The industrious exiles: an analysis of flaked glass tools from the Leprosarium at Kalawao, Moloka'i

Abstract

Archaeological investigation of the leprosarium at Kalawao, Moloka'i, Hawaii, recovered a small assemblage of flaked glass tools, used by people diagnosed with Hansen's disease (leprosy) and exiled to the remote Kalaupapa peninsula between 1866 and 1969. Flaked glass is commonly documented on postcontact archaeological sites in Oceania and elsewhere and can be considered an expression of indigenous tool technologies in an introduced material. The Kalawao assemblage is remarkable because it contains artifacts that represent innovations over traditional Hawaiian tool forms. This study considers precontact volcanic glass tools in Hawaii and their potential for informing postcontact glass tool technologies.An analytical approach to understanding worked bottleglass artifacts based on context and macroscopic properties is suggested, using the Kalawao assemblage as an example. The bottle-glass tools from Kalawao are not simply adaptations of precontact volcanic glass tool forms to a new material type but innovations involving the institutional context of Kalawao, differential availability of resources among the exiles, and physical disabilities related to the effects of Hansen's disease on the human body.