Vanuatu Flashcards
1
Q
Religion cont
A
- Jumping from last lecture
1.1 Brush ground will have good yam harvest - Yam grow on vines and will dig them out of the ground when ready
2
Q
Kava Drinking
A
- Originated in Vanuatu
- Piper methysticum
- Sedating drink
3.1 More you take it, more you are sensitive to it (Turns on receptors in body)
3.2 Tastes bitter (Dirt/medicine)
3.3 Drink whole thing and lips/tongue go numb and just sit there where rest of you goes numb
3.3.1 Start to salivate and part of tradition is spitting (Spit is connecting people to ancestors) - Drunk as part of social ritual
- Originally chewed roots
5.1 Wet roots more syrupy and strong
5.2 Dry roots will be lighter (Fijian) - What it looks like and how prepared
6.1 Looks like spider legs; Heart shaped leaves; Either dry it or keep fresh, grind it on stone, add water and squeeze it through hibiscus or some other fiber like cheesecloth
3
Q
Vanuatu Nakamal’s
A
- House where you drink kava
- Like a bar where you pay money to get a cup of kava
2.1 Go to trough to drink and spit it out
2.2 Then go to another building to sit in sedation
4
Q
Kava drinking outside of Vanuatu
A
- Ritualized (Culturally expedited to other islands)
- Part of chiefly system
- Integrated into social ritual
3.1 Fiji (Chief one end and guest other end; Drink by hierarchy)
3.2 Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Pohnpei, Other places - Vanuatu regular places (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa for chiefs meeting)
5
Q
Teouma Cemetery (Lapita)
A
- Kava drinking after Lapita
1.1 Looking for it in dental remains - First (most detailed) Lapita site found in Vanuatu
2.1 Carefully excavated by bio archaeologists
2.1.1 Found when using bulldozer to make shrimp pond
2.1.2 Cut into ground and Lapita pot fell out
2.2 All skulls removed from bodies
2.3 Placed in pots
6
Q
Teouma Cemetery (Efate) Valentine et al 2015
A
- 7 skulls available for analysis
- PCA available
- Grouped with “Polynesians” “China” and “Micronesia”
- Looking at shape of skulls
4.1 Lots of diversity but Teouma ones inside grouped above (Not like Australians, Melanesians)
4.2 Probably from SE Asia and Taiwan (Group with modern Chinese not ancient Chinese)
7
Q
Lipson et al 2018
A
- Analysis of ancient DNA from Teouma skeletons
- Comparison to modern DNA
2.1 Suggests multiple migrations (Two migrations most likely)
2.2 Population of Lapita genetically different from modern niVanuatu
8
Q
Vanuatu Archaeology
A
- Jose Garanger (1972)
- Efate Island
- Mangaasi Pottery
3.1 Incised designs (No stamping like Lapita pottery he was looking for)
3.2 Unknown origin until recently
3.3 Derived from Lapita
3.4 Misplaced Jomon pottery, from Japan!
3.4.1 Ancient Japan; Ancient ship? Nobody figured it out for very long time ~15 years (Cleared up another scientist brought Jomon pottery to lab with Mangaasi pottery and left it there)
9
Q
Mangaasi Pottery
A
- Round globular jars with simple neck
- Sometimes jar with no neck
- Difference compared to Lapita
3.1 Changed with less steep sides
3.2 Not as decorated
3.3 Mangaasi are just cooking pots for food (Lapita for display)
3.4 Descended from Lapita in shape but not use (Utilitarian wear)
10
Q
Vanuatu Transitions
A
- Ponamla and Ifo (Erromango) and Malakula: Lapita ca 3000 BP
- 2000 BP (Mangaasi pottery; Plainware pottery)
- 500 BP
3.1 Decorated pottery with incising, relief, appliqué
3.2 Pig tusk artifacts appear - First migration bring pottery; second migration bring pigs
4.1 Larger group of people from PNG and greater cultural presence than Lapita people
11
Q
Post-Lapita life in Vanuatu
A
- Lapita era: Coastal, nucleated settlements
- Later (500 BP) expansion into leeward islands, interiors
- Island ceramics unique — not much contact
- Yam garden, Vanuatu
4.1 See coast but in interior of island with teepee like cage over it
4.2 Interior land to find good ground for growing
12
Q
Landscape Change: Focus on Agriculture
A
- Post 500 BP: Focus on yam harvesting
1.1 Cut forest to make space
1.2 Cut trees and burn them so charcoal and erosion of root structure and big rain soil erode and wash down stream - Aneityum island
2.1 Charcoal deposits
2.2 Degraded landscape and alluvium fill
2.2.1 Fill in valleys with new soil type for crops
2.2.2 New garden and landscape fills/soil
2.3 Construction of irrigation canals
2.4 Linked to growing chiefly social structure
2.5 5 m settlement and logs underneath
13
Q
Sociopolitical Change: Chiefdom ca 650 BP
A
Intrusive (People other places came to Vanuatu and started own communities)
14
Q
Sociopolitical Change: Roy Mata burial
A
- Slab burial with several dozen human sacrifices
1.1 Probably alive when buried, drugged with kava, wrapped and buried (Know because looks like pushing and struggling) - Shell valuables (Arm bands and breast plate)
- Possible intruding community from elsewhere
- Bundle burial of father and when son died put them together (Bundle burial is when wrapped in material)
15
Q
Polynesian Outliers
A
- Communities that speak Samoan and Tongan languages and colonized islands after Lapita (Some islands had people on them and some empty)
- Backmigrated to recolonize islands there
- ~500 years ago (Maybe not enough space)
- On fringe islands in Solomons, Vanuatu, New Caledonia
- Languages are not local — derived from Tongan/Samoan (Intrusive chiefdoms)
- Often new culture replaced earlier Non-Austronesians
- Anuta and Tikopia
7.1 2900 BP Lapita like pottery
7.2 2000 BP links to Vanuatu/Banks Islands
7.3 800 BP new culture appears with Samoan/Tongan style artifacts. Diet also changes
