Sport, Agency and Pigeon Snaring in the Ancient Tongan Chiefdom

ABSTRACT

Pigeon snaring was an élite sport in the traditional Tongan chiefdom, undertaken on purpose‐built mounds known as sia heu lupe . LiDAR imagery combined with field survey and mound documentation on the island of Tongatapu has identified a comprehensive corpus of these sites. This includes Vaolahi, an elaborate complex of sia heu lupe and other features associated with the Tu‘i Tonga paramount, as well as other mounds and mound clusters across the island. The majority of other sia heu lupe occur in western Tongatapu on chiefly estates associated with descendant lineages of the first Tu‘i Kanokupolu, Ngata. Their distribution, projected chronology and probable proliferation coincided with increasing political rivalry, shifting alliances, and the growing influence and ascendancy of the Tu‘I Kanokupolu in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Drawing on comparison with Sāmoan pigeon snaring and other contexts in which competitive sport facilitates political interaction, it is argued that sia heu lupe were more than monuments of chiefly status and sporting privilege. Mound clusters provided arenas where chiefs could gather, compete, assess one another, reinforce relationships, and potentially negotiate alliances. In this interpretation, these mounds have agency, pigeon snaring constituted political theatre, and its monumental settings were active components of Tonga's changing political landscape.