We report on the reinvestigation of a rockshelter site, Kaupikiawa Rockshelter, situated at Kalaupapa Peninsula on the northern coast of Moloka'i, Hawaiian Islands. Originally excavated in 1967 by R. Pearson, the site was thought to have been occupied for approximately 1,000 years. Keeping excavation to a minimum so as to preserve the remaining in-situ deposits, but using a variety of analytical techniques, including bulk sample sedimentology, sediment micromorphology, faunal analysis, charcoal analysis, and AMS radiocarbon dating, we produce a significant reinterpretation of this site and its cultural sequence. Rather than dating to the Developmental Period, occupation of the site was quite late, falling within the Proto-Historic and Historic Periods of the Hawaiian cultural sequence. These late occupation deposits are underlain by a thin pre-occupation deposit containing charcoal of indigenous Hawaiian dryland forest trees, which accumulated during the Expansion Period. Economic activities of the shelter's occupants are partially revealed through faunal analysis, and included intensive littoral and inshore marine exploitation. This investigation demonstrates the possibilities for reinterpretation of cultural sequences at similar rockshelter sites excavated using generally coarser techniques, during the "culture history" period of Polynesian archaeology.
Key Words: Polynesia; Hawai'i; archaeology; geoarchaeology; environmental change; zooarchaeology; paleoethnobotany
This paper attempts to draw inferences regarding how the cultivation of Cyrtosperma taro spread in Oceania by examining the terms that have been reconstructed for the genus. There have been several different reconstructions of the Proto-Oceanic form for Cyrtosperma taro, namely *(m)pulaka (French-Wright, 1983), *bulaka (Ross, 1996) and *buRaka (Geraghty, 1990). Many of the forms that are presented as their supposed reflexes, however, show irregular sound correspondences and thus the reconstruction, whichever form one takes, is "problematic" (Ross, 1996). In this paper, I will re-examine the forms for Cyrtosperma taro in Oceanic languages, compare the distribution of potentially cognate forms against the cultivation areas of the plant, and draw a scenario as to when the form was innovated and how it developed. I will claim that it is most likely that the form pwulaka (indicating Cyrtosperma taro) first emerged on the high-island(s) of Mirconesia before the population started expanding to the atolls. This is based on the fact that the form for Cyrtosperma taro is reconstructable as *pwulaka for Proto-Chuukic Ponapeic with reflexes showing regular sound correspondences, but is not reconstructable for any earlier protolanguages. The forms observed in languages in Melanesia and Polynesia suggest that they were borrowed from Micronesian languages, rather than inherited from their commonly shared parent language, namely Proto-Oceanic.
Key words: Cyrtosperma taro; lexical comparison; lexical borrowing; Proto-Oceanic; Proto-Chuukic Ponapeic
The chewing of betel nut (Areca catechu) has been a cultural tradition for thousands of years in south and southeast Asia. This custom later spread to Oceania during the Austronesian expansion around 6000 B.P. Although betel stained teeth and remnants of Areca and associated ingredients have been documented from archaeological contexts in Micronesia, the dispersal and antiquity of betel nut in the region has not been synthesized. In this paper we describe the archaeological and paleoenvironmental data for this tradition in western Micronesia and the earliest direct evidence for betel nut chewing in Palau dating to cal. 3000 B.P.
Key words: Areca catechu; betel nut; domesticates; Palau; Micronesia; Austronesian
This study examines how multiracial/multiethnic yonsei (fourth -generation Americans of Japanese ancestry) in Hawai'i challenge the concept of race/ethnicity itself. To understand identity among multiracial/multiethnic yonsei, I first tried to see how monoracial and multiracial/multiethnic yonsei categorize Japanese Americans and others, then compared the criteria used by individuals who interact with each other, and finally tried to see whether such criteria are consciously manipulated. The data from a series of interviews show that the criteria for being Japanese American depend almost solely on whether one has "pure Japanese blood" or at least looks Japanese. Because of these simple and clear criteria for being Japanese American, a number of multiracial/multiethnic yonsei I interviewed have a hard time categorizing themselves with one particular race/ethnicity. Given this restriction by others who supposedly have "pure Japanese blood," "mixed" yonsei tend to refuse to choose just one race/ethnicity. Instead of choosing one race/ethnicity, most multiracial/multiethnic yonsei try to match themselves to multiple races/ethnicities. This micro-processual identification indicates that distinct racial/ethnic ancestries do not necessarily "mix" within the single body of a "mixed" individual; they are rather perpetuated distinctly within the individual body of a multiracial/multiethnic subject. This type of identity among multiracial/multiethnic yonsei implies that even where blending and mixing of races/ethnicities takes place, racial/ethnic boundaries do not blur, nor are they eliminated, but rather are perpetuated within the individual bodies of multiracial/multiethnic yonsei.
Key words: Hawaii'i; race/ethnicity; multiracial/multiethnic; Japanese American; yonsei; mixed
Archaeologists face a growing problem of how to integrate disjointed and often divergent fragments of data to produce meaningful regional models. A case study reviews and articulates a body of otherwise incomplete and potentially misleading site-specific archaeological data from Wainiha Valley in Kaua'i Island (Hawaiian Archipelago) to postulate a cohesive regional settlement pattern and cultural sequence. Continuous human occupation in Wainiha began as early as ca. A.D. 1030 to 1400. During the next centuries, the abundance and spatial extent of archaeological sites are interpreted to have increased, contributing to an archaeological record that consists of a small number of religious sites, extensive agricultural fields over the floor of the valley, at least one small-scale local basalt quarry, and an unknown number of habitation complexes.
Key words: Hawaii; settlement pattern; cultural sequence; regional modeling
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