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Book Cover
E-book
Author Kirch, Patrick Vinton

Title A shark going inland is my chief : the island civilization of ancient Hawaiʻi / Patrick Vinton Kirch
Published Berkeley : University of California Press, ©2012

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Description 1 online resource (xvii, 346 pages) : illustrations
Contents pt. 1. Voyages -- pt. 2. In Pele's islands -- pt. 3. The reign of the feathered gods
Summary 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 Cook's 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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-333) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject HISTORY -- Oceania.
Antiquities
Civilization
Ecology
SUBJECT Hawaii -- Civilization
Hawaii -- Antiquities. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh86007889
Hawaii -- History -- To 1893. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85059350
Hawaii -- Environmental conditions
Subject Hawaii
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2012010491
ISBN 9780520953833
0520953835
1282233920
9781282233928