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An archaeology of West Polynesian prehistory.

Article Excerpt
By Anita Smith. Terra Australis 18, 2002. Pandanus Books, Australian National University, Canberra. ISBN 1 74076 019 0. Pp. 229. AUD65.

In this volume Anita Smith re-examines the dominant paradigm of the early archaeology of West Polynesia, arguing that, constructed within a "framework of Polynesian ethnogenesis'" (p. 1), it is dominated by research into Polynesian origins and the subsequent colonisation of East Polynesia. On an analogy with biological evolution, the dominant paradigm is that current Polynesian populations/languages/cultures are descended from a common stock--the Ancestral Polynesian Society (APS). This is based on an assumption that the established relationships between Polynesian languages will be reflected in material culture and social customs--West Polynesian plainware assemblages are the archaeological correlate of the proto-Polynesian language. "Ancestral Polynesian Society is not an archaeological construct, but one assumed on the basis of linguistic evidence to have a historical reality" (p. 7). For Smith the point has been reached where the archaeological data is no longer in agreement with the linguistic model. It tells a different story, one that she sets out to tell.

This rationale for reassessing West Polynesian prehistory is set out in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 outlines the historical background of archaeological research in West Polynesia, examining how the dominant...