We report recent X-ray Fluorescence analysis of samples from neighboring basalt adze production locales situated in western Tutuila, American Samoa. These data allow for the successful reassignment of source locations to locally and regionally transferred adzes with greater precision, and highlights the relevance of intraisland source analysis when addressing inter-archipelagic exchange models.
loves and losses of Mei Ling, the cadre's daughter, are compelling but leave me skeptical about generalizing these representations beyond the urban elite. Some readers may be put off by a subtext from evolutionary biology that depicts Chinese men's and women's sexual strategizing in terms of universal differences in reproductive strategy (see, for example, pp. 325-326). The discussion of cosmetics use, for example, emphasizes sexual attractiveness to the virtual exclusion of all other aspects of cosmetics' polyvocality.The final chapter on mortuary rites is a major contribution to our understanding of northern Han and Mongol mortuary practices. The data are stellar, providing exemplary detail for an area in which such information has been scant. There are specific contributions on mourning dress and ritual, new information on soul possession and its relation to power in the domestic arena, and an interesting discussion of the fate of spirits under scientific socialism. A very rich case study of an old woman's funeral highlights the ambivalence, contradictions, and general messiness of ideology in practice as family members come to grips with different attitudes toward funeral rites and symbols appropriate to representing status, reputation, and honor.In sum this book is a must for China specialists and highly recommended for scholars of comparative ethnicity, sexuality, and mortuary ritual. It could spark useful discussion in graduate and upper-division undergraduate seminars on methods and gender.
Given their sheer number and evidence for long-term prehistoric occupation, atolls occupy a unique position in the peopling of the Pacific. However, they have frequently been overlooked in favor of larger islands due to a host of logistical and other issues. Once viewed as marginal environments, current research is now showing that small islands like these may have been more attractive to settlers than once thought. A new research program in Micronesia is dedicated to examining atolls to better develop baseline chronologies and investigate long-term human adaptations. As part of the initial stage of the project, we present the first radiocarbon dates (n=10) from Mwoakilloa (Mokil) atoll, which support a continuous occupation beginning between 1700–1560 cal BP (2σ). When compared to the settlement of other atoll groups in Micronesia such as the Marshall Islands—along with the nearby high volcanic islands of Pohnpei and Kosrae at approximately 2000–1800 yr ago—the dates from Mwoakilloa suggest a nearly contemporaneous or only slightly later occupation. The recovery of faunal material also demonstrates the translocation of at least two animals (Pacific rat and dog) to the island by humans that was coeval with early settlement. Additionally, there is evidence of landscape transformation in the form of a relatively large artificial mound created by debris and platform accumulation unseen elsewhere in central-eastern Micronesia, but common to atolls. These new dates reinforce the notion that Mwoakilloa and other atolls are integral to understanding prehistoric adaptations across the vast Pacific, though many questions still remain such as to the degree of interaction that occurred with nearby islands and whether settlement was continuous or intermittent through time.
An airborne LiDAR survey of the Nan Madol World Heritage Site and adjacent Temwen Island revealed a complex, irrigated cultivation system, the first found in the Central and Eastern Caroline Islands. This informs the goals of the sustainable conservation project, funded by the U.S. Department of State Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, that inspired the survey, and expands understanding of Nan Madol and its place in the network of Pacific island interaction and trade. Fieldwork verified the presence, across Temwen, of low, wet, cultivable areas, many of which are connected by water channels or separated by earthen berms. The berms themselves may also have been cultivated. In complexity, labor investment, and organization, the system is comparable to Nan Madol itself, the largest archaeological site in Micronesia, with structures on about 100 artificial islets built of stone and coral on a reef flat. Constructed over a millennium, Nan Madol was the seat of the Saudeleur Dynasty, which persisted from about 1200 to 1600 CE. The cultivation system appears to have been able to provide ample food for consumption, feasting, and redistribution or trade. If the landscape alteration described here proves to date to the time of the Saudeleur Dynasty, it will offer many avenues of research into the economic basis of Nan Madol’s regional dominance.
A recent monograph written by three prominent Korean archaeologists reports on the results of the past 20 years of research on Korean palaeolithic sites. Discussed are tasks completed, projects underway, and suggestions for future work to be done on palaeolithic remains in the Korean Peninsula. Particularly significant is the chapter on the archaeology of the Jǒngok-ni site which has produced many palaeolithic artefacts; among these the excavators find a high percentage of handaxes and other core bifaces, a cultural phenomenon claimed to be unique in East Asian prehistoric technology.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.