A Shark Going Inland Is My Chief The Island Civilization of Ancient Hawai'i [Hardcover]

Tracing the origins of the Hawaiians and other Polynesians back to the shores of the South China Sea, archaeologist Patrick Vinton Kirch follows their voyages of discovery across the Pacific in this fascinating history of Hawaiian culture from about one thousand years ago. Combining more than four decades of his own research with Native Hawaiian oral traditions and the evidence of archaeology, Kirch puts a human face on the gradual rise to power of the Hawaiian god-kings, who by the late eighteenth century were locked in a series of wars for ultimate control of the entire archipelago.

This lively, accessible chronicle works back from Captain James Cooks encounter with the pristine kingdom in 1778, when the British explorers encountered an island civilization governed by rulers who could not be gazed upon by common people. Interweaving anecdotes from his own widespread travel and extensive archaeological investigations into the broader historical narrative, Kirch shows how the early Polynesian settlers of Hawai'i adapted to this new island landscape and created highly productive agricultural systems.

Patrick Vinton Kirchis Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology and Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and author ofOn the Road of the WindsandHow Chiefs Became Kings(UC Press), among other books.

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments

Prologue: Islands out of Time

Part One: Voyages
One: A Trail of Tattooed Pots
Two: East from Hawaiki
Three: Follow the Golden Plover
Four: Voyages into the Past
Five: The Sands of Waimanalo

Part Two: In Peles Islands
Six: Flightless Ducks and Palm Forests
Seven: Voyaging Chiefs from Kahiki
Eight: Mailikukahi, Oahus Sacred King
Nine: The Waters of Kane
Ten: Like Shoals of Fish

Parl•