The Growth and Collapse of Pacific Island Societies: Archaeological and Demographic Perspectives

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2007

The Growth and Collapse of Pacific Island Societies

Archaeological and Demographic Perspectives

Edited by: Patrick Vinton Kirch and Jean-Louis Rallu

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824864767

Overview
Contents

About this book

Were there major population collapses on Pacific Islands following first contact with the West? If so, what were the actual population numbers for islands such as Hawai‘i, Tahiti, or New Caledonia? Is it possible to develop new methods for tracking the long-term histories of island populations? These and related questions are at the heart of this new book, which draws together cutting-edge research by archaeologists, ethnographers, and demographers.

In their accounts of exploration, early European voyagers in the Pacific frequently described the teeming populations they encountered on island after island. Yet missionary censuses and later nineteenth-century records often indicate much smaller populations on Pacific Islands, leading many scholars to debunk the explorers’ figures as romantic exaggerations. Recently, the debate over the indigenous populations of the Pacific has intensified, and this book addresses the problem from new perspectives.

Rather than rehash old data and arguments about the validity of explorers’ or missionaries’ accounts, the contributors to this volume offer a series of case studies grounded in new empirical data derived from original archaeological fieldwork and from archival historical research. Case studies are presented for the Hawaiian Islands, Mo‘orea, the Marquesas, Tonga, Samoa, the Tokelau Islands, New Caledonia, Aneityum (Vanuatu), and Kosrae.

Author / Editor information

Kirch Patrick Vinton :

Patrick Vinton Kirch is professor of anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
1. Long-Term Demographic Evolution in the Pacific Islands Issues, Debates, and Challenges Patrick V. Kirch and Jean-Louis Rallu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Pre- and Post-Contact Population in Island Polynesia Can Projections Meet Retrodictions? Jean-Louis Rallu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
3. Demography and Food in Early Polynesia Shripad Tuljapurkar, Charlotte Lee and Michelle Figgs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
4. “Like Shoals of Fish” Archaeology and Population in Pre-Contact Hawai‘i Patrick V. Kirch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
5. Modeling Agricultural Development and Demography in Kohala, Hawai‘i Thegn N. Ladefoged and Michael W. Graves Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
6. Paleodemography in Kahikinui, Maui An Archaeological Approach Patrick V. Kirch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
7. Reconstructing Hawaiian Population at European Contact Three Regional Case Studies Ross Cordy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
8. Pre-Contact Population in the ‘Opunohu Valley, Mo‘orea An Integrated Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Approach Brenda K. Hamilton and Jennifer G. Kahn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
9. Estimating the Population of Hokatu Valley, Ua Huka Island (Marquesas, French Polynesia) According to the Archaeological Remains Eric Conte and Tamara Maric Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
10. Archaeological Demography and Population Growth in the Kingdom of Tonga 950 BC to the Historic Era David V. Burley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
11. Protohistoric Samoan Population Roger C. Green Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
12. An Accent on Atolls in Approaches to Population Histories of Remote Oceania Valerie J. Green and Roger C. Green Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
13. Prehistoric Population Growth on Kosrae, Eastern Caroline Islands J. Stephen Athens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
14. Population in a Vegetable Kingdom Aneityum Island (Vanuatu) at European Contact in 1830 Matthew Spriggs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	278
15. What were the Real Numbers? The Question of Pre-Contact Population Densities in New Caledonia Christophe Sand, Jacques Bole and A. Ouetcho Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	306
16. Concluding Remarks Methods, Measures, and Models in Pacific Paleodemography Patrick V. Kirch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	326
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
List of Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	377

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 432
Illustrations
- Other: 71 illus.

eBook

Published: April 30, 2007
ISBN: 9780824864767