An ethnoarchaeological study of Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, Northern Australia
In this thesis an ethnoarchaeological approach is applied to the study of past settlement and subsistence on the island of Mabuiag, one of the Western Torres Strait Islands situated midway between the continent of Australia and the continental island of New Guinea. This region of the world, and Mabuiag in particular, was selected for study on account of its methodological interest, i.e. the potential for interpreting archaeological remains on Mabuiag in relation to two additional non-archaeological sources of data: historical and contemporary ethnographic accounts, and information from present-day Islanders. This study is an example of an ethnohistorical or direct historical approach to archaeological data because the most important ethnographic information studied is derived from middle and late nineteenth-century observations, and is culturally and geographically specific to the archaeological remains found. The present-day environmental and cultural setting of the Torres Strait region is discussed before the history of European contact in the area is reviewed. Information on the lifestyle of the Islanders and Cape York Aborigines contained in the earliest European records provides views of Islander life
Ghaleb, Barbara
Archaeology
An ethnoarchaeological study of Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, Northern Australia. In this thesis an ethnoarchaeological approach is applied to the study of past settlement and subsistence on the island of Mabuiag, one of the Western Torres Strait Islands situated midway between the continent of Australia and the continental island of New Guinea. This region of the world, and Mabuiag in particular, was selected for study on account of its methodological interest, i.e. the potential for interpreting archaeological remains on Mabuiag in relation to two additional non-archaeological sources of data: historical and contemporary ethnographic accounts, and information from present-day Islanders. This study is an example of an ethnohistorical or direct historical approach to archaeological data because the most important ethnographic information studied is derived from middle and late nineteenth-century observations, and is culturally and geographically specific to the archaeological remains found. The present-day environmental and cultural setting of the Torres Strait region is discussed before the history of European contact in the area is reviewed. Information on the lifestyle of the Islanders and Cape York Aborigines contained in the earliest European records provides views of Islander life
ethnoarchaeological study island northern australia ethnoarchaeological applied study past settlement subsistence island western islands situate continent australia continental island new region world particular select study account methodological interest potential interpret archaeological_remains relation additional non archaeological source data historical_contemporary ethnographic account information present_day study example ethnohistorical direct historical_archaeological data important ethnographic information study derive middle_late nineteenth_century observation culturally geographically specific archaeological_remain find present_day environmental cultural set region discuss history european_contact area review information lifestyle cape york contain early european record provide view islander life