Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:16:29.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prehistory and its perception in a Melanesian Archipelago: the New Caledonia example

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Christophe Sand ,
Jacques Bolé  and
André Ouetcho
Christophe Sand
Affiliation:
Département Archéologie, Service des Musées, BP: 2393, 98846 Nouméa, New Caledonia
Jacques Bolé
Affiliation:
Département Archéologie, Service des Musées, BP: 2393, 98846 Nouméa, New Caledonia
André Ouetcho
Affiliation:
Département Archéologie, Service des Musées, BP: 2393, 98846 Nouméa, New Caledonia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What were the social structures of prehistoric Melanesia really like – and how did they evolve? This study of the archaeology of New Caledonia shows how the west has had a double impact on its prehistory. First, explorers altered the social structure by their arrival and the introduction of western diseases, and then anthropologists created an image of communities which were ancient, simple and static. New archaeological field data by contrast is mapping nearly 3000 pre-European years of occupation which was marked by dynamic social and cultural change involving sophisticated economic strategies. The evidence suggests that the European anthropologists of the twentieth century were actually interpreting the social effects of the European explorers of the nineteenth century. The new archaeological model is providing food for thought for the modern multi-cultural country of New Caledonia.

Keywords

MelanesiaNew Caledoniacultural evolutionLapitalandscape archaeology
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 297 , September 2003 , pp. 505 - 519
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

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. 1996. The pre-Austronesian settlement of island Melanesia: Implications for Lapita Archaeology, in Goodenough, W. (ed.), Prehistoric Settlement of the Pacific. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 86 (5): 11–27.Google Scholar
Anderson, A. 1991. The chronology of colonisation in New Zealand. Antiquity 65: 767–795.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balouet, J.C., & Olson, S.L.. 1989. Fossil birds from late Quaternary deposits in New Caledonia. Washington D.C.: Smithonian Contributions to Zoology, Smithonian Institution Press 469.Google Scholar
Barrau, J. 1956. L’agriculture vivrière autochtone de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Nouméa: Commission du Pacifique Sud.Google Scholar
Beaglehole, J.C. 1967. The Journal of Captain James Cook on his voyages of discovery. The voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776–1780. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bedford, S. & Clark, G.. 2001. The rise and rise of incised and applied relief tradition: A review and reassessment, in Clark, G., Anderson, A. and Vunidilo, T. (eds). The archaeology of Lapita dispersal in Oceania: 61–74. Canberra: Terra Australis 17.Google Scholar
Bensa, A. 1990. Nouvelle-Calédonie, un paradis dans la tourmente. Paris: Découvertes Gallimard.Google Scholar
Best, S. 1987. Long-distance obsidian travel and possible implications for the settlement of Fiji, Archaeology in Oceania 22: 31–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doumenge, J.P. 1994. La Nouvelle-Calédonie au plan humain. Approche géographique et historique des réalités culturelles, démographiques, économiques et politiques, in Géo-Pacifique des espaces français: 63–105. Nouméa: CTRDP Nouvelle-Calédonie/ Université française du Pacifique.Google Scholar
Dubois, M.J. 1975. Mythes et traditions de Maré, Nouvelle-Calédonie. Les Eletoks. Paris: Publication du Journal de la Société des Océanistes 35.Google Scholar
Dumont, D’urville, M.J. 1832. Notice sur les îles du Grand Océan et sur l’origine des peuples qui les habitent. Bulletin de la Société de Géographie 17: 121.Google Scholar
Earle, T. 1997. How Chiefs Come to Power. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, T. 1994. The future eaters: an ecological history of the Australasian lands and people. Sydney: Reed Publishers.Google Scholar
Frimigacci, D. 1999. OU sont allés les potiers Lapita de Bourail? Remarques sur le site WK0001, in Galipaud, J.C. and Lilley, J. (eds), The Western Pacific, 5000 to 2000 B.P: Colonisations and transformations: 63–84. Paris: IRD Editions.Google Scholar
Galipaud, J.C. 1996. New Caledonia: Some recent archaeological perspectives, in Davidson, J., Irwin, G., Leach, F., Pawley, A. and Brown, D., (eds), Oceanic Culture History: essays in Honour of Roger Green: 297–305. Auckland: New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Special Publication.Google Scholar
