Abstract: This dissertation examines inter- and intra-household variability among late prehistoric rectangular houses (fare haupape) and round-ended houses (fare pote'e) in the 'Opunohu Valley, Mo'orea (Society Islands). Utilizing a holistic analysis of ethnohistoric documents and Tahitian lexical terms, I reconstruct how social difference was expressed within Ma'ohi households and communities. A model is proposed for the expected material correlates in architectural elements and activities for houses used as primary dwellings and those with specialized functions, challenging the notion that variation in house form correlates to simple dichotomies in site function or household rank. Drawing from the 'House Society' theoretical concept, I explore the ritual nature of Ma'ohi dwellings and model the material expressions of House wealth and status. Data from household excavations demonstrate that both rectangular and round-ended houses were used as primary sleeping houses or as specialized structures for craft production and ritual activities. There is no one-to-one correlation between house form, house function, or household status. Distributional data for artifacts and sub-surface features, house architecture, and the use of space illustrate that variation in the presence and intensity of production and consumption activities best differentiates between house structures used for domestic and specialized purposes. This research demonstrates how Houses, as social groups controlling landed estates, structured daily household and community life. Substantial intra-site variation in elaboration of house architecture, site proxemics, adze production and maintenance, food preparation, cooking, and storage activities illustrates that houses in ritualized and residential contexts were important markers of social difference. In residential contexts, internal social ranking within the House was materialized in house form and architectural elaboration, ritual placement on the landscape, formalization of interior and exterior space, and access to material goods, labor, and social networks. Within ritual contexts, the construction of houses near ritual temple complexes, and the activities associated with them, created landscapes legitimating hierarchical roles. The elaboration of elite residential sites in the late prehistoric Society Island chiefdoms went hand in hand with the elaboration of temple sites and houses of specialized function, reflecting associations between secular power, ritual influence, claims of proximity to the ancestors, and sacredness within houses.