Summary

What underlies the widespread diffusion of homogeneous material culture that can periodically be observed across large geographical areas from ancient times to the present day? The general aim of the project is to contribute to globalization research in this field. This will be done through an ethno-archaeological pilot project in Melanesia, where the past and present are still intimately connected. An archaeological study of the Lapita culture in the 2^nd century BC will be coupled with an ethnographic analysis of modern canoeing. Both phenomena are an expression of globalization in different periods and will be able to shed light on each other. They are in fact closely connected inasmuch as the geographically far-reaching Lapita complex – the first agriculture accompanied by a new language and a particular material culture – must have been spread through navigation in seagoing outrigger canoes. A comparative study on and near the island of Mbuke – in the province of Manus in the Bismarck Sea near Papua New Guinea – should clarify the issue. The study will involve an archaeological trial excavation of a Lapita site and an anthropological analysis of the use of canoes today as identity markers and a means of communication. An essential focus of the study is the inter-cultural dependence created by these means between otherwise separate ethnic groups. The study should contribute to improved understanding of globalization as a past and present phenomenon. How are culture and knowledge spread, and how are they received locally? And what are the consequences of globalization for the formation of social identity? The project is part of a large-scale research programme (supported by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities and the University of Aarhus) entitled “Material Culture and Identity Formation: Globalization in the Past and Present”, with the collaboration of Moesgaard Museum, the Papua New Guinea National Museum and ANU in Canberra.

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