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Land tenure, competition and ecology in Fijian prehistory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Julie S. Field
Julie S. Field*
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK (Email: jsf27@cam.ac.uk)
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Abstract

How do prehistoric settlement patterns relate to competition for resources? The distribution of fortified and open sites provides one indication, but using an example from Fiji, the author shows that land holding recorded in historic times may also provide a fossil of earlier competition. Comparing the land parcels and the fortified sites with the ecological zones showed that it was the richer – but less reliable – lower parts of the Sigatoka valley that were most fought over, leaving a patchwork of small defended claims, while the upper areas supported larger, co-operative land units.

Keywords

FijifortificationsGISland tenurepatrilineal descent groupsenvironmentvariabilityevolutionary ecology
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 305 , September 2005 , pp. 586 - 600
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

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