Australian Museum Journal Lapita People: an introductory context for skeletal materials associated with pottery of this cultural complex
- Shortform:
- Green, 1989, Rec. Aust. Mus. 41(3): 207–213
- Author(s):
- Green, Roger C.
- Year published:
- 1989
- Title:
- Lapita People: an introductory context for skeletal materials associated with pottery of this cultural complex
- Serial title:
- Records of the Australian Museum
- Volume:
- 41
- Issue:
- 3
- Start page:
- 207
- End page:
- 213
- DOI:
- 10.3853/j.0067-1975.41.1989.142
- Language:
- English
- Plates:
- plate i and preface
- Date published:
- 30 November 1989
- Cover date:
- 30 November 1989
- ISSN:
- 0067-1975
- CODEN:
- RAUMAJ
- Publisher:
- The Australian Museum
- Place published:
- Sydney, Australia
- Subjects:
- ANTHROPOLOGY; ARCHAEOLOGY; NEW GUINEA; OCEAN: PACIFIC
- Digitized:
- 24 November 2008
- Available online:
- 08 December 2008
- Reference number:
- 142
- EndNote package:
- EndNote file
- Title page:
- Title page (111kb PDF)
- Complete work:
- Complete work (1196kb PDF)
Abstract
Various theoretical statements in the 1970's and 1980's by Howells, Bellwood, Pietrusewsky, Brace & Hinton, Terrell, and Houghton on the likely biological origins and affinities of populations which settled the geographic areas of Melanesia and Polynesia are outlined. They serve to highlight some of the background issues involved in a set of papers assembled here that constitutes the first thorough examination of human burials associated with the Lapita cultural complex. These are the only skeletal materials recovered so far from the Oceanic area to bear directly on the nature of the biological populations present in Island Melanesia and Western Polynesia 3,500 to 2,100 years ago and as such allow limited assessment of the different theories which to date have largely been derived from the analysis of either fairly recent palaeobiological evidence or from the study of still living populations.