ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the dominant values of Polynesian culture, those involving concern with social status. It summarizes the additional changes that seem to be most closely related to the evolution inspired by status rivalry. Polynesian society is founded upon social inequality and, despite an aristocratic doctrine of hereditary rank, permits its members to compete for position, for prestige, and for power. In one way or another, then, the history of every Polynesian society has been affected by status rivalry, and under the proper conditions the effects of the rivalry have been felt in every vital center of the culture. The Traditional may be considered to represent early stages of Polynesian cultural development, the Open to be illustrative of transitional conditions, and the Stratified, of the culminating phases. Status rivalry produced conflict and the social and psychological consequences of strife; but it also played a prominent part in promoting craft specialization, the essential precursor of technical progress.
