Polynesian Irrigation: Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence for Origins and Development

Most tropical and subtropical Polynesian high islands exhibit landscape modifications such as terracing or ditching, or both, resulting from prehistoric irrigation of taro (Colocasia esculenta). Because of the technological and hydraulic similarities between such Polynesian taro irrigation and Southeast Asian rice irrigation, some prehistorians have traced Polynesian irrigation practices back to a Proto-Austronesian homeland region in Southeast Asia. Other scholars have advocated an independent development of pondfield irrigation in the Pacific Islands. In this paper we draw upon two independent lines of evidence to test these alternative hypotheses. Chronologically controlled archaeological evidence for irrigation indicates a relatively late development of irrigation works in those Islands investigated thus far. This evidence is corroborated by systematic comparison of the lexical terms associated with irrigation among speakers of Oceanic languages. The linguistic analysis yields no evidence for an early terminological set associated with pondfield agriculture, but distinct sets of western and eastern Polynesian cognate reflexes indicate independent development of irrigation in those regions. KEYWORDS: Oceania, Polynesia, prehistoric agriculture, irrigation, taro

Te Kai Paka-Anuta: Food in a Polynesian Outlier Society

En reconnaissance aux contributions fécondes de J. Barrau à l’ethnographie et à la préhistoire de la nourriture en Océanie, cet article présente un compte rendu ethnographique sur l’alimentation d’une société polynésienne parmi les plus isolées et les plus traditionnelles : la minuscule île « outlier » de Anuta dans les Salomon orientales. Utilisant comme base une enquête menée en 1971, l’article réexamine le système économique sousjacent de production, stockage et préparation de la nourriture qui constitue la structure quotidienne (habitus) des abris-cuisines de Anuta. La culture matérielle de la cuisine, l’activité de l’abri-cuisine, les relations entre hommes et femmes dans la cuisine ainsi qu’une série de recettes concrètes sont abordées. De plus, l’article discute de la taxonomie traditionnelle des nourritures crues et préparées.In recognition of Jacques Barrau’s seminal contributions to the ethnography and prehistory of food in Oceania, this paper presents an ethnographic account of food in one of the most isolated and traditional of Polynesian societies : the tiny « Outlier » of Anuta, in the eastern Solomon Islands. Based on fieldwork carried out in 1971, the paper reviews the underlying economic system of food production, food storage, and the cooking processes which constitute the « structures of everyday life » (habitus) within Anutan oven-houses. The material culture of cooking, oven-house activity, gender relations within the cookhouse, and the range of actual recipes are discussed. In addition, the paper discusses the folk taxonomy of raw and prepared foods

Pre-Contact and Early Historic Cultural Landscapes in Kahikinui District, Maui: A Progress Report

On the morning of May 28th, 1786, Jean-Frans;ois de Galaup de la Perouse in command of the French frigates Boussole and Astrolabe sighted the snow-covered summits of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea and, soon after, that of Haleakala. To la Perouse "the island of Maui looked delightful," and he directed his ships to coast it one league offshore. La Perouse and his sea-weary crew were enthralled with "waterfalls tumbling down the mountainside into the sea," as they passed the districts known to the Hawaiian inhabitants of Maui as Kipahulu and Kaupa (Dunmore, ed. 1994:80). This idyllic landscape was soon replaced-much to the dismay of the sailors-as "the mountains receded towards the interior of the island.

The importance of shell: Redating of the To’aga site (Ofu Island, Manu'a) and a revised chronology for the Lapita to Polynesian Plainware transition in Tonga and Sāmoa

Radiocarbon dating Pacific archaeological sites is fraught with difficulties. Often situated in coastal beach ridges or sand dunes, these sites exhibit horizontal and vertical disturbances, datable materials such as wood charcoal are typically highly degraded, may be derived from old trees or driftwood unless specifically identified to short-lived material, while bone collagen rarely survives in tropical conditions. Shell, therefore, is the most logical material for dating Pacific sites since it is resistant to alteration, can be sampled to ensure only the last few seasons of growth are represented and is often closely tied to human economic activities. However, shell radiocarbon ( ¹⁴C) dating has been plagued by interpretive problems largely due to our limited knowledge of the ¹⁴C cycle in nearshore marine and estuarine environments. Consequently, shell dates are typically ignored in regional chronometric evaluations and in recent years shell is often avoided for dating altogether. Recent advances in our understanding of the source of shell ¹⁴C as well as the development of the first South Pacific Gyre model of changing marine ¹⁴C over time, combined with Bayesian statistical modelling, now provide us with insight into the value of these shell radiocarbon dates. Here we present a revision of the age of the To’aga site on Ofu Island–an early occupation site associated with the initial Polynesian Plainware period in Sāmoa, the earliest use of which we date to between 2785 and 2607 cal BP (68% probability)

Combler une lacune dans la préhistoire de la Polynésie orientale : nouvelles données sur l’archipel des Gambier (Mangareva)

Depuis 2001, un programme de recherche est conduit sur les îles hautes de l’archipel des Gambier (Polynésie française) dont les principaux résultats sont synthétisés ici. À partir d’une présentation détaillée des données provenant de plusieurs sites localisés sur différentes îles, les principaux thèmes abordés sont la période de colonisation humaine de l’archipel, la chronologie culturelle de la période pré-européenne, les échanges à longue distance entre les Gambier et d’autres îles et archipels et la transformation de l’environnement sur la longue durée de l’occupation humaine.Since 2001, a research program has been conducted on the high islands of the Gambier Archipelago (French Polynesia), of which the principal results are synthesized here. Beginning with a detailed presentation of data deriving from a number of sites situated on different islands, several themes are discussed: the period of human colonization of the archipelago, the cultural chronology of the pre-European period, long-distance exchange between the Gambiers and other islands, and environmental transformation during the longue durée of human occupation

