbance on Mo'orea, French Polynesia. Pacific Science 50: 253–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, N.K. (in press). Pākukui: the productive fallow system of Hāmākua, Hawai’i. In Cairns, M (ed.). Farmer Innovation and Best Practices by Shifting Cultivators in Asia-Pacific.

  • Lincoln, N., and Vitousek, P. M. (2016). Nitrogen fixation during decomposition of sugarcaen (Saccharum officinarum) is an important contribution to nutrient supply in traditional dryland agricultural systems of Hawaiʻi. International Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 14(2): 214–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2015.1071547.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, N., and Vitousek, P. M. (2017). Indigenous Polynesian Agriculture in Hawaiʿi. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.376.

  • Lincoln, N., and Ladefoged, T. (2014). Agroecology of pre-contact dryland farming: the spatial extent, yield and social impact of Hawaiian breadfruit groves in Kona, Hawai’i. Journal of Archaeological Science 49: 192–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, N. K., Rossen, J., Vitousek, P., Kahoonei, J., Shapiro, D., Kalawe, K., Pai, M., Marshall, K., and Meheula, K. (2018). Restoration of ‘āina malo‘o on Hawai‘i Island: Expanding Biocultural Relationships. Sustainbility 10(11): 3985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lisiansky, U. (1814). A Voyage Round the World, in the Years 1803, 4, 5, & 6. John Booth & Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, London.

  • Lugo, A. E. (2009). The emerging era of novel tropical forests. Biotropica 41(5): 589–591.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lugo, A. E. (2013). Novel tropical forests: nature’s response to global change. Tropical Conservation Science 6: 325–337.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, K., Koseff, C., Roberts, A., Lindsey, A., Kagawa-Viviani, A., Lincoln, N. K., and Vitousek, P. (2017). Restoring People and Productivity to Puanui: Challenges and opportunities in the restoration of an intensive rain-fed Hawaiian field system. Ecology and Society 22(2): 23–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mascaro, J., Hughes, R. F., and Schnitzer, S. A. (2012). Novel forests maintain ecosystem processes after the decline of native tree species. Ecological Monographs 82(2): 221–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, P. J., and Gosden, C. (1997). Plant remains from waterlogged sites in the Arawe Islands, West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea: Implications for the history of plant use and domestication. Economic Botany 51(2): 121–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, J.J. (2015). The Moriori: the integration of arboriculture and agroforestry in an East Polynesian society. PhD Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Otago.

  • Maxwell, J. J. (2017). Conservation and restoration of a cultural forest landscape: protecting the forests created by Moriori on Chatham Island. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 19: 197–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, J. J., and Tromp, M. (2016). Corynocarpus laevigatus: Where art thou? Finding evidence of this elusive tree crop. Review of Paleobotany and Palynology 234: 198–210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, J. J., Howarth, J. D., Vandergoes, M. J., Jacobsen, G. E., and Barber, I. G. (2016). The timing and importance of arboriculture and agroforestry in a temperate East Polynesia Society, the Moriori, Rekohu (Chatham Island). Quaternary Science Reviews 149: 306–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCoy, M. D., Graves, M. W., and Murakami, G. (2010). Introduction of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) to the Hawaiian Islands. Economic Botany 64: 374–381.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meilleur, B. A., Jones, R. R., Titchenal, C. A., and Huang, A. S. (2004). Hawaiian Breadfruit: Ethnobotany, Nutrition, and Human Ecology, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menzies, A. (1920). Hawaii Nei 128 Years Ago, W.F. Wilson, Honolulu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millerstrom, S. (2006). Ritual and domestic architecture, sacred places, and images. In Lilley, I. (ed.), Archaeology of Oceania: Australia and the Pacific Islands, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, pp. 284–301.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M. D. (1997). Re-constructing landscapes: the social forest, nature and spirit-world in Samoa. Journal of Polynesian Society 106: 7–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orliac, M. (1997). Human occupation and environmental modifications in the Papeno’o Valley, Tahiti. In Kirch, P. V., and Hunt, T. L. (eds.), Historical Ecology in the Pacific Islands: Prehistoric Environmental and Landscape Change, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 201–309.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pauku, R.L. (2006). Inocarpus fagifer (Tahitian chestnut). In: Elevitch, C.R. (ed.). Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry.: Permanent Agricultural Resources, Holualoa. http://www.traditionaltree.org.

