Post-Lapita Fiji: cultural transformation in the mid-sequence

Abstract

This dissertation examines the little known cultural changes that occurred In Fiji during the 1500 years between the end of Lapita and the late prehistoric era - a period of time termed here the 'mid-sequence’. During this interval the relatively homogeneous proto Polynesian Lapita culture of Fiji developed a complex pattern of human variation which differentiated It from West Polynesia and linked Fiji with the greater cultural diversity found in Melanesia. This thesis charts, through in-depth analysis of ceramics gathered primarily from two field excavations (Navatu 17A and Ugaga Island) and one museum collection (Karobo VL H3/1),the Importance of Internal processes as drivers for Fiji's cultural development. While external contacts clearly did take place, the ceramic evidence Indicates it did not dominate mid- sequence events In Fiji. It suggests that social contact between communities within the archipelago was likely to have reached its low point earlier than previously thought-between 2300 and 1900 BP, or about 400 years after the demise of Lapita. It further finds that after a relatively short period of social Isolation, the mid-sequence was a time, largely, of dynamic regional networks - indicating that a cohesive archipelago-focused community was developing. Such regional networks were likely to have formed the basis of the complex and formal social structures of the late prehistoric period In Fiji, and of the Inter-archipelago networks that linked Fiji with Its Pacific neighbours. Finally, it suggests that the differentiation of Fiji from other archipelagoes began soon after the end of Lapita, and that the type of mid-sequence interaction in Fiji was closer to that reconstructed for the post-Lapita period of Tonga and Samoa than the kind of localised interaction found in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Show more