For our final blog post of 2023 we have compiled a list of anthropology theses (Masters and PhD) published in universities in Aotearoa New Zealand this year. We created the list by searching the online thesis repositories of each university’s library catalogue using the keywords “anthropology” and “thesis.” We also used the same keywords on NZ Research’s DigitalNZ search site. The list below includes all Masters and PhD thesis that matched these criteria from our eight universities. Most are from archaeology, social anthropology, and cultural anthropology programmes, with a couple of “anthropology-adjacent” theses awarded in disciplines other than anthropology. If we have missed anyone, please get in touch to let us know!
The theses are listed in alphabetical order according to the surname of the graduate. Congratulations to everyone to everyone who was awarded a masters or doctoral degree this year.
Adams, Alisha Brittany: From the mouths of babes: Weaning, diet, and stress in Neolithic Northern Vietnam
Doctor of Philosophy in Anatomy, University of Otago
Advisor: Sian Halcrow
Abstract: The transition from hunter-gatherer to sedentary agricultural lifestyles marked a change in human behaviour, with significant biological consequences to human life. It is assumed that the availability of staple crops allowed earlier weaning and increased fertility, leading to higher population density and sedentism, but increased disease and poor health outcomes. Although human health at the Neolithic transition has been studied around the world, few studies have specifically examined how breastfeeding and weaning practices may have changed during this distinct period of human history, and how this may have affected stress and fertility. The aim of this thesis is to assess if there was a relationship between maternal health, early childhood feeding practices (breastfeeding and weaning) and the development of physiological stress markers during the adoption of agricultural practices in a transitional Neolithic population at Man Bac (n=78) in Northern Vietnam (1800-1500 BC). To assess the relationship between weaning, diet, and stress at Man Bac, an examination of both isotopic and microscopic linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) evidence for dietary change and stress using both permanent and deciduous teeth was undertaken.
In order to assess individual profiles of early childhood diet, breastfeeding and weaning, a δ15N and δ13C isotopic baseline for Man Bac was first established through bulk collagen analysis of faunal bone samples (3/30 samples had acceptable collagen preservation) and human bone samples (16/56 samples had acceptable collagen preservation). Incremental dentine isotopic analysis was then performed on 9 permanent teeth (6 had at least 1 increment with acceptable collagen preservation) and 5 deciduous teeth (2 had at least 1 increment with acceptable collagen preservation). Profiles of early childhood stress were assessed using the micropolynomial topographic methodology for identifying LEH on permanent teeth (34 individuals, 125 teeth total) and deciduous teeth (20 individuals, 70 teeth total). A rudimentary chronology of growth of the external deciduous crown was developed in order to estimate the age at which deciduous LEH developed. Eight individuals had preservation that allowed for an analysis of incremental isotopic profiles and were compared with the LEH profiles to identify if there was any relationship between LEH development and isotopic values. These results were interpreted within the context of previous bioarchaeological analysis of health, and the archaeological and environmental contexts of Man Bac.
Using incremental isotopic analysis, there is evidence for the reduction of breastmilk in the diet around approximately 1.5 years, and the cessation of detection of breastmilk in the diet at approximately 2.2 years. All individuals with permanent and deciduous teeth sampled had evidence for systemic LEH events. During deciduous and permanent tooth formation, the highest frequencies of LEH formation occurred during the prenatal period, the first 2 months after birth, at 7 months, and at 1.5 – 1.99 and 2.5-2.99 years of age, which supports the presence of maternal stress, as well as the potential introduction of infectious elements or nutrient deficient foodstuffs with supplementation of food at ~6 months. The period of ~1.5-2 years of age sees the development of LEH in most individuals with permanent teeth (86%) and correlates with the reduction of breastmilk in the diet, suggesting a period of physiological stress. Palaeopathological evidence for high levels of nutrient deficiencies of infants and children at the site indicate that LEH was likely related to these deficiencies during transitionary periods of early childhood diet, and from the influence of maternal stress associated with increased demand on mothers associated with high fertility in this Neolithic population.
Armstrong, Jessica: Huritao Whaiaro - Pathways to Pākehā/Tauiwi self-reflection in the adoption of Te Tiriti o Waitangi values within the public sector
Master of Design Innovation, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
Advisors: Bobby Luke and Nan O’Sullivan
Abstract: Research into the success of Pākehā abiding by Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) as Tangata Tiriti, particularly in the workplace, is underdeveloped and attempts to uplift this success are sporadic. This thesis functions on the assumption that racism is an endemic issue, aligned with research and lived experiences of Tangata Whenua, to guide the process from their perspectives of change. Predominant elements of causation are group mentality, confirmation bias and privilege and are the primary causes detailed throughout this thesis.
Quantitative research of public sector understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, alongside qualitative research encompassing the lived experience of Tangata Whenua, are the methodologies for perspective collection. Social innovation methodologies such as focus grouping, conversations and observations supplement the former, giving the deeper understanding to the impact of change proposed. This research deduces that behavioural change through workshop participation, is adaptable to encouraging Pākehā to align themselves within the framework of being Tangata Tiriti. Through providing the adequate space for reflection, along with carefully worded prompts, the opportunity for a seed to be planted in personal growth or understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is presented, allowing potential for flow on effects to begin institutional change.
Integrating behaviour change theory into the public sector, with the specific focus of improving alignment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, has the potential to bring forward institutional, systemic and behaviour change in order to build a public sector that represents Māori and Tangata Whenua equitably.
This thesis is an analysis of Pākehā perpetuated harm, where discussions of racism, both personal and institutional, are present throughout. Any persons perceptible to triggers of this nature please proceed with caution.
