Nature‐society interactions in the pacific islands

Nunn, Patrick D.

doi:10.1111/j.0435-3684.2003.00144.x

Cited by 35 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…catchment did not start until AD 1640 (Horrocks et al, 2015). These results are compatible with a heterogeneous pattern of land use and occupation prior to the European contact (Stevenson et al, 2015), with a conspicuous pattern of coastal abandonment toward inland/upland settlements, which was characteristic of many eastern Pacific archipelagos during the same times (Nunn, 2003(Nunn, , 2007.…”

supporting

confidence: 67%

Three Millennia of Climatic, Ecological, and Cultural Change on Easter Island: An Integrative Overview

et al. 2016

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supporting

confidence: 67%

Three Millennia of Climatic, Ecological, and Cultural Change on Easter Island: An Integrative Overview

et al. 2016

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“…Stevenson et al (2015) suggest that the AC-BC cultural transition was associated with reductions in land-use intensity in the drier sectors of the island and in infertile soils from upland areas, which increased land pressure in other parts of the island. Similar intra-island migrations, notably from coastal to inland sites, have been reported for many other Pacific islands by the same LIA times (Nunn, 2003(Nunn, , 2007Nunn et al, 2007). From a paleoecological perspective, a continuous and coherent Kao record similar to those of Raraku and Aroi is essential to resolve deforestation trends and patterns over time and across space, in relation to cultural developments.…”

Section: An Alternative Scenariosupporting

confidence: 57%

CLAFS, a Holistic Climatic-Ecological-Anthropogenic Hypothesis on Easter Island's Deforestation and Cultural Change: Proposals and Testing Prospects

et al. 2018

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This paper reviews the existing hypotheses concerning the cultural shift from the Ancient Cult (AC) to the Birdman Cult (BC) that occurred on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) during the last millennium and introduces a holistic new hypothesis called CLAFS (Climate-Landscape-Anthropogenic Feedbacks and Synergies), which considers a variety of potential drivers of cultural change and their interactions. The CLAFS hypothesis can be tested with future paleoecological studies on new sedimentary sequences such as the new continuous and coherent record encompassing the last millennium from Rano Kao (KAO08-03) using a combination of pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP), charcoal, and fecal lipid analyses, at decadal to multidecadal resolution. The Kao record should be compared with other continuous records of the last millennium available for the two other freshwater bodies of the island, Rano Aroi and Rano Raraku, to obtain an island-wide perspective of spatio-temporal deforestation patterns in relation to climatic shifts and human activities. The CLAFS hypothesis predicts that the shift from the AC to the BC was associated with the drying out and deforestation of Rano Raraku (the center of the AC) by ∼1,570 CE, followed by human migration to Rano Kao (the social center of the BC), where freshwater and forests were still available. Under the CLAFS scenario, this migration would have occurred by ∼1,600 CE. Findings to the contrary would require modification and refinement, or outright rejection, of the CLAFS hypothesis and the consideration of alternate hypotheses compatible with new paleoecological evidence. Regardless the final results, archeological evidence will be required to link climatic and ecological events with cultural developments.

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“…In 1997, Kirch specifically questioned Nunn's 'curious, and to our mind unfounded, assertion that most writers have attributed environmental change on Pacific islands to human impact' (Kirch 1997a:15, referencing Nunn 1991. Nunn (2003) acknowledges but clearly fails to understand Kirch's point here.…”

Section: Introduction: the Distorted History Of An Ideamentioning

confidence: 94%

“…If we are to believe Patrick Nunn, for instance, the 'orthodoxy' among Pacific archaeologists has always been (and indeed remains today) that human acts have shaped Pacific environments to the exclusion of natural factors (Nunn 1991(Nunn , 2001(Nunn , 2003(Nunn , 2007cf. Kumar et al 2006:141).…”

Section: Introduction: the Distorted History Of An Ideamentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Haberle¹,

Stevenson²,

Prebble³

2010

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terra australis 32Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for South-East Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. Copyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2009. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Among saltbush greyer than seaweed we boardwalk the yeasting waves of the old golden-perch pond. List of volumes in Terra AustralisRabbit dung dots a lake bottom dry since their coming -only once, last century, after seven inches of rain a farmer had to rescue his sheep by boat.The roo bounces down-slope, a brown branch crackling.The professor's eye, noting the local runoff and what the westerlies do, observes seas that rush in and out of a continent's middle, salt lakes spreading and emptying, hills pimpling up and down with cartoon-like speed, or gullying themselves into extinction, rainforests and deserts zipping back and forth like Tom and Jerry. A human mouse plague swiftly swarms, perhaps soon gone.Impermanent planet. Impermanent surface. All under air and water. The lunette is a wave, a dumper of sand, a collapsing tower in the mad rabbit years when its top blew off and old bones winked through, with a vault's worth of fine stone cores.Once so simply mislaid in sand, now so obligingly sluiced out to the un-subincised world that smiles at stone knives. terra australis 32Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes v You might as well offer your table knife to a carpenter.Cane grass and the Dreamtime's stone fight the eroding rivulets together. In today's rare downpour each lost core, or blunted scraper crowns some tiny eroding hillock, plops its anchor in the dissolving silts.The bettong whose skin took off the stone tool's edge has vanished -sacrifice to future fertility.Through the softening soil Homo sapiens's skeleton bumps up like a carp's back.Waits for the wind to shave it off in pieces.A D-section and a ti...

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Nature‐society interactions in the pacific islands

Cited by 35 publications

References 24 publications

Three Millennia of Climatic, Ecological, and Cultural Change on Easter Island: An Integrative Overview

Three Millennia of Climatic, Ecological, and Cultural Change on Easter Island: An Integrative Overview

CLAFS, a Holistic Climatic-Ecological-Anthropogenic Hypothesis on Easter Island's Deforestation and Cultural Change: Proposals and Testing Prospects

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

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