Session Abstract
Mortuary behavior in Island Oceania includes multiple-stage interment, bone curation and tool manufacture, decoration and display of crania, mortuary feasting, headhunting, cannibalism, human sacrifice. The purpose of this symposium is to begin a synthesis of prehistoric mortuary behavior for this vast region, and to highlight issues in data recovery that are critical to the interpretation of this aspect of Oceanic societies. These papers examine the kinds of sites and features in which human remains are found, the taphonomic signatures of mortuary ritual, and the extent to which ethnographic information is useful in interpreting this portion of the archaeological record.
Participants and Paper Abstracts
Mortuary Practice in the Cook
Islands. Susan
Anton, Rutgers University; Rhonda
Quinn, Rutgers University; David Steadman, University of Florida.
The behavioral, cultural, and political implications of human skeletal remains found in non-mortuary contexts requires that we understand the range of mortuary practices in a particular region. Using ethnohistoric accounts, archaeological excavation, and burial cave surveys we reconstruct the range of skeletal patterns encountered in archaeological contexts in the Cook Islands and the taphonomic factors that affect the interpretations of these patterns. Multiple mortuary practices are encountered that both confirm and expand on those documented in the ethnohistoric record. These practices differ in the archaeological signals they leave and change in their relative frequency through time.
Burial Practices in Samoa. Jeffrey T.
Clark, North Dakota State University.
This paper presents a review of burial behaviors in the Samoan archipelago, from the earliest evidence to the contemporary situation. A survey of archaeological evidence is provided to establish a prehistoric pattern of behavior. Ethnohistorical documents from the early historic period provide supplemental information and indicate changing behaviors. The prehistoric
and early historic patterns of behavior are contrasted with contemporary behaviors to illustrate changes in burial customs reflecting changes in the encompassing socio-cultural system.
Identifying Cannibalism in the Osteoarchaeological Record: Case Studies from Fiji and the Cook Islands. David DeGusta, UC Berkeley.
Cannibalism is controversial and culturally significant. As such, it is crucial that hypotheses of cannibalism be tested rigorously. In Oceanic contexts, investigators have applied different methods to skeletal remains to test hypotheses of cannibalism. They have also used different standards for what counts as sufficient evidence to infer cannibalism. This paper considers the questions of what method(s) are best suited to testing cannibalism hypotheses in Oceanic contexts, and what should be considered sufficient evidence to infer cannibalism. These issues are explored by examining the studies of cannibalism carried out on skeletal remains from Fiji and the Cook Islands. Cultural Modifications in an Adolescent Earth-oven Interment from Fiji: Sorting Out Mortuary
Practice. Michael Pietrusewsky, University of Hawaii; Michele Toomay Douglas, University of Hawaii; Ethan Cochrane, University of Hawaii/CILHI ; Scott Reinke, University of Hawaii.
The incomplete skeletal remains of an adolescent recovered from the surface of an earth?oven in Qaranicagi Cave, Site Y2?39, Waya Island, Fiji are used to explore mortuary practices in these Pacific islands. Mortuary practices in the Pacific are well documented and cannibalism is ethnographically and archaeologically known in the region. Cannibalism appears to be temporally and spatially sensitive, and is only one of a variety of perimortem behaviors. The unique interment of the Qaranicagi Cave skeletal remains and the evidence for cannibalism, including burning and cut marks, is presented and evaluated within the context of Fijian mortuary practice.
The Archaeological Record of Burial Practices on Pohnpei, Micronesia. William S. Ayers, University of Oregon.
Burial practices observed archaeologically offer avenues for improved understanding of past cultural behavior. Pohnpei Island, Micronesia, has all of the environmental diversity characteristic of Oceania and all of the burial conservation problems as well. Factors affecting human burial evidence include small population size but high density and diverse, spatially concentrated microenvironments. That the known skeletal material represents only distinct segments of the population, that is, high status individuals and late period islanders, is documented by examining specific cases of varied burial practice and aspects of status ritual from the historic context and from prehistoric tomb burial.
Mortuary Patterns and Taphonomic Processes in the Palau Archipelago. Scott M. Fitzpatrick, University of Oregon; Greg Nelson, University of Oregon.
The discovery of human burials in Palau, Micronesia has often centered on traditional village sites with stone architecture dating post AD 1200. Although the placing of the deceased in caves has been noted in the past, especially within the limestone Rock Islands, only recently have these sites been investigated in any detail. We present new data from a cemetery or Orrak Island, one of the largest and earliest burial sites in Austronesia dating to ca. 900 BC. Surface reconnaissance in the smaller limestone islands suggests that cave burials were probably a frequent cultural practice in early Palauan prehistory.
The Middens of Aitape: Contextualizing Human Remains from the North Coast of Papua new
Guinea.
Ann
L.W. Stodder, The Field Museum; Timothy Rieth, IARII.
Assemblages of fragmentary human and animal remains were recovered during the first systematic test excavations in the Aitape area on the North Coast of New Guinea. The species composition and element distributions of the faunal remains suggest that these may represent multiple secondary inhumations in domestic middens, remains of cannibalism or mortuary feasts, or warfare. With no local archaeological framework to contextualize these excavation results, we model the taphonomic signatures of mortuary ritual documented in the ethnography of New Guinea and Island Melanesia, and find evidence that several dimensions of mortuary and economic behavior are represented in these small sites.DISCUSSANTS
John Terrell, The Field Museum
George Milner, Penn State
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Possible discussion topics for meeting session [Friday AM, April 11]
- Status of mortuary studies in Island Oceania
- Current data for island groups / regions
- Gaps in the data
- Nature of data: descriptive, synthetic, plugged into analytical framework?
- How can mortuary and bioarchaeological data be more effectively generated, presented, used?
- What does the mortuary information add to the archaeological reconstruction of prehistoric societies and adaptation in Island Oceania?
- Do island mortuary patterns differ radically / systemically from non-island?
- What are the predominant theoretical and interpretive frameworks for Pacific mortuary behavior? Are they appropriate?
- Uses, misuses, role of ethnographic information
Discussant 1: Terrell
- Status of taphonomy in Oceania
- What are the important differences in taphonomy in this region compared to Europe, Africa, North America (where the methodologies have been developed)
- Should a new weathering scale developed?
- Tool marks: new replicative studies needed; build on the work on shell tools by Toth and bamboo by Spenneman; ditto for animal chew marks
- Cannibalism: "Taphonomic Signatures" - are they valid and useful?
- Are there recongizable taphonomic signatures for other mortuary rituals?
Discussant 2: Milner
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