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The timing and importance of arboriculture and agroforestry in a temperate East Polynesia Society, the Moriori, Rekohu (Chatham Island).
- Source :
-
Quaternary Science Reviews . Oct2016, Vol. 149, p306-325. 20p. - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- Identifying arboriculture and agroforestry in Polynesian Societies has usually relied heavily upon the ethnographic record in the absence of direct archaeological evidence. In this paper we outline a multi-proxy research design, including ethnography, palynology, anthracology, archaeology and a high precision chronology to evaluate arboriculture and agroforestry as components of Moriori subsistence practices before the arrival of Europeans in 1791. The colonisers of Rekohu brought with them a mainland New Zealand endemic tree, Corynocarpus laevigatus, and the technology to propagate the tree in a less than ideal climate and to process its drupe into a storable source of carbohydrate in what was a difficult environment for Polynesian cultivation practices. We also present a conceptual model of forest change due to Moriori fuel selection practices which suggests that Moriori were actively managing these forest spaces for food, fuel, medicine, construction material and as a habitation space, therefore making agroforestry an important component of Moriori subsistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 02773791
- Volume :
- 149
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Quaternary Science Reviews
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 117913412
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.08.006