A Pattern of Islands: Ethnography, Remote Sensing, and Community Archaeology in Kosrae and Pohnpei, Micronesia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Knowledge of navigation and island living among indigenous people of the western Pacific Ocean retain lifeways, legends, and oral history about their migrations in the region. Western enlightenment theories of Pacific migration persist in describing this migration as a wave or diffusion of peoples seeking new lands. However, among islanders, it is perceived as more of a mosaic or nodal pattern, with movement among islands connecting kin groups, fishing resources, or ritual exchange networks. The difference in these views of migration illustrates the divide between etic, western views and indigenous perceptions of space, time, and the islanders’ sense of habitus. This project combines ethnographic encounters with data from UAS (unmanned aerial systems) and archaeological observations with villagers in Kosrae and Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia to assess the history and character of migration in the central western Pacific since founding populations have been first identified over 2000 years ago. The results of the first year of a 2-year project interrupted by covid restrictions are presented.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35721.0