Erosion, Geological History, and Indigenous Agriculture: A Tale of Two Valleys

Irrigated pondfields and rainfed field systems represented alternative pathways of agricultural intensification that were unevenly distributed across the Hawaiian Archipelago prior to European contact, with pondfields on wetter soils and older islands and rainfed systems on fertile, moderate-rainfall upland sites on younger islands. The spatial separation of these systems is thought to have contributed to the dynamics of social and political organization in pre-contact Hawai’i. However, deep stream valleys on older Hawaiian Islands often retain the remains of rainfed dryland agriculture on their lower slopes. We evaluated why rainfed agriculture developed on valley slopes on older but not younger islands by comparing soils of Pololū Valley on the young island of Hawai’i with those of Hālawa Valley on the older island of Moloka’i. Alluvial valley-bottom and colluvial slope soils of both valleys are enriched 4–5-fold in base saturation and in P that can be weathered, and greater than 10-fold in resin-extractable P and weatherable Ca, compared to soils of their surrounding uplands. However, due to an interaction of volcanically driven subsidence of the young island of Hawai’i with post-glacial sea level rise, the side walls of Pololū Valley plunge directly into a flat valley floor, whereas the alluvial floor of Hālawa Valley is surrounded by a band of fertile colluvial soils where rainfed agricultural features were concentrated. Only 5% of Pololū Valley supports colluvial soils with slopes between 5° and 12° (suitable for rainfed agriculture), whereas 16% of Hālawa Valley does so. The potential for integrated pondfield/rainfed valley systems of the older Hawaiian Islands increased their advantage in productivity and sustainability over the predominantly rainfed systems of the younger islands

Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions

Analyzing the spatial and temporal properties of information flow with a multi-century perspective could illuminate the sustainability of human resource-use strategies. This paper uses historical and archaeological datasets to assess how spatial, temporal, cognitive, and cultural limitations impact the generation and flow of information about ecosystems within past societies, and thus lead to tradeoffs in sustainable practices. While it is well understood that conflicting priorities can inhibit successful outcomes, case studies from Eastern Polynesia, the North Atlantic, and the American Southwest suggest that imperfect information can also be a major impediment to sustainability. We formally develop a conceptual model of Environmental Information Flow and Perception (EnIFPe) to examine the scale of information flow to a society and the quality of the information needed to promote sustainable coupled natural-human systems. In our case studies, we assess key aspects of information flow by focusing on food web relationships and nutrient flows in socio-ecological systems, as well as the life cycles, population dynamics, and seasonal rhythms of organisms, the patterns and timing of species’ migration, and the trajectories of human-induced environmental change. We argue that the spatial and temporal dimensions of human environments shape society's ability to wield information, while acknowledging that varied cultural factors also focus a society's ability to act on such information. Our analyses demonstrate the analytical importance of completed experiments from the past, and their utility for contemporary debates concerning managing imperfect information and addressing conflicting priorities in modern environmental management and resource use

An Anthropocene Without Archaeology—Should We Care?

For more than a decade, a movement has been gathering steam among geoscientists to designate an Anthropocene Epoch and formally recognize that we have entered a new geological age in which Earth’s systems are dominated by humans. Chemists, climatologists, and other scientists have entered the discussion, and there is a growing consensus that we are living in the Anthropocene. Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen (2002a, 2002b; Crutzen and Stoermer 2000) coined the term, but the idea that humans are a driver of our planet’s climate and ecosystems has much deeper roots. Italian geologist Antonio Stoppani wrote of the “anthropozoic era” in 1873 (Crutzen 2002a), and many others have proposed similar ideas, including journalist Andrew Revkin’s (1992) reference to the “Anthrocene” and Vitousek and colleagues (1997) article about human domination of earth’s ecosystems. It was not until Crutzen (2002a, 2002b) proposed that the Anthropocene began with increased atmospheric carbon levels caused by the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century (including the invention of the steam engine in A.D. 1784), however, that the concept began to gain serious traction among scientists and inspire debate

Voyaging in the Pacific

Teaching Oceania is a publication series created with the collaboration of scholars from around the Pacific region to address the need for appropriate literature for undergraduate Pacific Islands Studies students throughout Oceania. The series is designed to take advantage of digital technology to enhance texts with embedded multimedia content, thought-provoking images, and interactive graphs.Teaching Oceania is a publication series created with the collaboration of scholars from around the Pacific region to address the need for appropriate literature for undergraduate Pacific Islands Studies students throughout Oceania. The series is designed to take advantage of digital technology to enhance texts with embedded multimedia content, thought-provoking images, and interactive graphs

The Impact of the Prehistoric Polynesians on the Hawaiian Ecosystem

Evidence obtained from archaeological and ancillary studies of paleoenvironment suggests that the prehistoric Polynesians had a far greater impact on the Hawaiian ecosystem than has heretofore been realized. Such impact began with the introduction, by Polynesians, of exotic plants and animals. The cumulative effects of forest clearance and habitat modification through the use of fire led to major changes in lowland ecology. Among the consequences of this transformation of the Hawaiian landscape were the extinction of endemic species, alteration of vegetation communities, and erosion