Gosden, C. 1987. Comment. Current Anthropology 28 (4): 446–447.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1991. Near and Remote Oceania – disestablishing “Melanesia” in culture history, in Pawley, A. (ed.), Man and a half: Essays in Pacific Anthropology and Ethnobiology in honour of Ralph Bulmer: 491–502. Auckland: The Polynesian Society.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1992. Definitions of the Lapita Cultural Complex and its non-ceramic component, in Galipaud, J.C. (ed.) Poterie Lapita et peuplement: 7–20. Nouméa: ORSTOM.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1993. Changes over time. Recent advances in dating human colonisation of the Pacific basin area, in Sutton, D.G. (ed.) Origin of the First New Zealanders: 11–42. Auckland: University of Auckland Press.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 1997. Linguistic, biological, and cultural origins of the initial inhabitants of Remote Oceania. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 17: 5–27.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. 2002. Rediscovering the social aspects of ancestral Oceanic Societies through archaeology, linguistics and ethnology, in Bedford, S., Sand, C. and Burley, D. (ed.), Fifty years in the field’ essays in honour and celebration of R. Shutler Jr’s archaeological career. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph 25: 21–35. Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Association.Google Scholar
Green, R.C. & Kirch, P.V.. 1997. Lapita exchange systems and their Polynesian transformations: Seeking explanatory models, in Weiser, M. (ed.), Prehistoric Long-Distance Interaction in Oceania: An Interdisciplinary Approach. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph 21: 19–37. Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Association.Google Scholar
Guiart, J. 1963. La Chefferie en Mélanésie du Sud. Paris: Institut d’ethnologie, Musée de l’Homme.Google Scholar
Guiart, J. 1983. La terre est le sang des morts. Paris: Editions Anthropos.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guiart, J. 1992. Structure de la chefferie en Mélanésie du sud. Paris: Institut d’Ethnologie, vol. 1.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. 1997a. The Lapita peoples: Ancestors of the Oceanic World. London: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. 1997b. Microcosmic Histories. Island Perspectives on “Global” change. “A merican Anthropologist 99 (1): 30–42.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. 2000. On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. Berkeley: The University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. & Hunt, T.L.. 1997. Historical Ecology in the Pacific Islands: Prehistoric Environmental and Landscape Change. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambert, P. 1900. Moeurs et superstitions des néocalédoniens. Nouméa: Nouvelle Imprimerie Nouméenne.Google Scholar
Leenhardt, M. 1937. Gens de la Grande Terre. Paris: Editions Gallimard.Google Scholar
Miles, J. 1997. Infectious Diseases: Colonising the Pacific? Dunedin: University of Otago Press.Google Scholar
Monnin, J. & Sand, C.. 2003. Les pétroglyphes calédoniens. Nouméa: Les Cahiers de l’Archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie 15. (in press).Google Scholar
Paris, J.P. 1981. Géologie de la Nouvelle-Calédonie: un essai de synthèse. Paris: Mémoire BRGM 113.Google Scholar
Pisier, G. 1981. Approche et découverte de la Nouvelle-Calédonie (planche 20), in Atlas de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et Dépendances. Paris: ORSTOM.Google Scholar
Rallu, J.P. 1990. Les populations océaniennes aux XIXe et XXe siècles. Paris: Institut d’Etudes Démographiques. Travaux et Documents 128.Google Scholar
Rivierre, J.C. 1981. Linguistique (planche 19), in Atlas de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et Dépendances. Paris: ORSTOM.Google Scholar
