The Archaeology of Micronesia (Cambridge World Archaeology)
Cambridge University Press, 6/3/2004
EAN 9780521656306, ISBN10: 0521656303
Paperback, 314 pages, 24.4 x 17 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
This was the first book-length archaeological study of Micronesia, a collection of island groups in the Western Pacific Ocean. Drawing on a wide range of archaeological, anthropological and historical sources, the author explores the various ways that the societies of these islands have been interpreted since European navigators first arrived there in the sixteenth century. Considering the process of initial colonisation on the island groups of Marianas, Carolines, Marshalls and Kiribati, he examines the histories of these islands and explores how the neighbouring areas are drawn together through notions of fusion, fluidity and flux. The author places this region within the broader arena of pacific island studies and addresses contemporary debates such as origins, processes of colonisation, social organisation, environmental change and the interpretation of material culture. This book will be essential reading for any scholar with an interest in the archaeology of the Pacific.
1. Micronesian/macrofusion
2. Micronesians
the people in history and anthropology
3. Fluid boundaries
horizons of the local, colonial and disciplinary
4. Settling the seascape
fusing islands and people
5. Identifying difference
the Mariana Islands
6. A sea of islands
Palau, Yap and the Carolinian Atolls
7. 'How the past speaks here!'
The Eastern Caroline Islands
8. Islands and beaches
the atoll groups and outliers
9. The tropical northwest Pacific in context.
"A thought-provoking work...Essential." L.A. Kimball, Western Washington University, CHOICE