Dissertation Research: Prehistoric Agriculture in the Society Islands

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Under the direction of Dr. Patrick Kirch, Ms Dana Lepofsky, a graduate student at the University of California/Berkeley, will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Her research focusses on the prehistory of the Society Island group in Polynesia and she will conduct extensive survey and limited excavation in a variety of environmental zones on several islands. In particular, her work will focus on the development of agriculture and her survey will note the position of agricultural fields and associated structures such as irrigation canals. Limited excavation will provide radiocarbon samples for absolute dating. The relationship with habitation sites and monuments will also be noted. In a second aspect of the project MS Lepofsky will examine the relationship between agriculture and environmental change to determine the extent to which agricultural practices are first responsible for, and secondly responsive to upland erosion which resulted from deforestation. With these data MS Lepofsky should be able to trace the development of prehistoric agriculture over time. Oceanic anthropologists are extremely interested in the extreme variation in social complexity observed on different Polynesian islands. In some cases large and complex chieftainships developed while in others groups remained relatively small and egalitarian. This situation has provided an excellent test case to examine the processes which underlay cultural development. The model most widely accepted today links development to environment and the nature of the agricultural system employed; it postulates that the development of intensive agricultural systems are necessary for advanced degrees of social complexity. From this perspective the Society Islands are of particular interest because ethnographic data indicates considerable complexity but little agricultural intensification. Ms Lepofsky's research will determine if, in fact, this is the case. This research is important for several reasons. The Society Islands are not archaeologically well known and the results of this work will interest a large number of researchers. It will shed light on the relationship between agricultural practice and soil erosion in Pacific island settings and on the processes which underlay the development of complex societies. It will also assist in the training of a promising young scientist.