Description
The Massim region of Papua New Guinea has been the focus of intensive ethnographic interest for over a century because of sociocultural practices and maritime economies that connect island populations, including the famed Kula ring. Ethnographic models of Kula have been critiqued as ahistorical and heavily influenced by colonial interventions. This volume explores the long-term history of Massim maritime economies from a predominantly archaeological perspective, but draws on ethnographic, linguistic and biomolecular information. Maritime economies have connected islands for at least 17,000 years, with parallels to historically documented networks emerging over the last 3000 years. The Massim region can be considered as a network of decentralized, micro-world economies that frequently overlapped, were shaped by local value systems, clan affiliations, and defined by strategic advantages of location, natural resources and technologies. Maritime interaction in the Massim shaped cultural and linguistic diversity, providing a comparative case study for maritime economies globally.
Table of Contents
1. The Massim islands in time and space; 2. Framing the Massim as an economic region; 3. Modelling deep time histories of the Massim; 4. Formative economies on the fringes of the known world (17000 to 8000 years); 5. Frontier economies of a multi-cultural island world (8,000 to 3,000 BP); 6. Fluctuating economies in an island world and the coming of Lapita (3000 to 1200 years) 7. Flourishing economies of opportunity (1200 to 300 years); 8. Flexible economies of war and peace (Past 300 years); 9. Local histories, global narratives, and the next frontier; References.
