460 Memoirs Bcniicc P. Bishop Museum 



hunting, organized instruction for young men, curvilinear art and decorative 

 carving. Stone construction was also higlily developed in Hawaii although prac- 

 ticallv absent in New Zealand. If those features which were ]irobably intro- 

 duced into Hawaii from southeastern Polynesia in comparatively recent times are 

 eliminated, the residual Hawaiian culture is intermediate between the Maori- 

 Marquesan and Samoan-Tongan cultures but seems to be most closely related to 

 the Maori-Marquesan cultures. 



The Marquesas and Hawaii have several features in common which are 

 lacking in New Zealand. Although the historic culture of all the Marquesan 

 islands was nearly the same, decorative carving and curvilinear art seem to have 

 been more highly developed in the southern islands of the group, while stone con- 

 struction was more highly developed in the northern islands. The northern 

 islands also showed an increased tendency toward centralized government and 

 toward a belief in the divinity of chiefs. The resemblance of the Marquesan 

 culture to that of Hawaii was thus more marked in the northern than in the 

 southern islands of the group. The southern islands are more desirable for 

 settlement and He nearer to the Society group so that immigrants from southeast- 

 ern Polynesia would be likely to encounter them first. The traditions of the 

 southern Marquesans indicate that they did not reach the group until about 1000 

 A.D. (Handy, personal correspondence). It seems probable, therefore, that the 

 historic culture of the IMarquesas was a blend between an original culture some- 

 what like that of the early Hawaiians and a Maori like culture which entered the 

 group from Southeastern Polynesia at some later time. 



The Societv Island culture is intermediate in many respects between the 

 Maori-Marquesan and Samoan-Tongan cultures. As it is almost certain that 

 cultures similar to the Maori and Marquesan ones formerly existed in south- 

 eastern Polynesia it seems probable that the Society Island culture is a blend 

 between an early culture of Maori-]\Iar(|uesan type and a culture of western 

 Polynesian type. Societv Island culture shows a few distinctive features, the 

 most important of which are an organized priesthood and a considerable central- 

 ization of government with suggestions of a feudal system. The historic 

 Samoan-Tongan culture shows a tendency toward centralized government and it 

 seems probable that the distinctive features of the Society Island culture orig- 

 inated in the Society Islands as a result of the contact of immigrants from west- 

 ern Polynesia with a subject population. 



It is possible to distinguish three main types of culture in Polynesia. 

 These cultural types correspond in a general way with the culture areas distin- 

 guishable in other parts of the world, but their historic distribution was not 

 geographically continuous. One type of culture, linked with pojnilations pre- 



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