Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015. xix, 379 pp. (Figures, maps, B&W photos.) US$45.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-8248-5345-7.
As befits an archaeological memoir, Unearthing the Polynesian Past includes a wealth of revealing “artifacts.” One of these is a neatly penciled map of an exposed midden deposit in the Hālawa Valley of Molokaʻi that appears on the cover of the book, the work of a precocious 14-year-old intern at the Bishop Museum in Hawaiʻi engaged in his first independent dig in 1964. Over the succeeding half century, Patrick Vinton Kirch has authored scores of site reports, academic publications and, most recently, books geared towards more general audiences detailing the evolving scholarly consensus on the pre-contact history of Oceania. Indeed, no living scholar has done more to shape that consensus.
The book is organized into 24 chapters, beginning with Kirch’s childhood on Oahu and ending with reflections as a recently retired professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Most of the chapters focus on specific archaeological projects, highlighting Kirch’s experiences as a field archaeologist. It is impossible not to be impressed by the sheer number of projects and places Kirch has worked. These range from tiny remote islands such as Tikopia and Mangareva to sites located on most of the Hawaiian Islands, from northern Papua New Guinea in the west all the way to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the east. The accounts are enlivened with copious anecdotes of interactions with islanders, long-term foreign residents, and fellow archaeologists as well as accounts of Kirch’s adventures roaming across rough landscapes in search of telling signs of previous occupation. Kirch’s accounts of his collaborative work with Marshall Sahlins in the Anahulu Valley of Oahu and his digs on the Mussau Islands in Papua New Guinea as part of the International Lapita Homeland Project, both in the 1980s, will be of particular interest to those familiar with Kirch’s scholarly contributions. I suspect that more casual readers will especially enjoy the chapters dealing with his earlier mostly solo work on Polynesian outliers and Futuna, which have a somewhat exotic Indiana Jones quality given what Kirch characterizes (to a somewhat exaggerated extent) their remoteness and continued embrace of traditional indigenous culture.
Several intertwined threads run through Kirch’s narrative. The first and in many ways key theme is the revolution in scholarly understandings of the Polynesian past, the result not only of markedly increased archaeological research in the region but ever improving methodologies and technology. We watch over Kirch’s shoulder as he uncovers evidence of the earliest Lapita settlements, evidence of the initial human impact on island environments, and long-term adaptations, particularly in Hawaiʻi. Kirch’s comments are on the emerging big picture, but several of the most unforgettable passages reveal the miniscule bits upon which the big picture depends, such as the discovery of carbonized remains of a sweet potato on Mangaia, radio-carboned dated to CE 1100–1300, “undeniable evidence of Polynesian contact with South America” (242).
A second thread follows the changing nature of archaeological practice. When Kirch began his career, archaeological work focused on digs by teams organized and supervised by a single individual. While this basically remains true, archaeology in the Pacific as elsewhere has increasingly been organized and funded at the international level with interdisciplinary teams carrying out coordinated excavations. One can see the shift reflected in the table of contents. Up to 2000, most chapters cover a year or two focused on a single site. Chapters 18 through 23, in contrast, describe several overlapping projects in which Kirch served in a more limited specialized capacity. Much of the change has to do with dramatic improvements in technologies, each requiring its own specialists. This, in turn, has encouraged the breaking down of academic walls between the natural and social sciences, leading to new framings of old questions. As one example, Kirch points to how archaeologists used to focus on questions about cultural evolution but are now framing their inquiries on “how the cultures and societies of the Pacific co-evolved with their ecosystems” (331, original emphasis).
A third central thread might best be described as “things that (mostly rightly) annoy Patrick Kirch.” While Kirch in some ways presents himself as an archaeologist of the old school, in reality his early formative experiences were unusual, not least being months spent living on remote Polynesian islands engaged not just in archaeological surveys but learning the local language and engaging with the local people. Along with his long-time collaborator, Roger Green, Kirch practices a truly anthropological approach to archaeology, one that draws upon oral traditions, ethnology, historical studies, and linguistics. In his memoir, Kirch expresses regret and occasional anger with the Bishop Museum’s increasing shift towards short-term salvage archaeology projects in response to the rapid development in the Hawaiian Islands since the 1970s. If anything, he is even more dismissive of anti-scientific “post-modernism,” which he rather grumpily asserts has been adopted wholesale by “a significant segment of American social anthropology” (329). Most readers, however, will share in his heartfelt anguish over the unrelenting destruction of the Hawaiian historic landscape in the mad rush to mega-development in the islands.
In sum, Kirch has written a wonderfully accessible, informed, and exciting memoir which will be enjoyed by specialists and the general public alike. I can easily imagine using it in courses on the Pacific Islands and hope that a cheaper paperback or e-book version is soon made available.
John Barker
John Barker, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
pp. 884-886