Ritualizing Hierarchy: Power Strategies and Pigeon Catching in Ancient Samoa

Previous research has demonstrated that the nature of power strategies correlates with the nature of ritual action, and nowhere is political action more important than in Polynesia. Polynesian political systems have served as important comparative examples for the investigation of complex societies, although the nature of some early political systems is not well understood. Through the analysis of the ritual of pigeon catching, the nature of pre-European-contact power strategies in Samoa are inferred in this paper. We demonstrate that Samoan ritual action in pigeon catching was geared toward the legitimization of hierarchical structure instead of simply the power of individual elites. We contend that by legitimizing structures, manifestations of sacred power could be validated and channeled to others for purposes of practical influence. Based on the comparative analysis of pigeon catching, we find that power strategies in Samoa, despite several notable autocratic tendencies, were more corporate than in ne...