Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T09:40:27.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prehistoric stone monuments in the northern region of the Kula Ring

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Simon H. Bickler
Simon H. Bickler*
Affiliation:
Auckland, New Zealand (Email: archaeology@bickler.co.nz)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The system of exchange known as the Kula ring practised in recent times by the Trobriand Islanders has provided a powerful model for anthropology, but its roots in prehistory have remained elusive. Focusing on the island of Woodlark, the author and his team have surveyed the stone monuments which characterise the region and here assign them a date and social context. In them, they see evidence for prehistoric chiefdoms anticipating those studied by Malinowski.

Keywords

Papua New GuineaMegalithic monumentsKula ring
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 307 , 1 March 2006 , pp. 38 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, J. 1977. Fishing for wallabies: trade as a mechanism for social interaction and elaboration on the central Papuan Coast, in Friedman, J. & Rowlands, M.J. (ed.) The evolution of social systems: 419–55. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Allen, J. 1984. Pots and poor princes: a multidimensional approach to the role of pottery trading in coastal Papua, in van der Leeuw, S.E. & Pritchard, A.C. (ed.) The many dimensions of pottery: ceramics in archaeology and anthropology: 407–63. Amsterdam: Instituut voor Prae– en Protohistorie, University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Allen, J. 1985. Comments on complexity and trade: a view from Melanesia. Archaeology in Oceania 20: 49–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austen, L. 1939. Megalithic structures in the Trobriand Islands. Oceania 10: 30–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickler, S.H. 1997. Early pottery exchange along the south coast of Papua New Guinea. Archaeology in Oceania 32: 11–22.Google Scholar
Bickler, S.H. 1998. Eatingstone and dying: archaeological survey on Woodlark Island, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.Google Scholar
Bickler, S.H., & Ivuyo, B. 2002. Megaliths of Muyuw (Woodlark Island), Milne Bay Province, PNG. Archaeologyin Oceania 37: 22–36.Google Scholar
Bickler, S.H. & Turner, M. 2002. Food to stone: investigations at the Suloga stone tool manufacturing site, Woodlark Island, Papua New Guinea. Journal ofthe Polynesian Society 111: 11–43.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal Program. Radiocarbon 37: 425–30.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2001. Development of the radiocarbon program OxCal. Radiocarbon 43: 355–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulmer, S. 1975. Settlement and economy in prehistoric Papua New Guinea: a review of the archaeological evidence. Journal de la Société des Océanistes 31: 7–75.Google Scholar
Burenhult, G. (ed.) 2000. The archaeology of the Trobriand Islands, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. Excavation report. Gotland: Reports from Gotland University College 1/2000.Google Scholar
Damon, F.H. 1979. Woodlark Island megalithic structures and trenches: towards an interpretation. Archaeologyand Physical Anthropologyin Oceania 14: 195–226.Google Scholar
Damon, F.H. 1983. Further notes on Woodlark megaliths and trenches. Bulletin of the Indo–Pacific Prehistory Association 4: 100–13.Google Scholar
Damon, F.H. 1989. Introduction, in Damon, F. & Wagner, R. (ed.) Death rituals and life in the societies of the Kula ring: 3–19. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Damon, F.H. 1990. From Muyuw to the Trobriands. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Damon, F.H. 2002. Kula valuables, the problem of value and the production of names. L’Homme 162: 107–36.Google Scholar
Egloff, B.J. 1972. The sepulchral pottery of Nuamata Island, Papua. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 7: 146–63.Google Scholar
Egloff, B.J. 1978. The Kula before Malinowski: a changing configuration. Mankind 11: 429–35.Google Scholar
Egloff, B.J. 1979. Recent prehistory in southeast Papua. Terra Australis 4. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Forth, R.L. 1965. Stone arrangements on Woodlark Island. Mankind 6: 257–63.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1993. Community–level organisation, power and elites in Polynesian settlement pattern studies, in Graves, M.W. & Green, R.C. (ed.) The evolution and organisation ofprehistoric society in Polynesia: 9–12. Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph 19.Google Scholar
Holdsworth, D.K. & Ollier, C.D. 1973. Magic stones and megaliths of the Trobriand Islands, Papua and New Guinea. Brisbane: Anthropology Museum Occasional Papers, University of Queensland, No. 2.Google Scholar
