Tahitians had a phrase for chiefs who “eat the power of the government too much.” And avoiding this appellation was in the interests of chiefs; in Polynesia broadly, as the archaeologist Patrick Kirch noted in The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms, “an overly bloated chieftainship might raise the spectre of rebellion.” Or the spectre of a bloodless coup. In Tahiti, priests and other elites would approach a persistently despotic chief and offer this guidance: “Go and eat the leg of pork seasoned with dung! Thy royalty is taken from thee, thou art put down to tread the sand, to walk like common men.”

Robert Wright, The Evolution of God (2009)