Axes of entanglement in the New Georgia group, Solomon Islands

Thomas, Tim

doi:10.22459/ta51.2019.07

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 22 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…It appears to be of the same type described by Hocart (1931: 301), much prized on Simbo as elsewhere in the New Georgia group. Thomas (2019) discusses the significance of these trade axes, which became objects of ceremonial value. The musket barrel found on the defensive wall at Ivivu, 72 cm long and 3 cm in diametre, is breech‐loading.…”

Section: European Trade Goodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Andrew Cheyne established a trading post on Simbo Island in 1844 (Shineberg, 1971), exchanging items such as iron axe heads for hawksbill turtle shell. The axes soon became an important component of ritualised headhunting (Hocart, 1931; Thomas, 2019). “By the late nineteenth century headhunting and the turtleshell trade were entirely enmeshed, with ongoing feuds and retaliatory raiding” (Walter & Sheppard, 2017: 138).…”

Section: The Ndughore Settlement Landscape In Broader New Georgia Isl...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Irrigation, fortification, and the proto‐historic settlement landscape of the Ndughore Valley, Kolombangara, Western Solomon Islands

Yen

2022

Archaeology in Oceania

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Archaeological sites in the Ndughore Valley of Kolombangara Island in the New Georgia group of the western Solomon Islands were investigated in 1971. The sites include formerly-irrigated pondfield terrace complexes in the valley bottom, ridgetop residential hamlets and specialised ritual sites. The presence of European material culture such as trade beads, clay pipes, glass, a musket barrel and iron axe head all indicate that these sites were occupied and utilised during the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, a turbulent period marked by increased inter-island raiding and head-hunting as well as by trade with Europeans. The residential hamlets and ritual sites are situated in defensible positions on ridgetops, while one site was extensively modified for musket warfare. Ancestor shrines at the residential sites are consistent with a widespread New Georgia cultural tradition, containing shell exchange valuables indicating that the Kolombangara community was linked into a larger exchange network.

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Section: European Trade Goodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Ndughore Settlement Landscape In Broader New Georgia Isl...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Irrigation, fortification, and the proto‐historic settlement landscape of the Ndughore Valley, Kolombangara, Western Solomon Islands

Yen

2022

Archaeology in Oceania

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“…No other record of its use as a dye plant has been found, but S. japonica is well known as a source of yellow dye (Brunello, 1968). Regardless of the specific plants used as dye sources, the reports by Quiros and Yen suggest that blue-dyed barkcloth was previously widely made in the Solomon Islands, and already long before the period of intensive contact and trade with Europeans that began in the 1800s (Richards, 2012;Thomas, 2019;Bayliss-Smith et al, 2019). Yen (1974) recorded Antiaris toxicaria as cultivated in Santa Cruz, and previously used for barkcloth in the Solomon Islands generally, including the islands Anuta and Tikopia.…”

Section: Identifying Dye Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barkcloth from the Solomon Islands in the George Brown Collection. In From Field to Museum—Studies from Melanesia in Honour of Robin Torrence, ed. Jim Specht, Val Attenbrow, and Jim Allen

Richards¹,

Matthews²

2021

Tech. Rep. Aust. Mus., Online

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Historically, barkcloth in Southeast Asia and Oceania has been made using diverse plant species, mostly in the fig plant family (Moraceae). Despite the general use of woven textiles today, barkcloth is still made in some cultural contexts. Here, based on a previously undescribed ethnographic collection from the Solomon Islands, we report new information on an enigmatic local tradition of barkcloth decorated with a blue plant dye. Our immediate aim is descriptive, and to raise awareness of the tradition, but we also note difficulties for identifying the plants used to make barkcloth. Historical questions concerning the origins and spread of barkcloth traditions cannot be answered without better knowledge of their material foundations.Over three decades, from 1879 to 1911, the missionary George Brown visited the Solomon Islands five times and collected 631 ethnographic items that are now stored at the National Museum of Ethnology, Japan. The items include 12 sheets of barkcloth from the western Solomon Islands, most of which appear to be made from fig (Ficus sp.) or breadfruit (Artocarpus sp.). Six from the island of Isabel have distinctive motifs painted with the indigo-blue dye. Only ten examples of blue-dyed barkcloth have been found previously in other museum collections, and these also came from Isabel. In other areas of Southeast Asia and Oceania, paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), is the most commonly used bast fibre source for barkcloth and is associated with the spread of Austronesian-speaking peoples. This plant appears to have had a minor role in the Solomon Islands.

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Ethnographic collections and archaeological research

Flexner

2022

The Oxford Handbook of Museum Archaeology

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Archaeologists increasingly turn to collections labelled ‘ethnography’, ‘ethnology’, or ‘anthropology’ depending on the institution to expand the scope of their research. The reasons for this are varied, from the presence of materials or objects that are unlikely to be discovered on archaeological sites because of rarity or taphonomic conditions, to community-driven interests in objects beyond the typical bounds of what is classified as ‘archaeology’. The pace of this research has increased in recent decades. Archaeologists have emphasized the active, dynamic nature of collections, often using interpretive frameworks derived from actor–network theory or assemblage theory. Looking ahead to the future, archaeologists working with these types of collections will in many cases need to confront the colonial legacies of ethnographic collections by working closely with source communities and becoming involved in different forms of repatriation or restitution activities.

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Axes of entanglement in the New Georgia group, Solomon Islands

Cited by 3 publications

References 22 publications

Irrigation, fortification, and the proto‐historic settlement landscape of the Ndughore Valley, Kolombangara, Western Solomon Islands

Irrigation, fortification, and the proto‐historic settlement landscape of the Ndughore Valley, Kolombangara, Western Solomon Islands

Barkcloth from the Solomon Islands in the George Brown Collection. In From Field to Museum—Studies from Melanesia in Honour of Robin Torrence, ed. Jim Specht, Val Attenbrow, and Jim Allen

Ethnographic collections and archaeological research

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