Royal funerals, ritual stones and participatory networks in the maritime Tongan state

•Underlines the role of royal funerals in unifying archaic states.•Identifies ritual behaviour in elite funerals over 700 years.•Demonstrates that canoe voyages of 150 km were made to collect volcanic funerary stones.•Recognizes that state ceremonies were supported by citizen networks that are poorly understood.•Finds that participatory networks were mechanisms for expressing cohesion or dissatisfaction.