Sahlins, M. 1963. Poor man, rich man, big-man, chief: Political types in Melanesia and Polynesia, Comparative Studies in Society and History 5: 285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sand, C. 1995. “Le temps d’avant.” La préhistoire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 1996a. Recent developments in the study of New Caledonia’s prehistory. Archaeology in Oceania 31: 45–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sand, C. 1996b. Structural remains as markers of complex societies in southern Melanesia during prehistory: the case of the monumental forts of Maré island (New Caledonia). Indo-Pacific Prehistory: the Chiang Mai Papers vol. 2: 37–44. Canberra: Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 15.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 1997a. The chronology of Lapita ware in New Caledonia. Antiquity 71: 539–547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sand, C. 1997b. Variété de l’habitat ancien en Nouvelle-Calédonie: étude de cas sur des vestiges archéologiques du Centre-Nord de la Grande-Terre. Journal de la Société des Océanistes 104: 39–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sand, C. 1998. Recent Archaeological Research in the Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia. Asian Perspectives 37: 194–223.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 1999a. From the swamp to the terrace: intensification of the horticultural practices in New Caledonia, from first settlement to european contact, in Gosden, C. and Hather, J. (eds.). The Prehistory of Food. Appetites for changes: 252–269. One World Archaeology 32. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 1999b. The beginning of Southern Melanesian Prehistory: The St Maurice-Vatcha Lapita Site, New Caledonia. Journal of Field Archaeology 26:307–323.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 2000a. The specificities of the Southern Lapita Province: the New Caledonian case. Archaeology in Oceania 35: 20–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sand, C. 2000b. Archaeology as a way to a shared future?, in Lilley, I. (ed.). Native Title and the Transformation of Archaeology in the Postcolonial World: 164–180. Oceania Monograph 50. Sydney: University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 2000c. Reconstructing ’traditional’ Kanak society in New Caledonia: the role of archaeology in the study of European contact, in Torrence, R. and Clarke, A. (eds.). The Archaeology of Difference. Negotiating cross-cultural engagements in Oceania: 51–78. One World Archaeology 38. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 2001. Evolutions in the Lapita Cultural Complex: a view from the Southern Lapita Province. Archaeology in Oceania 36: 65–76.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 2002a. Creations and transformations of Prehistoric Landscapes in New Caledonia, in Ladefoged, T. and Graves, M. (eds.). Pacific Landscapes. Archaeological Approaches: 13–34. Los Osos: Bearsvill Press.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 2002b. Melanesian Tribes vs. Polynesian Chiefdoms: Recent Archaeological Assessment of a Classic Model of Sociopolitical Types in Oceania, Asian Perspectives 41: 284–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sand, C., Bole, J. & Ouetcho, A.. 2000. Les sociétés pré-européennes de Nouvelle-Calédonie et leur transformation historique: l’apport de l’archéologie, in Bensa, A. and Leblic, I. (eds.). En pays kanak: Ethnologie, linguistique, archéologie, histoire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie: 171–194. Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sand, C., Bole, J. & Ouetcho, A.. 2002. Transformations et aménagements des espaces insulaires océaniens par l’homme durant la préhistoire: des traits régionaux aux spécificités de l’exemple calédonien, in Mokadem, H. (ed.), Approches autours de Culture et Nature dans le Pacifique Sud: 153–174. Nouméa: Expressions.Google Scholar
Sand, C., Coote, K., Bole, J. & Ouetcho, A.. 1998. A pottery pit at locality WK0013A, Lapita (New Caledonia). Archaeology in Oceania 33: 37–43.Google Scholar
Sand, C., & Sheppard, P.. 2000. Long distance prehistoric obsidian imports in New Caledonia: characteristics and meaning. Comptes-rendus de l’Académie des Sciences de Paris. Sciences de la Terre et des planètes. Vol. 331: 235–243.Google Scholar
Schoenfelder, J.W. 2000. The co-evolution of agricultural and sociopolitical systems in Bali. Indo-Pacific Prehistory: the Melaka Papers vol. 4: 35–47. Canberra: Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 20.Google Scholar
Sheppard, P., Walter, R., & Nagaoka, T.. 2000. The Archaeology of Head-hunting in Roviana Lagoon. Journal of the Polynesian Society 109 (1): 9–37.Google Scholar
Shineberg, D. 1967. They came for Sandalwood. A study of the Sandalwood trade in the South-West Pacific, 1830–1865. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1997. The Island Melanesians. London: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Stannard, D. 1989. Before the Horror. The population of Hawai’i on the eve of western contact. Social Science Research Institute. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Stevenson, J. 1998. Late Quaternary Environmental Change and the Impact of Melanesian Colonisation in New Caledonia. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar