AWA: Academic Writing at Auckland

Polynesian domesticates are fast becoming a valuable area of study in the pacific region. Over the past ten years ground breaking research on various domesticate species has shed a new light on old theories of how islands of the pacific were settled, and created new theories on the development of Polynesian culture and society. Domesticate use has been found and documented on most islands of the pacific and here this essay will discuss the various analytical techniques that archaeologists deploy to better understand the role that domesticate species such as the pig, dog and chicken play in the islands of Polynesia. These techniques have been used across many areas of study from animal husbandry practices, to inter-specific competition, to the dietary role domesticates played, and lastly translocation patterns of domesticates. The current state of play of archaeology in this area of Polynesian life has fast become a molecular and atomic science yet still kept its old methods of bone counts and morphology. And although there have been changes in the frameworks and types of questions being asked due to the increased accuracy and strength of modern research there are still limitations and potential for improvements in the future all of which will be discussed in further detail later in this essay.

Animal husbandry research

There has been a lot of work done over recent years on animal husbandry practices in Polynesia. The majority of which is based around the pig (Giuffra et al., 2000; Allen et al., 2001; Larson et al., 2007; West, 2007; Shaw, 2009). Though no general rule has been developed yet to encompass the whole of Polynesia, research on specific islands has given hints to types of practices used. There is research currently investigating what role husbandry had in initial colonization’s of islands which has general debate between two ideas; one that Polynesians brought pigs with them and then released them to become feral for the ease of only hunting them and not having to care for them, and two, did they bring them and keep them under firm control from day one as a fully domesticated species (West, 2007). There is little evidence on this today, feral and domesticate species have both been found on the islands of Polynesia (West, 2007). One of the few emerging debates is from age estimates and strontium isotope levels on Hanamiai. These argue for the later that pigs were kept domesticated all through the peopling of Hanamiai.

Current research has found that pig specimens recovered on Hanamiai all tended to be in their sub-adult to young adult stage of maturation even in the earliest stages of colonization (West, 2007). This is a typical husbandry practice used because people discovered pigs can be used as storage vessels for their agricultural surplus. As they grow they store all the surplus food they are fed as fat but as they become adults they stop growing and absorbing all the food and instead it passes through them which is, in a storage sense, wasteful therefore people eat them before this to gain maximum benefit of what they feed their pigs (West, 2007). Also strontium isotope studies show pigs were under firm control with vast differences in diet shown between feral and domesticated specimens (West, 2007). This distinction means that domesticated pigs were routinely fed by humans and thus solely dependable on them they do not forage like their feral relatives, unlike the domestic dog which has a closer diet to its feral ‘brothers’ meaning it foraged for some of its food too (West, 2007). Other evidence of husbandry practices used is bone marrow isotope studies of general diet showing a change in penning area over time moving from coastal areas to further inland which is possibly thought to relate to religion (West, 2007). And a last type of husbandry practice comes later in time with the introduction of the Euro-American pigs. mtDNA traces a practice of crossbreeding of the pacific pig Sus and Euro-American pigs (Allen et al., 2001; Giuffra et al., 2000) to create new pig types with more advantageous qualities. However it is not proven whether this was a forced upon by the Polynesians or the Europeans (Giuffra et al., 2000). Lots of new techniques have been used in the area of animal husbandry in Polynesia and as a result archaeologists are building a comprehensive library of animal husbandry practices however it is still relatively island-specific and not yet able to apply to Polynesia as a whole.

Inter-specific competition research

There are many types of inter-specific competitions that have been found to occur on the islands of Polynesia during the colonization of humans and subsequently their introduction of domesticates (pig, dog, and chicken). And there are two types found that specifically relate to domesticates. The first type is between domesticates and the native fauna (Steadman et al., 2002) and the second type is between domesticates and humans (Giovas, 2006). An old technique used by anthropologists which still bears use today is archaeological faunal bone counts. This has been used on islands and shown that early in human arrival there was a drop in native fauna numbers and even extinctions that occurred which compliments a rise in domesticate numbers over time (Kirch and Conte, 2007). Though this technique is limited in defining what caused the decline in native species (humans or domesticates) the specimens are not just found in human camp fires, suggesting domesticates probably played a role in native population decline, either via direct predator prey competition or competition for resources (Steadman et al., 2002).

The second type of inter-specific competition is found a little while after introduction of domesticate species to the islands in archaeological pig assemblages (Giovas, 2006). During the period of pacific settlement pigs were a fully domesticated species (West, 2007) meaning humans had complete control of their survival on the islands and pigs were most of the time dependent on humans for food. Pigs have a similar diet to humans and could be fed agricultural surplus (West, 2007) but this meant that in times of agricultural hardship humans could not feed themselves and their pigs too. Archaeological pig assemblages show that on certain islands such as Mangareva there is a large amount of pig skeletons that died around roughly the same time meaning a dramatic decline and possible extinction of pig populations on this island (Giovas, 2006). If this were due to disease then this lack of pigs would have been temporary as Polynesians could have traded for pigs from other islands but they did not meaning this must have been intentional extirpation of pigs (Giovas, 2006). This technique does not tell archaeologists much about why this occurred (perhaps resource stress or religion (Giovas, 2006)) only what occurred. But increasing research into cross island comparisons are showing a trend in pig numbers on islands pointing out that generally the smaller, more marginal, and further an island is from southeast Asia the less pigs it will contain (Giovas, 2006). This means that it is a question of environmental sustainability. Mangareva is a relatively impoverished island unable to maintain pig and human populations and this provides valuable archaeological clues that extirpation of pigs on Mangareva was caused by inter-specific competition between humans and pigs for resources (Giovas, 2006).

