ABSTRACT:

In this paper we describe a paradigmatic set of relationships between formalised regional exchange and public stone works in the Pacific. Our data derive from archaeological and anthropological research based in the Kula Ring of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and we compare it with the archaeological models of hierarchy, exchange and monumentalism in Polynesia. This comparison is apt because of a shared Austronesian heritage of many of the groups, the relatively late settlement of the Kula region that roughly corresponds to the final expansion throughout Polynesia, and a history of comparative analyses concerning northern Kula Ring, in particular Trobriand, and Polynesian chieftainships. We start with the general observation that as the stone arrangements in the northern Massim were falling into disuse, stone structures were starting to play an increasingly important role in the social life of the Polynesian chiefdoms. In conjunction with this, we suggest that while regional exchange in the Massim was evolving into the Kula, many areas of Polynesia were becoming increasingly isolated while others were creating regional exchange networks not unlike the Kula. We conclude by trying to specify the transformations among systems of regional exchange, stone monumentalism and hierarchical social forms in among these areas of near and remote Oceania.