TY - JOUR
T1 - Mortuary practices of the first Polynesians: Formative ethnogenesis in the Kingdom of Tonga
AU - Valentin, Frederique
AU - Clark, Geoffrey
AU - Parton, Phillip
AU - Reepmeyer, Christian
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Ancestral Polynesian Society has been argued to represent a formative stage in Polynesian ethnogenesis. Recently discovered human burials at the Talasiu midden site in Tonga, dating to c. 2650 cal BP, now provide the earliest known evidence for Ancestral Polynesian mortuary behaviour. This article presents and evaluates the burials, comparing archaeological evidence for Talasiu mortuary practices with those of older Lapita and more recent Tongan burials, as well as with Ancestral Polynesian Society funerary activities inferred through linguistic reconstruction. These comparisons emphasise that several socio-cultural behaviours that are important to contemporary Polynesian societies were expressed very differently in the past.
AB - Ancestral Polynesian Society has been argued to represent a formative stage in Polynesian ethnogenesis. Recently discovered human burials at the Talasiu midden site in Tonga, dating to c. 2650 cal BP, now provide the earliest known evidence for Ancestral Polynesian mortuary behaviour. This article presents and evaluates the burials, comparing archaeological evidence for Talasiu mortuary practices with those of older Lapita and more recent Tongan burials, as well as with Ancestral Polynesian Society funerary activities inferred through linguistic reconstruction. These comparisons emphasise that several socio-cultural behaviours that are important to contemporary Polynesian societies were expressed very differently in the past.
U2 - 10.15184/aqy.2020.89
DO - 10.15184/aqy.2020.89
M3 - Article
VL - 94
SP - 999
EP - 1014
JO - Antiquity
JF - Antiquity
SN - 0003-598X
IS - 376
ER -