Mangareva: Vulnerability and Resilience in a Polynesian Socioecosystem

The Mangareva Islands (aka Gambier Islands) of southeastern Polynesia are a small archipelago of fourteen islands encompassed by an expansive lagoon and barrier reef. The traditional Polynesian culture had been documented through “salvage ethnography” by the Bishop Museum in the 1930s; however, little archaeological research had been conducted there prior to 2000. Beginning in 2001, an international and interdisciplinary team led by Patrick Kirch and Eric Conte organized an initial field project, demonstrating the substantial archaeological potential of the islands. Subsequently, four additional field seasons through 2014, involving twelve collaborators (both archaeologists and natural scientists) from several institutions, have greatly advanced our understand of the long-term cultural and ecological history of these fascinating islands. The team excavated at three main sites: a dune site on Taravai Island, and two rockshelters on Agakauitai and Kamaka Islands respectively. The deep, well-stratified archaeological sequences span the period from initial Polynesian arrival (ca. AD 900-1000) up to early European contact, yielding abundant artifacts as well as faunal and floral remains.

This volume synthesizes the key results from these excavations, integrating the archaeological and ecological data with the perspectives of resilience theory and niche construction theory. The authors present a host of data showing how one of Eastern Polynesia’s unique socioecosystems evolved through human-environment interactions over some eight millennia. Among the major changes were transformations of the islands’ vegetation from native forest to managed gardens and open fern and grasslands, a precipitous decline in seabird populations, and eventual extinction of an endemic land snail biota. These changes created a unique ecological inheritance requiring cultural adaptations. Despite the major transformations of the terrestrial environment, the rich marine resources of Mangareva’s extensive lagoon and reefs contributed a significant element of resilience. This volume will be of interest not only to archaeologists and anthropologists of the Pacific, but to natural scientists concerned with how island ecosystems are modified through long-term human actions.

• Patrick Vinton Kirch, Editor

  Patrick Vinton Kirch is professor of anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

• Guillaume Molle, Editor

  Guillaume Molle is professor of archaeology at the University of French Polynesia and director of the CIRAP (International Center for Archaeological Research in Polynesia).

• This volume offers a comprehensive and richly documented examination of Mangarevan settlement and environmental history from initial colonization into the historic era. Through an impressive synthesis of archaeological, ecological, and ethnographic evidence, the essays provide new insight into adaptation, resilience, and human-environment interaction in southeast Polynesia. Setting a high standard for archaeological scholarship for Oceania, this landmark study will be of enduring importance to archaeologists, anthropologists, and scholars of island societies worldwide.
  —David Burley, Simon Fraser University