Date: Friday July 6th 

Papers 

3:30pm 

Lapita antecedents: the Bismarck Archipelago as homeland or transit lounge?

Jim Specht, Australian Museum

The Bismarck Archipelago has been regarded for many years as the ‘homeland’ of the construct known as the ‘Lapita cultural complex,’ yet we have a very imperfect, and probably quite inaccurate, understanding of what this ‘homeland’ contributed to the formation of the ‘cultural complex.’ In part this is the result of viewing the region as little more than a temporary stopping off point for a migratory population, a kind of ‘transit lounge’, prior to expansion southwards into the southern parts of Near Oceania and thence to Remote Oceania. In contrast, I suggest that reconsideration of evidence from sites in the Archipelago can lead to a perspective on the region’s role in the formation of the ‘Lapita cultural complex’ that is less passive than the dominant paradigm allows.

 

4:00pm 
RETURN TO THE ENTANGLED BANK: Deciphering the Lapita cultural series
John Edward Terrell

There is something about Lapita that seems to be begging us, perhaps even taunting us, to decipher.  My goal today is to ask whether Lapita’s similarities of appearance are necessarily similarities of cause.  Given our hindsight on events long past, we divide the settlement of the Pacific into a series of geographic moves.  The timing and direction of these moves may be debatable, but mapping this series of events is not just an exercise in fantasy and imagination.  But what does it mean to say that these moves were historically connected?  Even if there is rhyme and reason to the series of events we label “Lapita,” the rules of play involved may have changed to fit changing circumstances, changing opportunities, and changing personalities