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Explaining the prehistory of ceramic technology on Waya Island, Fiji
Author(s) -
Cochrane Ethan E.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
archaeology in oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1834-4453
pISSN - 0728-4896
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4453.2002.tb00499.x
Subject(s) - prehistory , variation (astronomy) , cultural transmission in animals , archaeology , diversity (politics) , natural selection , selection (genetic algorithm) , geography , economic geography , anthropology , evolutionary biology , sociology , biology , computer science , artificial intelligence , physics , astrophysics
This preliminary analysis of ceramic technological change on Waya Island, Fiji documents the variation present over three thousand years of innovation, interaction, and change. Hypotheses relating the observed variation in sherd thickness, tempering practices, and vessel type diversity are proposed. These hypotheses may be tested through experimental and other analyses that are briefly described here. Finally, these hypotheses and their tests are structured by the universal evolutionary mechanisms of cultural transmission, adaptation and natural selection, and innovation and thus have implications for not only Wayan prehistory, but all of the Pacific.