UH Hilo archaeologist Peter Mills featured in Archaeology Magazine about his work on the slopes of Maunakea

By surveying and excavating ranching stations on the slopes of Maunakea, Mills and his colleagues have added a new layer of understanding to the oral history, journals, and ledgers that document the ethnogenesis and life of the paniolo.

The stone remnants of a 19th-century homestead set in pastureland on the slopes of the mountain.
The 19th-century homestead of Jack Purdy, an early bullock hunter on Hawai‘i Island, is located on the lower slopes of Maunakea. Hunters such as Purdy represent the beginnings of Hawai‘i’s unusual cowboy culture. (Samir S. Patel)
Peter Mills
Peter Mills

Archaeologist Peter Mills from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo is featured in Archaeology Magazine about his work uncovering the history of paniolo (cowboys) on the slopes of Maunakea.

The Hawaiian monarchy had been overthrown in 1893, and the island chain was annexed by the United States five years later, so the paniolo who beat the mainlanders at their own game became a great source of native pride. They were cowboys, to be sure, but also Hawaiian by blood, culture, and temperament. The paniolo folk tradition evolved over decades, entwining European, Hispanic, and Asian influences with Hawaiian roots. Archaeologists and anthropologists have a term for the creation of a new cultural identity: ethnogenesis.

“I think it’s one of the best examples of ethnogenesis,” says Peter Mills, an archaeologist at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, who has studied the history and archaeology of ranching on Mauna Kea for more than a decade. By surveying and excavating ranching stations on the volcano’s slopes, Mills and his colleagues have added a new layer of understanding to the oral history, journals, and ledgers that document the ethnogenesis and life of the paniolo.

Read full story at Archaeology Magazine.

Learn more about Prof. Mills’s research.

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