marae

thumb|300px|, an ancient marae constructed of stone on in the Society Islands of [[French Polynesia, restored in 1994]]

A ''''' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), (in Tongan), (in Marquesan) or '' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term also means cleared and free of weeds or trees. generally consist of an area of cleared land, roughly rectangular (the itself), bordered with stones or wooden posts (' in Tahitian and Cook Islands Māori), and perhaps with ' (terraces) which were traditionally used for ceremonial purposes; in some cases, such as Easter Island, a central stone ' or ''a'u is placed. In the Easter Island’s Rapa Nui culture, the term ahu or a'u has become metonymic for the whole marae complex itself.