Formation of a Complex Society in an Island Situation

Ueki, Takeshi (1990). "Formation of a Complex Society in an Island Situation". Micronesica. Mangilao, GU: University of Guam (Suppl. 2): 303–316. ISSN 2374-801X.

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Abstract: Ueki develops a model of sociopolitical evolution on Kosrae that ties population pressure and local conflict to the emergence of stratified complex society; critiques rigid chiefdom-state labels and instead uses the broader category of complex society to describe systems marked by dense populations, centralized authority, and multiple social echelons; combines archaeological evidence from Utwa and Lelu with ethnohistorical accounts to reconstruct a hierarchy of paramount chiefs, high chiefs, low chiefs, and commoners; proposes a multivariate model in which growing population density created conflict over land and sea rights, intensification of land management, warfare, and the need for new managerial and ruling strata; tests hypotheses concerning population growth, conflict, and the rise of a three-echelon society in Utwa before island-wide unification; identifies the Nefalil complex as a probable local center and interprets remote settlements and possible defensive features as signs of conflict; and concludes that Kosrae’s complex society can be explained as an endogenous development in a circumscribed island setting rather than a result of trade or hydraulic intensification.