Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

How humans change and are changed by their environments are foundational questions of archaeology, especially in the archaeology of Oceania. While these questions are simple, providing better, more historically and empirically grounded answers to these questions has involved considerable theoretical and methodological innovation. Melinda Allen has been at the forefront of these innovations for over three decades, a career that has ranged from the Bishop Museum to the University of Auckland. Dr. Allen is widely recognized for her unparalleled empiricism and detail, which have resulted in substantial contributions to chronology building, the process and drivers of East Polynesia voyaging, the development of anthropogenic landscapes, and the evolution of political systems. This session aims to highlight the contributions of Dr. Allen on the field and the ways her work continues to be instrumental in directing the future of diverse ecological and evolutionary frameworks in Oceania. The papers in this session speak to Dr. Allen’s broad contributions to the field, ranging from analyses of regional agricultural adaptations to environmental drivers of large-scale social processes.

Other Keywords
Zooarchaeology • Paleoethnobotany • Pacific Islands • Remote Sensing/Geophysics

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-13 of 13)

  • Documents (13)
Documents
  • Chronology building for the Marquesas Islands (Eastern Polynesia): The emerging consensus (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Guillaume Molle.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Reno Nims.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only David Sear.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alex Morrison.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Timothy Rieth.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Patricia Pillay.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lisa Nagaoka.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Seth Quintus.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Thegn Ladefoged.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael W. Graves.

    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...

  • Melinda Allen’s Dynamic Landscapes of the Pacific (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Julie Field.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lisa Matisoo-Smith.

    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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Kahn.

    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...