Dynamic Island Environments: Melinda Allen's Contributions to the Study of Coastal Geomorphology and Pacific Island Colonization and Settlement

Summary

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 design, not only in Oceania but elsewhere. Furthermore, her thoughtful and innovative use of foraging theory to examine patterns in pre-Contact marine resource use on Aitutaki, Cook Islands became the standard for subsequent applications of human behavioral ecology models in archaeological studies. Of equal influence is her work on coastal geomorphology and landscape evolution which is the focus of this presentation. In this paper, I discuss how Melinda's ideas about landscape evolution have furthered our understanding of the context and causes of human colonization of remote Pacific Islands. Particular reference is made to her substantive theoretical contributions on the subject, the data requirements, and current data limitations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Oceanic Archaeology: Papers to Honor the Contributions of Melinda Allen

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51219