Irwin, G.J. 1983. Chieftainship, kula, and trade in Massim prehistory, in Leach, J. & Leach, E. (ed.) The Kula: new perspectives on Massim exchange: 29–72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Irwin, G.J. 1985. The emergence of Mailu as a central place in coastal Papuan prehistory. Terra Australis 10. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Irwin, G.J. 1991. Themes in the prehistory of coastal Papua and the Massim, in Pawley, A.. (ed.) Man and a half: essays in anthropology and ethnobiologyin honour of Ralph Bulmer: 503–10. Auckland: The Polynesian Society.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. & Green, R.C. 2001. Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia. An essayin historical anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Larsson, A.–C. & Svensson, S. 2000. The 1999 excavations in Labai and Mwatawa, in Burenhult (ed.): 53–132.Google Scholar
Lauer, P.K. 1974. Pottery traditions in the D’ Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua. Occasional Papers in Anthropology 3. St Lucia (Queensland): Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland.Google Scholar
Leach, J. & Leach, E. (ed.). 1983. The Kula: new perspectives on Massim exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Macintyre, M. 1994. Too many chiefs? Leadership in the Massim in the colonial era. History and Anthropology 7: 241–62.Google Scholar
Mackay, R.D. 1971. An historic engraved shell from the Trobriand Islands — Milne Bay District. Records of the Papua & New Guinea Public Museums and Art Gallery 1: 47–52.Google Scholar
Malinowski, B. 1984 [1922]. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Malinowski, B. 1965 [1935]. Coral gardens and their magic.Volumes I and 2. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Monckton, C.A.W. 1922. Last days in New Guinea. London: Bodley Head.Google Scholar
Munn, N. 1986. The fame of Gawa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ollier, CD., Holdsworth, D.K. & Heers, G. 1970a. Megaliths at Wagura, Vakuta, Trobriand Islands. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 5: 24–6.Google Scholar
Ollier, CD., Holdsworth, D.K. & Heers, G. 1970b. Megaliths of Kitava, Trobriand Islands. Records of the Papua New Guinea Museum 1: 5–15.Google Scholar
Ollier, CD., Holdsworth, D.K. & Heers, G. 1971a. Inakebu cave art at Kitava in the Trobriand Islands. Archaeology 24: 22–7.Google Scholar
Ollier, CD., Holdsworth, D.K. & Heers, G. 1971b. Further caves of Kitava, Trobriand Islands, Papua. Helictite 9: 61–70.Google Scholar
Ollier, CD., Holdsworth, D.K. & Heers, G. 1973. Megaliths, stones and Bwala on Kitava, Trobriand Islands. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 8: 41–50.Google Scholar
Ollier, C.D. & Pain, C.F. 1978a. Caves of Woodlark Island, Papua New Guinea. Helictite 16: 64–78.Google Scholar
Ollier, C.D. & Pain, C.F. 1978b. Some megaliths and cave burials: Woodlark Island (Murua), Papua New Guinea. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 13: 10–8.Google Scholar
Pöoch, R. 1907a. Einige bemerkenswerte ethnologika aus Neu–Guinea. Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 37: 57–71.Google Scholar
Pooch, R. 1907b. Ausgrabungen alter topfscherben in Wanigela (Collingwood–Bay). Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 37: 137–9.Google Scholar
Riesenfeld, A. 1950. The megalithic culture of Melanesia. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Ross, M.D. 1988. Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of Western Melanesia. Canberra: A.N.U. Printing Service.Google Scholar
Ross, M.D. 1998. Sequencing and dating linguistic events in Oceania: the linguistics/archaeology interface, in Blench, R. & Spriggs, M. (ed.) Archaeologyand language II: correlating archaeological and linguistic hypotheses: 141–73. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Seligmann, C.G. 1910. The Melanesians of British New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Seligmann, C.G. & Joyce, T.A. 1907. On prehistoric objects in British New Guinea, in Rivers, W.H.R., Marett, R.R. & Thomas, N.W. (ed.) Anthropological essays presentedto Edward Burnett Tylor: 325–41. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Seligmann, C.G., & Strong, W.M. 1906. Anthropogeographical investigations in British New Guinea. The Geographical Journal 27: 225–42, 347–69.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Burr, G.S., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., McCormac, G., Van Der Plicht, J. & Spurk, M. 1998. INTCAL98 radiocarbon age calibration, 24000–0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40: 1041–83.Google Scholar
Swadling, P. 1994. Changing shellfish resources and theirexploitation for food and artifact production in Papua New Guinea. Man and Culture in Oceania 10: 127–50.Google Scholar
White, J.P. 1970. Prehistoric Papuan engraving.Australian Natural History 16: 344–5.Google Scholar
Williams, F.E. 1936. Report on stone structures in the Trobriands — little Stonehenge. Pacific Islands Monthly(June).Google Scholar