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Kahn, Jennifer G.

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My research centers on the archaeology of chiefdom societies of Oceania. I investigate the ways in which Central Eastern Polynesian societies diverged through time to become chiefdoms of varying social and political complexity. My work is multi-scalar and focuses on the interplay of dynamics between households, communities, and regional polities. Recent research projects have included excavation of rock shelters and temples and in the Austral Islands to refine cultural historical sequences and change through time, settlement patterns and monumentality in the Society Islands, and inter-disciplinary analysis of Rurutuan taro farming (past and present). I currently have field projects in the Hawaiian Islands, the Society Islands, and the Austral Isands, and I have previously worked in the Marquesas Islands, the Gambier Islands, New Caledonia, and the American Southwest. My research projects in Polynesia are community based and engage descendant communities in all stages of the research process. I also have an active museum collections based and laboratory based research program. Current lab based projects concern the production, trade and exchange of stone tools in Central Polynesia, as well the analysis of shell tools and marine faunal assemblages. I am eager to supervise students in Oceania-based research and on larger themes of island archaeology, household archaeology, archaeological ethnography, and community-based projects. Undergraduate and graduate students interested in field-based and lab-based projects are encouraged to contact me regarding the possibilities for collaborative research.

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    PublicationOpen Access
    Social and Ecological Factors Affect Long-Term Resilience of Voyaging Canoes in Pre-contact Eastern Polynesia: A Multiproxy Approach From the ArchaeoEcology Project
    (Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2022-02-24) Kahn, Jennifer G.; Buffington, Abigail; Escue, Claudia; Crabtree, Stefani A.; Arts & Sciences
    While Eastern Polynesian archaeologists rarely recover archaeological remains of canoes (va‘a), ethnohistoric texts document how such vessels played a central role in the daily lives of commoners and chiefs alike. Here, we refocus discussions of va‘a in Polynesian societies through synthesizing proxy information (archaeological data, evidence from ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources, ecological modeling, human-centered interaction networks) on canoe use in the Society Islands of French Polynesia. While all communities who initially settled Eastern Polynesia archipelagoes must have done so with large double-hulled canoes, their use was absent in some societies by the time of European contact. We question why some Eastern Polynesian societies retained the use of large ocean-going canoes, while others did not. For high island archipelagoes like the Society Islands, sources document how large double-hulled canoes facilitated and supported elite intra-archipelago voyaging, warfare, and exchange with near and remote hinterlands up until European contact in the mid-eighteenth century. While smaller canoes were used by commoners on a daily basis for subsistence fishing and island-wide transport, larger ocean-going canoes were strictly the purview of high-ranking elites. Our human-centered interaction network models help us to identify how social processes put constraints on the manufacture and continued use of large ocean-going va‘a in Eastern Polynesian contexts. We deploy such data to outline steps in the production, use, and re-use of canoes. We employ network science to better understand the relationships between animal and plant species used by the Mā‘ohi in canoe manufacture, quantifying the number of resources used, the number of social personae involved, and the amount of labor/energy involved in their manufacture. Finally, we use Mo‘orea settlement pattern data, as well as landscape and elevation data, to visually model the extent to which local ecologies or habitats constrained access to long-lived hard wood trees, key raw materials in the construction of ocean-going vessels. We consider the additional variables of soil pH and tree regrowth rates in our modeling of the ecological limits of preferred va‘a species. We then query differential patterns of continued use of ocean-going vessels in two Eastern Polynesian archipelagoes: the Gambier archipelago and the Society Islands. Utilizing these multiple sources of data, we return to the age-old question of what roles social and natural processes played in the resiliency of the socio-political systems of Polynesian chiefdoms. We view ocean-going canoes as critical social tools in terms of resilience, as use of these water craft reduced island isolation and allowed for contact with near, and sometimes far, neighbors who served as critical buffering agents, particularly in times of ecological crises, such as drought, famine, or tsunamis. Keywords: Eastern Polynesia, canoe societies, resilience, ecology and habitat modeling, ethnohistory, prestige goods, human-centered interaction network, archaeoecology
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions
    (Elsevier, 2023-01) Crabtree, Stefani; Kahn, Jennifer G.; Jackson, Rowan; Wood, Spencer; McKechnie, Iain; Verhagen, Philip; Earnshaw, Jacob; Kirch, Patrick; Dunne, Jennifer; Dugmore, Andrew; Arts & Sciences
