Form Follows Function: The depiction of ancestry, power and ceremony through gesture in Hawaiian Petroglyphs.

Carol Patterson

Abstract:

This presentation examines the gestures, postures and proxemic arrangements of anthropomorphic figures found in Hawaiian petroglyphs and demonstrates the way in which they find parallels the Hawaiian social structure. Sites can be grouped in three categories that are consistent with Hawaiian religious beliefs, class and ranking systems, and family kinship structures. Variations in "style" are more likely to be deliberate forms that functioned in a broader communication system, rather than the result of a stylistic evolution of form.