Cultural Dynamics and the Ritual Role of Woods in Pre- Contact Hawai (i

PALAEOETHNOBOTANY has been an important component of archaeological research since its florescence more than two decades ago. It has been used to address important anthropological issues including ancient diet and resource use, the development of agriculture, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, and cultural interaction and exchange systems. The identification of macrobotanical wood charcoal specimens is one of these techniques, and as a class of archaeological data, wood charcoal possesses a number of advantages over other plant palaeoe-cological data for archaeologists interested in addressing questions about social and ideological change. It is usually found in abundance in archaeological con-texts, preserves well in most environments, and is durable through a variety of depositional and diagenetic processes. Although wood charcoal identification has primarily been used as a technique for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, it is also ideal for the study of cultural dynamics because material culture reflects peo-ple's choices in a number of cultural pathways, including domestic practices, ideology, and ritualization, as well as political relationships. Inquiries into the changing use of plants can be particularly informative in understanding political and ideological aspects of a society because variability in the economic im-portance of a plant often parallels variability in its cultural significance as wel