    Abstract: Analyzing the spatial and temporal properties of information flow with a multi-century perspective could illuminate the sustainability of human resource-use strategies. This paper uses historical and archaeological datasets to assess how spatial, temporal, cognitive, and cultural limitations impact the generation and flow of information about ecosystems within past societies, and thus lead to tradeoffs in sustainable practices. While it is well understood that conflicting priorities can inhibit successful outcomes, case studies from Eastern Polynesia, the North Atlantic, and the American Southwest suggest that imperfect information can also be a major impediment to sustainability. We formally develop a conceptual model of Environmental Information Flow and Perception (EnIFPe) to examine the scale of information flow to a society and the quality of the information needed to promote sustainable coupled natural-human systems. In our case studies, we assess key aspects of information flow by focusing on food web relationships and nutrient flows in socio-ecological systems, as well as the life cycles, population dynamics, and seasonal rhythms of organisms, the patterns and timing of species’ migration, and the trajectories of human-induced environmental change. We argue that the spatial and temporal dimensions of human environments shape society’s ability to wield information, while acknowledging that varied cultural factors also focus a society’s ability to act on such information. Our analyses demonstrate the analytical importance of completed experiments from the past, and their utility for contemporary debates concerning managing imperfect information and addressing conflicting priorities in modern environmental management and resource use. Keywords: Sustainable resource management; Human impacts; Archaeology; Traditional ecological knowledge; Ecology
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    PublicationOpen Access
    People of the sea, or of the soil? How the balance of marine and terrestrial resource availability informs maximum population on four Polynesian islands
    (2024) Puleston, Cedric; Kahn, Jennifer G.; Chadwick, Oliver; Belluzzo, Nick; Kirch, Patrick; Arts & Sciences
    Most studies of the food resource potential of early Polynesian populations focus exclusively on agricultural potential, and specifically starchy staples, despite the importance of the marine world to the Polynesians. In an attempt to more accurately estimate total precontact food resource availability, we characterized the terrestrial and near-shore marine environments of four Polynesian islands: Moʻorea, Maupiti, Mangareva and Taravai. We estimate the agricultural potential of each island after a consideration of the ecological factors related to productivity. We also estimate the productivity of the near-shore marine environment as a function of surface area. Using a range of fish yield scenarios from Pacific subsistence systems we scale relative measures of faunal food biomass derived from local archaeological excavations to generate absolute biomass estimates. We convert our estimates of agricultural and fished/foraged food potential into a maximum population size based on calorie availability. Moʻorea’s fertile valleys and wetlands would potentially generate sufficient food energy, mostly from starchy staples, to support a considerable population, many times larger than the other islands. In the most likely fish yield scenario Moʻorea gets only 0.4% of its calories from marine sources, while the others range from 7-18%. These relative inputs reflect the vast superiority in productivity (in terms of calories per km2) of agricultural vs near-shore marine zones. We also find that population size on islands with smaller fringing reefs, as illustrated by Moʻorea, may have been limited by a lack of fish protein. Moʻorea’s maximum population is approximately halved when diet breadth is considered. Keywords: French Polynesia, marine productivity, subsistence agriculture, pre-contact population
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Functional Classification of Hawaiian Curved-Edge Adzes and Gouges
    (Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 2020-07-13) Dye, Thomas; Kahn, Jennifer G.; Arts & Sciences
    As part of a project to describe and classify functionally more than 800 Hawaiian stone adzes held in the ethnographic and archaeological collections at Bishop Museum in Honolulu, 24 tools with curved edges were identified and described. The curved-edge tools include adzes and gouges, which can be unambiguously distinguished from one another using a combination of weight and length index. Many of the curved-edge adzes have large cutting edge width ratios; the narrow shoulders and wide edges led archaeologists to describe them as “hoofed”. Curved-edge adzes and gouges make up less than the 3 percent of the Hawaiian collection. Their rarity in Hawai‘i appears to be in line with other island groups in East Polynesia outside New Zealand, where they make up about 10 percent of museum collections. Keywords: Hawai‘i, adze, gouge, classification
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Pig and dog use in the pre-contact Society Island Chiefdoms: integrated ethnohistoric, archaeological and use-web analyses
    (Wiley, 2024-04-04) Kahn, Jennifer G.; Arts & Sciences
    Pig and dog were highly valued animals in pre-contact Polynesia. In this paper, I focus on pig and dog use in the resource rich, and hierarchically complex, pre-contact Society Island chiefdoms. Utilizing ethnohistoric data and human-centred use-webs data, I provide a preliminary study of the diverse ways that pigs and dogs were used in pre-contact Mā‘ohi life across 13 use categories. Ethnohistoric analyses indicate that pigs, and to some extent dogs, were intimately associated with elite ceremonial use, yet pigs were commonly associated with war and fertility rituals, while dogs were commonly associated with peacekeeping events. Preliminary comparison of pig and dog frequencies at eight excavated archaeological sites suggests pig bones far outnumber dog bones. There is also differential recovery of pig and dog bone in terms of site function and site status, with high status temples dating to the Centralization Phase having the highest incidence of both species. It is highly likely that the advent of the ‘Oro war cult led to intensified pig husbandry, given this animal's robust associations with ritual use, moral notions of chiefly power and cosmology. Why dog husbandry was less intensified in the Society Islands, and why this animal was perhaps accessed largely through long-distance trade relationships, is an ongoing question.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Gendered Publishing Patterns and Occupational Trends, Oceania Archaeology 2005-2020: Regional Journal Results
    (Journal of Polynesian Research and Archaeology, 2025) Donovan, Caroline; Kahn, Jennifer G.; Arts & Sciences
    This study examines ongoing issues of gender disparity in archaeology, a maledominated academic profession, from a U.S.-based perspective. Specifically, we investigate the link between gender and the publishing of archaeological research in Oceania among a broad cross section of archaeologists: those working in academia, museums, the private sector, and Cultural Resource Management (CRM), federal agencies, research institutes, those working for Indigenous Pacific Islander communities, and those working independently. After providing a general discussion of gendered studies in archaeology globally within the discipline, and then more specifically in Oceania, we turn to our own results illustrating authorship across nine regional Oceania archaeology journals over a 16 years (2005–2020). We examine how these publications correlate with first-author gender and with professional affiliation. By linking scholarly publications, gender, and professional affiliation, we explore the professional makeup of archaeology in Oceania and how that professional demography impacts publication. We end with a short discussion outlining what steps can be made moving forward to understand the imbalance in gendered publishing patterns in Oceania. Keywords gender equity, Oceania archaeology, professional affiliation, publishing demographics, women in archeology
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Coastal and Inland Settlement on Raiʻatea (Society Islands) During the Development/Expansion, Classic, and Post-Contact Phases
    (Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 2018-02-19) Kahn, Jennifer G.; Arts & Sciences
    The Society Islands hold a central place in archaeological models of Central Eastern Polynesia colonization and social complexity, given their spatial importance as a gateway into CEP from the west. Archaeological fieldwork in the Societies has had a patchy distribution, with most recent studies largely focusing on the Classic Phase in the Windward Island group, disallowing regional syntheses. Inland and coastal Raiʻatea, (Leeward Society Islands) were excavated and dated in order to develop a local chronology. Analysis of artifact and faunal assemblages, in conjunction with settlement patterns, contextualize the Raiatean cultural chronology within the regional archipelago-wide cultural sequence. Finally, a suite of lab-based analyses (micro-fossil analysis, wood charcoal identifications, land snail identification) are used to tentatively model human-landscape interactions through time. With this new corpus of 14C dates, we now have evidence for coastal Raiatean sites dating to the late Expansion and the late Classic to Early Post-Contact phase. Data from inland sites indicate complex the construction of a sizeable ritual center, including several community level temple structures with notable architectural elaboration, in the late Classic Period. This correlates well with regional archipelago-wide settlement pattern shifts during the Classic Phase. Keywords: Society Islands, East Polynesia, cultural chronology, coastal settlement, ritual centers
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Ancient mitogenomes of Lapita pigs confirm continuity of the Pacific Clade in Remote Oceania
    (Elsevier, 2025-10) van Os, Meriam; Allen, Melinda S.; Bedford, Stuart; Hawkins, Stuart; Collins, Catherine; Kahn, Jennifer G.; Kirch, Patrick; Knapp, Michael; Nunn, Patrick; Sand, Christopher; Spriggs, Matthew; Walter, Richard; Matisoo-Smith, Elizabeth; Greig, Karen; Arts & Sciences
    The movement of Lapita peoples into western Remote Oceania ∼ 3000 BP, and subsequent dispersal into Polynesia, is one of the most extensive migration events in human history. While the origins of these settlers and their commensal animals in the west are generally well understood, questions remain about their dispersal into eastern Remote Oceania, and post-settlement interactions. The pig, Sus scrofa, is one of the commensal animals carried across Remote Oceania, and previous genetic studies identified a single lineage, the “Pacific Clade”, linking Pacific pigs to Island and Peninsular Southeast Asia. Here, we present 16 complete mitogenomes (>99 % coverage) and 8 partial mitogenomes (>80 % coverage) from eleven Remote Oceanic archaeological sites, spanning the Lapita period to the historic period. Phylogenetic analyses show a continuous pig population in Remote Oceania from their first introduction ∼ 3000 BP. Furthermore, sustained pig mitochondrial diversity is detected in western Remote Oceania from the Lapita period until today. In comparison, very limited diversity is found in eastern Remote Oceania, suggesting a bottleneck associated with human expansion into East Polynesia. The contrasting genetic signatures between west and east suggest that little to no pig movement occurred between these regions following the initial settlement of Polynesia. Comparison of the newly generated sequences to previously published ancient pig mitogenomes reveals the first ancient Pacific Clade pig in China, extending their range geographically to mainland East Asia, and temporally to 7000–6000 BP. Overall, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of Remote Oceania’s settlement and pig husbandry. Keywords: Sus scrofa; Migration; Pacific; Ancient DNA; Mitochondrial DNA
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    PublicationEmbargo
    Refining the Cultural Chronology of Rurutu (Austral Islands), Central East Polynesia: Recent Excavations, Radiocarbon Dating, and Bayesian Analysis
    (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2025) Kahn, Jennifer G.; Arts & Sciences
    The Austral Islands are critical to developing a chronology for Southeast and Central East Polynesia, yet the archipelago remains one of the least studied in terms of archaeological research. The Austral Islands also have importance for studying the internal dynamics of social change in Open Polynesian chiefdoms and whether such chiefdoms might have arisen in impoverished geographical settings. This article reports on a dating and redating program for seven sites and locales on Rurutu and revisits the island’s two-part cultural chronological sequence. The new corpus of dates provides evidence for the use of Ana Eva rockshelter as a habitation and adze production locale from the mid-Archaic Period to European contact. The study provides the first evidence for when Rurutuans began constructing large, multi-terraced taro complexes in at least one of the island’s sociopolitical districts. The new dataset also demonstrates that the mid-cultural sequence saw the continued use of rockshelters for habitation, while the start of the Classic Period saw the first construction of marae (temple) sites. In addition to marae, varied sites with surface stone architecture, including habitation sites and specialized houses, are now dated to the Classic Period. A simple Bayesian model using Robert Bollt’s earliest calibrated date on wood charcoal from the Peva sand dune site as a terminus ante quem (TAQ) estimate to constrain one end of the model, with a.d. 1950 used as a terminus post quem (TPQ) (using the C_Date End command) to constrain the other end, suggests the Ana Eva rockshelter site was occupied as early as a.d. 1263 (2 σ), with construction and use of taro terraces as early as a.d. 1296 and marae construction as early as the fifteenth century. Keywords: chronology, Bayesian analysis, Austral Islands, Central East Polynesia, Rurutu Island.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Settlement Chronologies and Shifting Resource Exploitation in Ka‘ū District, Hawaiian Islands
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2016) Kahn, Jennifer G.; Lundblad, Steven; Mills, Peter; Chan, Yvonne; Longenecker, Kaen; Sinoto, Yosihiko; Arts & Sciences
    Museum collections contribute valuable information for cultural heritage, biological conservation, and the application of innovative and new methodological approaches. Collections deriving from archaeological projects in Hawai‘i serve as a case in point. Here, we report on re-analysis of two Ka‘ū District collections from Hawai‘i Island (HA-B22-64 and -248) to demonstrate what can be learned when applying new research questions to old collections. Our research goals center on two main themes: re-dating the HA-B22-64 and -248 sites to place them within the newly refined Hawaiian archipelago settlement chronology; and using diverse data sources to look at changing resource use in pre-Contact Hawai‘i through time. Our new AMS dating results indicate that the lower levels of rockshelter HA-B22-64 date to the mid- to Late Prehistoric period during the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, while upper levels calibrate to the ninteenth century. Both levels of HA-B22-248 calibrate to the late eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. In terms of resource use, Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a volcanic glass is present at both sites in small amounts, which is consistent with other sites in the South Point area. However, the high percentage of Group 3 volcanic glass is unusual for the area, and represents the highest percentage for the Kona side of Hawai‘i Island. HA-B22-64 has a small number of basalt artifacts consistent with the Keahua I source on Kaua‘i, while both sites have evidence for artifacts produced from the Mauna Kea quarry. Technological data from our basalt assemblages do not support direct access to the Mauna Kea quarry nor the presence of adze specialists in Ka‘ū households; rather, we find rejuvenation and use of already finished adzes. Measurements on Scarine oral and pharyngeal jawbones illustrate a consistent and stable size structure of fish populations at both sites. This, along with the large overall fish size, is indicative of sustainable fishing practices. Keywords: East Polynesia, Hawaiian Islands, chronology, marine resource depression, EDXRF, adze production, museum collections