Polynesian diet research

Another area of domesticate research is their role in the diet of the Polynesians. Polynesian diet seem to show a temporal trend from initial consumption of native species upon settlement of a new island toward a diet consisting more of domesticate species such as pig, dog and chicken later in time. The evidence that is leading to these conclusions now are analysis of archaeological sites that show decrease in native bird remains and increase in domesticates remains, the most prominent example being the chicken which shows that the shift in diet was not a move away from avian species but a move away from native species (Steadman et al., 2002; Giovas, 2006; Kirch and Conte, 2008). Albeit the bird remains do not show much evidence of butchery since tool assistance is not as necessary to dismember avian species, other factors clearly mark out the contexts they are found in as cultural (Steadman et al., 2002). Carbon dating backs this up showing the temporal decline/extinction of some native terrestrial island species too (Steadman et al., 2002). This type of research leads anthropologists to the common beliefs that Polynesians took advantage of the new environments that they settled by consuming much of the naïve native fauna. Then as the native populations declined Polynesians had to shift their diet to other forms of sustenance such as the domesticate species they had brought with them (Steadman et al., 2002; 23).

Although there is an over all trend in dietary shifts to domesticates, it is questionable if this is a trend seen within populations. Isotope studies of bone collagen show that Polynesian men and women generally had the same diet (Valentin et al., 2006) but there are discrepancies found in Polynesia between social class diets and between inter-island diets (Kirch and O’Day, 2003; West, 2007; Kirch and Conte, 2008). Islands such as Hanamiai have isotope studies of humans showing that pork was a large protein source exploited by the people that became used more as they shifted their diet away from marine resources to focus on agriculture and husbandry intensification (West, 2007). Then in the later stages of Hanamiai settlement they became increasingly used for religious butchery purposes too (West, 2007). However on Mangareva and Hawaii pig bones are scarce in the fossil record suggesting they were not very abundant, and the locations they are found in are also peculiar; areas include predominantly religious sites and marae (Kolb, 1999; Kirch and Conte, 2008). Bone count evidence on Hawaii shows that 19% of skeletal specimens with signs of a sacrificial death are pigs, followed by dogs at only 2% (Kolb, 1999: 8). Pig deaths on Mangareva and Hawaii were very religiously orientated resulting in variation in diets with higher status individuals (i.e. religious leaders) obtaining more pork from the sacrifices they made (Kirch and O’Day, 2003). It is thought now to also have resulted in the increased belief of pigs being a restricted food for the elite and ritual purposes (Kolb, 1999; Kirch and Conte, 2008).

Pigs are found all over Polynesia, particularly in religious sites showing that they had a significant place in Polynesian religion. Crossing the data from two island examples archaeologists can deduct there are differences in pork consumption across the pacific which can, again, be related to Giovas (2006) theory of pig sustainability on small, far away islands. Hanamiai is a relatively close economically resourceful island able to maintain pig populations which is why pig is such a large part of the general populations’ diet. Contrary, Mangareva and Hawaii are further away and less able to receive and sustain (evident in the inter-specific competition) pigs therefore they became more of a luxury food (Giovas, 2006; West, 2007) which inevitably had a social impact by only being obtainable by those with enough money. Ultimately current archaeological research is using faunal assemblage proportions to try and show domestic pig consumption trends across Polynesia and finding that differential use is probably due to comparability of island ecosystems.

Domesticate translocations research

Domesticate translocations in the pacific has become a prominent area of study over the past ten years. Anthropologists believe these can give good insights to the directions of human migration and the amount of mobility and trade that occurred between island populations (Shaw, 2009). The most studied of domesticates again appears to be the pig (Sus) originally morphometric data i.e. molar measurements and cranial morphology was used to taxonomically determine the different species origins (Larson et al., 2007) but this method has taken a back seat now to supplement rising genetic techniques mainly mtDNA which can determine family relationships (Allen et al., 2001; Larson et al., 2007). These techniques are now used to establish species origins and cross breeding i.e. documenting the changes that occurred in pigs upon arrival of European contact (Allen et al., 2001). The results of these methods seem to show an East Asian origin of pacific pig with a general west to east movement across the pacific around the time of Lapita (Larson et al., 2007). But these techniques give clues into the migrations of these species but not what regular mobility and trade network patterns were like. Another technique that can be used here is strontium isotope analysis (Shaw, 2009). The particular isotopes analyzed are absorbed during the early stages of the life cycle into the tooth enamel as the tooth is developing, where it remains permanently. These results are specific to particular islands as each island has its own strontium ratios. Thereby archaeologists can avoid ethics issues in destroying human remains by determining where ancient Polynesian domesticate animals traveled and see where they were moved to, thus inferring human movement and contact (Shaw, 2009). But this technique is still in its early phases and has yet to be used to create an entire pacific interaction model.

Current state of play

Polynesian domesticate history is becoming an increasingly detailed story. And with the huge leaps in science recently been made, many new archaeological techniques have been developed and now a wide range of different types of data is being analyzed and used to interpret the archaeological remains. Currently archaeologists are still using various bone analyses methods like age of specimen death for determining husbandry practices, number of bones and location found to infer inter-specific competition and dietary preference, and skeletal morphology to determine translocations. They are also using new methods of stable isotope ratios to trace domesticate translocations, and trace diets of domesticates and humans to show husbandry and dietary practices. And lastly current archaeological research is moving into genetics looking at mtDNA to find domesticate origins. 

New frameworks have also been introduced with the development of the new technology. Archaeologists are now theorizing that husbandry was an integral part of early domesticate introduction, at least on some islands. And the occurrences of rapid domesticate decline are being incorporated into a developing an over arching theory of all the Polynesian islands about the economic limitations to sustaining domesticate populations based on island size, ecology and accessibility from Southeast Asia. However new questions have been opened as a result of new technology like how human extirpation of pigs was conducted, actively killing or passively letting them die, and how much did domesticates cause native species decline in comparison to the Polynesians themselves. But over all we see a general shift to the idea that domesticate histories can give us the information we want to know about human origins in the pacific and this is popularized by the fact that animal data is usually much easier to obtain then human data.

Strengths, limitations and Potential future directions

With new archaeological techniques has come increased accuracy of data that is less dependent on human opinion. Genetic and isotope studies have also allowed archaeologists to see things they never could before such as family relations amongst pigs and relationships between domesticates and the islands they matured on. However, despite the improvements on the old techniques there are still limitations to Polynesian research. Isotope study is not an exact science with still lots of possibilities for misinterpreted results at this stage. There are also a lot of incomplete documentations of species density and distributions on the islands of Polynesia (Storey, 2008) which provide a mosaic of information that archaeologists have to sort through which can be very time consuming.

So far archaeology in the pacific has been limited to scarce areas of research. Although a wide range of methods have been developed many are still in their early stages of use with only a few islands that have been extensively researched. Perhaps in future the focus could be on obtaining data sets from more islands to start building up stronger inter-island theories to get a better picture of trends across the pacific which could help in understanding Polynesian social development, or this could possibly be geared towards looking at the effect that environment has on the development of culture. Another area that could be focused on is the dog since the majority of domesticate research appears to be focused around the pig. Archaeologists could look at similarities or discrepancies between pig and dog use on islands which could help in understanding the issues of why pigs became so important in Polynesian religion.

Conclusion

Research in the pacific is a growing area of study that is developing as new technologies develop too. There has been a huge shift over recent years to focusing on domesticate species like the pig, dog and chicken which are now considered to be valuable indicators that can infer human behaviour in the pacific region. They can do this by showing archaeologists how the Polynesians approached animal husbandry. They can also show how Polynesians approached inter-specific competition encountered on their islands, their certain dietary preferences over time, and what types of migrations, inter-island communications, and relationships were made and maintained by the Polynesian people. The current state of play is based around old methods of faunal bone counts and bone locations but also encompasses modern technology of stable isotopes and mtDNA studies. All of which have all helped in creating new frameworks for the pacific and despite all these methods having strengths and limitations they nonetheless all have potential in future research.

Resources

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Giovas M.. 2006. No pig atoll: island biogeography and the extirpation of Polynesian domesticates. Asian perspectives. 45 (1): 69-95

Giuffra E., Kijas J., Amarger V., Carlborg O., Jeon J., Anderson L.. 2000. The origin of the domestic pig: independent domestication and subsequent introgression. Genetics society of America. 24: 1786-1791

Kirch P., O’Day S.. 2003. New archaeological insights into food and status: a case study from pre-contact Hawaii. World archaeology. 34 (3): 484-497

Kirch P., Conte E.. 2008. One thousand years of human environmental transformation in the Gambier islands (French Polynesia). Terra Australis29. 38: 253-264

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Shaw B., Summerhayes G., Buckley H., Baker J.. 2009. The use of strontium isotopes as an indicator of migration in human and pig Lapita populations in the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. Journal of archaeological science. 36: 1079-1091

Steadman D., Pregill G., Burley D.. 2002. Rapid prehistoric extinction of iguanas and birds in Polynesia. PNAS. 99 (6): 3673-3677

Storey A., Ladefoged T., Matisso-Smith E.. 2008. Counting your chickens: Density and distribution of chicken remains in archaeological sites of oceania. International journal of osteoarchaeology. 18: 240-261

Valentin F., Bocherens H., Gratuze B., Sand C.. 2006. Dietary patterns during the late prehistoric/historic period in Cikobia island (Fiji): insights from stable isotopes and dental pathologies. Journal of archaeological science. 33: 1396-1410

West E. 2007. An archaeological investigation of pig husbandry on Tahuata island, Marqueses, French Polynesia. PhD diss. University of Hawai’i.