Pacific Islands (Other Keyword)
1-17 (17 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Since publication of the first radiocarbon dates from the Ha’atuatua (Nuku Hiva) and Hane (Ua Huna) sites, the Marquesas Islands, te henua ‘enana, have played a critical role in the construction of settlement models for Eastern Polynesia. However, the chronology of...
The Curious Case of the Tauranga Bay Snapper Fishery: Otolith Isotopic Chemistry in Northern Aotearora (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During my doctoral studies under Professor Allen’s guidance, I sought to explore the long-term human ecodynamics of Māori peoples’ fisheries in northern Aotearoa. I hypothesized that decreasing sea surface temperatures during the Little Ice Age could have been one of...
Did a changing climate in the tropical South Pacific contribute to the eastward migration and settlement of Polynesia? (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The migration of humans into the eastern Pacific was rapid and focused around 900-1250 CE. Although the causes of this rapid migration are likely varied, we put forward new evidence to suggest that a change in the mean state of the tropical south Pacific from a La-Niña...
Dynamic Island Environments: Melinda Allen's Contributions to the Study of Coastal Geomorphology and Pacific Island Colonization and Settlement (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Melinda Allen's contributions to Pacific Island archaeology are far-reaching and varied. Her study on the application of evolutionary theory to fishhook design had a substantial impact on the application of evolutionary principles to understanding variability in artifact...
Eight Centuries of Human-Environment Interactions in Ka‘ūpūlehu Ahupua‘a, Hawai‘i Island (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations within Ka‘ūpūlehu Ahupua‘a on the leeward coast of Hawai‘i Island during the 1980s and 1990s generated a substantial assemblage of artifacts, faunal remains, and archaeobotanical samples. Kamehameha Schools, the landowner, has curated these...
Exploring human-animal ecodynamics across East Polynesia through multispecies perspectives (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In honour of Melinda Allen’s contributions to Oceanic Archaeology this paper explores multi-faceted relationships between humans and animals across East Polynesia as understood by the archaeological record. Drawing on archaeological, osteological, and ancient DNA...
Exploring Niche Construction Theory (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Niche construction theory (NCT) has become an interesting evolutionary mechanism for archaeologists interested in understanding human-environment interactions. The idea that humans’ penchant for environmental modification could be understood from an evolutionary model is...
The Growth and Scale of Agricultural Adaptation in the Kaʻū Field System (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Place-based agricultural adaptations are widespread across the Hawaiian archipelago. These adaptations, as Melinda Allen has demonstrated, are situated within ecological and social contexts that organize the scale and development of these adaptations. Understanding how...
Kaitiakitanga and Ecodynamics on Ahuahu, Aotearoa New Zealand (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Ahuahu was one of the first places in Aotearoa New Zealand settled some 700 years ago by Polynesians from Hawaiki. The small 19 km<sup>2</sup> island situated 6 km off the Coromandel peninsula would have been a welcome sight for the ancestors of Ngāti Hei and Ngāti...
Keeping Up with Style: Melinda Allen's Impact on the Study of Stylistic Variability in Oceania (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1996, Melinda Allen published an article in the journal Antiquity on “Style and Function in East-Polynesian Fishhooks”. This paper illustrates one of Allen’s research strategies: identify a critical gap in archaeological method and theory affecting substantive...
The Lapita Cultural Complex: The Change, Movement, and Variability (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Lapita Cultural Complex’s (LCC) beginnings can be traced back to 3000 BP and connected to the Bismarck Archipelago. These material cultural practices can be seen spread throughout the Pacific Islands throughout time and with this dispersal came modifications and variations in the decoration and stylings of pottery. The pottery of the LCC can be...
Melinda Allen’s Dynamic Landscapes of the Pacific (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Melinda Allen’s 1992 research of Aitutaki Island defined an approach to prehistory that compared trends in foraging and food production against a backdrop of ecological transition. Her use of the concept of ‘dynamism’ privileged an evolutionary model that explained change...
Mind the Gaps: The Value of a Holistic Approach to Understanding Pacific Settlement History (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2010, Addison and Matisoo-Smith published a paper challenging the widely accepted model regarding the settlement of East Polynesia, specifically addressing the origin of East Polynesian colonists and identifying possible drivers for the resumption of the eastward...
Morphological Variability and Temporal Patterning in Rurutuan Domestic Architecture: Rectangular and Oval-Ended Stone Structures of the Austral Islands (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In complex societies like chiefdoms, understanding micro-scale social contexts of settlement systems is required if we are to mesh top-down and bottom-up perspectives to understand diachronic social change. Here, I examine new survey and archival survey data, and...
On Swiddening and Pigs: The Management of Micronesian Agroforests (2016)
Agroforestry, or the growing of tree crops, is a long-standing and key food production practice throughout much of the world. As with all systems of food production, the way that humans manage agroforests has a profound impact on their composition as well as their sustainability. For over 2,000 years, eastern Micronesians have relied largely on tree crop production, vegeculture, and fishing for subsistence. In this study, we focus on late prehistoric manipulation of floral environments on the...
A Preliminary Study on Food and the Emergence of Archaic States in the Hawaiian Islands (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists have long been interested in religious food restrictions and how they developed. The ethnohistoric record contains a rich account of the types of food that were restricted to past Native Hawaiians by social rank and gender. Such a record can be used by archaeologists to examine the archaeology of taboo in the Hawaiian Islands. This...
Satellites and Sociocultural Economics in the Pacific (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Using data collected by satellite and aerial remote sensing platforms, we developed an economic model of human niche construction at the islands in the Pacific. We argue that types of niches are determined by human choice, given environmental conditions, which can be both assets and challenges. Deciding to surmount challenges increases cultural capital,...