  • Pearce, L. M., Davison, A., and Kirkpatrick, J. B. (2015). Personal encounters with trees: the lived significance of the private urban forest. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 14: 1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petchey, F. J. (2001). Radiocarbon determinations from the Mulifanua Lapita site, Upolu, Western Samoa. Radiocarbon 43: 63–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poch, T. J., and Simonetti, J. A. (2013). Ecosystem services in human-dominated landscapes: insectivory in agroforestry systems. Agroforest Systems 87: 871–879.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quintus, S. (2018). Historicizing food production in Polynesia: a case study of 2700 years of land use on Ofu Island, American Samoa. Journal of Field Archaeology 43: 222–235.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robarts, E. (1974). The Marquesan Journal of Edward Robarts, 1797–1824, Australian National University Press, Canberra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, J. T. (2001). The Native Trees of New Zealand, Reed, Auckland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, H. D., and Baucke, W. (1923). The Morioris of the Chatham Islands, B.P. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J., Pearce, B. D., and Wolfe, M. S. (2012). Reconciling productivity with protection of the environment: is temperate agroforestry the answer? Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 28: 80–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson, J., Benson, A., Athens, J. S., Kahn, J., and Kirch, P. V. (2017). Polynesian colonization and landscape changes on Mo’orea, French Polynesia: the Lake Temae pollen core. The Holocene 27: 1963–1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terrell, J. E., Hart, J. P., Barut, S., Cellinese, N., Curet, A., Denham, T., Kusimba, C. M., Latinis, K., Oka, R., Palka, J., Pohl, M. E. D., Pope, K. O., Williams, P. R., Haines, H., and Staller, J. E. (2003). Domesticated landscapes: the subsistence ecology of plant and animal domestication. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 10: 323–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ussher, E. (2015). Agricultural development in Tongan prehistory: An archaeobotanical perspective. PhD Thesis, Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National University.

  • Van der Warker, A. M. (2005). Field cultivation and tree management in tropical agriculture: a view from Gulf Coastal Mexico. World Archaeology 37: 275–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek, P. M., Chadwick, O. A., Hotchkiss, S. C., Ladefoged, T. N., and Stevenson, C. M. (2014). Farming the rock: a biogeochemical perspective on intensive agriculture in Polynesia. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 5: 51–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whistler, W. A. (2001). Plants in Samoan Culture: The Ethnobotany of Samoa, Isle Botanica, Honolulu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, A. H. (1898). Notes on the Chatham Islands. Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 27: 343–345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilmshurst, J. M., Hunt, T. L., Lipo, C. P., and Anderson, A. J. (2011). High-Precision radiocarbon dating show recent and rapid initial human colonization of East Polynesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108: 1815–1820.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, W. H. (2012). Whence the East Polynesians? Further linguistic evidence for a northern outlier source. Oceanic Linguistics 51: 289–359.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winter, K. B., and Lucas, M. (2017). Spatial modeling of socio-ecological management zones of the Ali’i era on the island of Kaua’i with implications for large-scale biocultural conservation and forest restoration efforts in Hawai’i. Pacific Science 71: 457–477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yen, D.E. (1973a). Agriculture in Anutan subsistence. In: Yen, D.E., Gordon, J. (eds.). Anuta: A Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon Islands. Pacific Anthropological Records No.21, B.P. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu. pp. 113–148.

  • Yen, D. E. (1973b). The origins of Oceanic agriculture. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 8: 68–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yen, D. E. (1974). Arboriculture in the subsistence of Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands. Economic Botany 28: 247–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yen, D. E. (1989). The domestication of environment. In Harris, D. R., and Hillman, G. C. (eds.), Farming and Foraging: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation, Unwin Hyman, Boston, pp. 55–78.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Jim Bayman, Tom Dye, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on prior drafts of this manuscript. All authors would like to thank and acknowledge the support of indigenous communities with whom they have worked across Polynesia. JJM, in particular, acknowledges the support of the Hokotehi Moriori Trust as the legal representative of the Moriori people and as full partners in the research on Rēkohu.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Seth Quintus & Patrick V. Kirch

  2. International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., Honolulu, HI, USA

    Jennifer Huebert & Justin Maxwell

  3. Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Noa Kekuewa Lincoln

Authors
  1. Seth Quintus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jennifer Huebert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Patrick V. Kirch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Noa Kekuewa Lincoln
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Justin Maxwell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seth Quintus.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial conflicts of interest.

Informed consent

No informed consent was necessary for this study.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Quintus, S., Huebert, J., Kirch, P.V. et al. Qualities and Contributions of Agroforestry Practices and Novel Forests in Pre-European Polynesia and the Polynesian Outliers. Hum Ecol 47, 811–825 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-019-00110-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-019-00110-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation