Doctoral Dissertation Research: Manihiki and Rakahanga: Persistence on the Margins of Oceania

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

Human populations colonized and transformed many of the Earth's most marginal environments including deserts, mountains, and remote islands. In doing so they encountered unique environmental challenges and altered their behavior and the environment itself to match their cultural ideals and needs. Manihiki and Rakahanga, two remote and resource-poor atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, provide a unique small-scale setting to investigate the ways that human populations transformed and managed marginal environments to create long-term sustainability. The research team will use archaeological methods to investigate the processes of social and environmental transformation that sustained the people of Manihiki and Rakahanga for nearly 1,000 years, while investigating the role that the northern Cook Islands played in the colonization of East Polynesia. By training local assistants in archaeological methods, principles of site preservation, and highly applicable technical skills, this project will also provide local education opportunities, while encouraging the protection of local cultural resources. The completion of this research will result in a time line for human/environmental interaction on the atolls that stretches from island formation, during late-Holocene sea level fall, through to the historic period (roughly 1849 AD). The perspectives of historical ecology and resilience theory will be used to contextualize and explain how the long-term habitation of these atolls was accomplished. Combined, these efforts will facilitate a deep-time understanding of the ways that humans construct landscapes and develop conservation/ management practices that can sustain populations in even the most marginal environments. The results of this research will be shared through presentations and publications aimed at academic audiences, as well as local Cook Islands populations to inform and inspire conversations about local and global challenges regarding landscape management. This research draws from multiple socioecological perspectives. Historical ecology, is a research perspective that accepts the challenges of environmental conditions, while recognizing that humans can manipulate landscapes to create long-term trajectories of continuity and change. Resilience theory offers a complimentary viewpoint that contextualizes the processes that shape landscapes in terms of key social and ecological variables. Combined these frameworks will be used to address the following question: Through what processes and over what time scales have humans transformed and managed marginal or emerging environments to create resilient cultural landscapes? The research team will use archaeological field methods, including the excavation of habitation and resource procurement areas on Manihiki and Rakahanga to identify changing settlement patterns and physical landform alterations (i.e., the construction of horticultural fields). Laboratory analysis of the excavated materials will include zooarchaeological analysis of faunal remains to trace changes in local ecologies and resource use, foraminifera analysis to identify markers of atoll formation, and an extensive AMS radiocarbon dating program to define time spans for events in the landscape trajectories of the atolls. Combined these methods will answer this research question by revealing the long-term patterns of settlement, resource use, and landscape alteration that shaped long-term sustainability on these marginal atolls.