ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to untangle the definition of redistribution and then to test selected propositions concerning its evolutionary significance. It addresses two related issues: redistribution as a typological category of primitive economies, and redistribution as a causal factor in the evolution of social stratification. According to Karl Polanyi's definition, the primary defining characteristic of redistribution is its centrality of organization: "redistribution designates appropriational movements towards a center and out of it again". The chapter aims to isolate the separate organizational forms that have been called "redistribution" and to use this refined typology to examine the evolutionary significance of redistribution. "Chiefdoms are redistributional societies with a permanent agency for coordination". Perhaps nowhere in the world are chiefdoms so well represented and documented as they are in Polynesia, and the Hawaiian Islands offer an ideal opportunity to examine the relationship between environmental diversity and chiefly organization as postulated by Service.
