Ends of the Earth : culture change in prehistoric New Zealand and East Polynesia
East Polynesia is a vast region encompassing the 150 million km2 of ocean and scattered islands between Hawai'i, Rapa Nui and New Zealand. The societies in this region share common ancestry but distinct social and environmental conditions on different islands have shaped the emergence of unique cultures. In New Zealand, understanding of the pattern and process of change from the ancestral East Polynesian culture to the distinctive MaÌori culture has been undermined by a series of developments. In particular, a large-scale review of early radiocarbon dates (Anderson 1991) has reduced the established length of MaÌori occupation of New Zealand before European contact from around 1000 years to 500, halving the time in which change could occur. Despite these developments, no attempt has been made to integrate archaeological data with this new temporal framework. This research addresses this issue by re-evaluating patterns of change in material culture and population within a Darwinian framework. Classification and frequency seriation of material culture assemblages is used to develop diachronic sequences of change, which are tested against a null explanatory model of random drift. Both traditions show significant
Brown, A. A.
Ends of the Earth : culture change in prehistoric New Zealand and East Polynesia. East Polynesia is a vast region encompassing the 150 million km2 of ocean and scattered islands between Hawai'i, Rapa Nui and New Zealand. The societies in this region share common ancestry but distinct social and environmental conditions on different islands have shaped the emergence of unique cultures. In New Zealand, understanding of the pattern and process of change from the ancestral East Polynesian culture to the distinctive MaÌori culture has been undermined by a series of developments. In particular, a large-scale review of early radiocarbon dates (Anderson 1991) has reduced the established length of MaÌori occupation of New Zealand before European contact from around 1000 years to 500, halving the time in which change could occur. Despite these developments, no attempt has been made to integrate archaeological data with this new temporal framework. This research addresses this issue by re-evaluating patterns of change in material culture and population within a Darwinian framework. Classification and frequency seriation of material culture assemblages is used to develop diachronic sequences of change, which are tested against a null explanatory model of random drift. Both traditions show significant
earth culture change prehistoric new_zealand east east vast region encompass million ocean scatter island new_zealand societies region share_common ancestry distinct social_environmental condition different island shape emergence unique culture new_zealand pattern process_change ancestral east culture distinctive culture undermined series development particular large_scale review early radiocarbon_date reduce establish length occupation new_zealand european_contact time change could occur despite development attempt_make integrate archaeological_data new temporal framework address_issue evaluating pattern change material_culture population within darwinian framework classification frequency seriation material_culture assemblage use develop diachronic sequence change test null explanatory_model random drift tradition show significant