The aim of the project
The project will carry out an ethno-archaeological pilot study in Melanesia with the aim of shedding light on the connection between material culture, identity formation, and globalization in the past and present. This region was selected because the past is extremely present and active there, and because the Institute of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics at the University of Aarhus and the Moesgaard Museum already possess considerable competence with regard to the region and the field of knowledge as a whole.
The plan is to carry out an archaeological field investigation of the Lapita culture (2nd century BC) during the four-five weeks when the Galathea 3 ship is between the Indonesian waters and the Solomon Islands, and this investigation will be combined with an ethnographic analysis of modern canoeing. Both phenomena are an expression of globalization in different periods and will therefore be able to shed light on each other. They are furthermore closely connected, since the geographically far-reaching Lapita complex must have been spread through navigation in large seagoing outrigger canoes, probably with considerable consequences for culture and society. Concretely, a comparative study on and near the island of Mbuke – in the province of Manus in the Bismarck Sea near Papua New Guinea – illustrates the complex of problems. Mbuke was chosen because canoeing has undergone a striking renaissance under the influence of present-day globalization, and because early Lapita localities can presumably be identified on the island.
Drawing on existing knowledge of the field, an archaeological trial excavation of a Lapita settlement on Mbuke is thus planned, and the interpretive process will work in tandem with an anthropological analysis of the current use of canoes as means of communication and as identity markers. The canoes are used daily as a means of transport, but also for long voyages and weekly regattas – which is a magnificent sight! An important focus of the study will be the cross-cultural contact and interdependence between otherwise separate ethnic groups created by these means, but also the variable responses to outside impulses that will certainly also be possible to observe.
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? This is a question that archaeologists in particular, throughout most of the history of the discipline have sought in vain to answer with reference either to massive migration or cultural diffusion. Archaeology must however enter into dialogue with anthropology in order to loosen up the problem and thereby contribute to today’s globalization research: this is precisely the general aim of the project. The ethno-archaeological study should contribute to a better understanding of globalization as a past and present phenomenon and answer questions like the following: How are culture and knowledge spread, and how are they received locally? And what are the consequences of this for the formation of social identity? In this connection recent theories on modern globalization will be important interpretive tools, especially concepts like hybridization, fragmentation and homogenization of culture and society (Appadurai, Friedman, Huntington, among others).
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