Finding an Invisible History: A Computer Simulation Experiment (in Virtual Polynesia)

A modeled Polynesian society is used to explain why, in Polynesia, growing stratification did not result in a devaluation of women's status, as most theorists would predict. The computer model used to explore this problem--called TongaSim--is a C++ program that attempts to emulate the basic social dynamics of Tonga, a Western Polynesian society. The program is capable of simulating the operation of a chiefdom with up to 100+ chiefly lines whose descendants marry and have children, create and maintain kinship relationships, exact and pay tribute, produce and redistribute agricultural wealth, expand in territory and go to war, and attempt to gain personal and group status. TongaSim was used to simulate the effect of warfare (a prime mover of stratification) on women's status, specifically the custom of "fahu" that asserts the spiritual superiority of sisters and sister's lines over brothers and their lines. Because of intermarriage patterns, this custom also serves to make higher status chiefly lines superior in kinship to lower status chiefly lines and, thus, supports traditional political power. Two simulations were conducted with the model--one with warfare OFF (inactivated) and one with warfare ON, allowing challenging lower chiefs to go to war and seize land if they were able to do so. The effect of warfare on the fahu custom and its implications in the virtual system were recorded and examined. The simulation showed that, despite the initial conflict between the interests of rising military chiefs and the fahu custom, the custom was appropriated by these rising chiefs, turning the fahu's political effects "on its head." Ultimately in the simulation, the fahu custom provided a vehicle for military chiefs to gain status and power. This, it is argued, is consistent with the lack of any historical evidence that the fahu was challenged and toppled during periods of growing warfare and stratification.