Arrell, Lucy McMahon: 'What's the Point' Usewear Analysis and Functional Interpretations of the Auckland Museum Pitcairn Point Collection
Master of Arts in Anthropology, The University of Auckland
Advisors: Ethan Cochrane and Peter Sheppard
Abstract: Stone drill points are a uniquely prolific part of the Pitcairn Island lithic industry, and comprise a large proportion of the stone artefacts found on the isolated island. The Pitcairn points are distinctly variable in their form and style, with a large range of proportions, manufacturing styles, and sizes, present across the collection. In this thesis I document and classify this variation in order to investigate Pitcairn tool use, and for future research into the collection. The Pitcairn points analysed by this study are organised into various relevant morphological categories, and wear patterns are used to construct 32 potential wear classes, and 14 motion classes, representing the ways in which the tools were manipulated during use. A total of 200 stone points from the Auckland War Memorial Museum were analysed for morphological and usewear patterning, to ascertain whether or not any variables had influence over the tool's utilisation. This study investigates artefact standardisation, including proposing that certain uses held social meaning that influenced the ways in which the stone points were made and reused. Based upon prior research it was hypothesised that the majority of the Pitcairn points were used for drilling, and that the variable morphology would have an effect on wear patterning. The findings of this research indicated that point morphology had little influence over specific motions or uses. Instead, tool use was standardised, with the majority of the collection recording no obvious 'contamination' between uses, with one tool being used repetitively for the same use throughout its life. Certain points were found to be likely to have been used in canoe manufacture, as theorised by Marianne Turner (2010), as well as wood carving and fishhook construction. These findings were compared with other Pacific and global drill point uses, morphologies, and wear patterns.
Barrett, Matthew Christopher: Lithics in Perspective: Indeterminacy, Simulation, and the Formation of Lithic Assemblages
Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology, The University of Auckland
Advisors: Simon Holdaway and Rebecca Phillipps
Abstract: Archaeologists cannot directly observe the past, meaning explanations are often subject to indeterminacy: the problem of distinguishing between any number of explanations for observed archaeological patterning. Using the example of mobility studies and the lithic record, it is shown that indeterminacy occurs because reconstructions of the past use static representations of behaviour. But the archaeological record is an emergent phenomenon, an outcome of variable accumulation histories of artefacts that is irreducible to proximate causal processes. An alternative approach is needed, one that dispenses with assumptions about the behaviours artefacts and assemblages are thought to represent, and instead investigates how patterning emerges in the archaeological record as observed in the present. Exploratory agent-based modelling is used as a means of achieving this, by simulating the interaction of simple processes of lithic production, reuse, and transport to generate independently derived expectations about assemblage patterning under a range of conditions that are then tested with empirical data. Two key areas of mobility-related research in lithic analysis provide case studies: the geological sourcing of artefacts, and the organisation of technology. A model called SourceSim explores how the distribution of artefacts deriving from different geological sources is affected by reusing material from deposits of previously discarded artefacts. Similarities between simulated outcomes and archaeological obsidian distributions from Aotearoa/New Zealand have implications for inferences about mobility based on distances to geological source. Another model called ClusterSim simulates agents producing and distributing artefacts under different mobility configurations, affecting the completeness of individual reduction sets, a measure of the physical movement of artefacts that serves as a proxy for human movement. Outcomes are tested using a late Pleistocene and a late Holocene assemblage from Australia, with similarities in place use suggested for both records, running counter to interpretations based on efficiency of raw material use and narratives of broad scale shifts in mobility. The results of the case studies highlight the importance of understanding how assemblage composition and distribution through time and space emerge from fundamental processes of lithic acquisition, transport, and reuse, serving as a foundation from which to build subsequent inferences.
Beattie, Joseph Reginald: Examination of Maternal Ancestry in Archaeological Remains from the Phoenician Settlement of Motya
Master of Science in Anatomy, University of Otago
Advisors: Lisa Matisoo-Smith and Anna Gosling
Abstract: The Phoenicians were an influential maritime civilization that arose out of the Late Bronze Age Levant, before going on to establish trans-Mediterranean trade networks, linked by new settlements which they founded during the Iron Age. The island of Motya, off the western coast of Sicily, has long been used as a case study for the Phoenician settlement of the Western Mediterranean. Recent advances in ancient DNA sequencing have demonstrated both the incorporation of indigenous maternal lineages into West Phoenician society and the mobility of lineages between Phoenician sites in the Mediterranean. This study successfully sequenced the archaeological remains of seven ancient Phoenicians from the island of Motya, including two sets of remains from the Motya Tophet, a sacred space containing the remains of cremated infants. The mitochondrial haplotypes assigned to these samples were all determined to be European in origin, which was attributed to the incorporation of indigenous Sicilian women into the Phoenician society on Motya. Additional datasets, including 30 Imperial era Romans from the Necropolis of Fara Sabina, and the 36 modern Tunisians were also sequenced for use as comparative population, although no evidence of non indigenous Sicilian was detected. Surprising recovery of DNA from cremated infant remains out of the Motya Tophet also provided some insight into the Tophet phenomena. Evidence from the Roman dataset also demonstrated a large amount of non-European lineages, some of potential Phoenician origin, were present in Imperial Era Rome. Overall, this research contributed another piece to the emerging picture of Phoenician society provided by ancient DNA, and to the gradual development of Ancient DNA as an important research tool in Phoenician studies.
Correll Trnka, Revena: "I Do Love an Evil, Bisexual Monster”: Young, Queer New Zealanders’ Engagement with Contemporary Lesbian Horror Media
Master of Arts in Cultural Anthropology, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
Advisors: Grant Otsuki and Catherine Trundle
Abstract: Recent trends in contemporary horror TV present monstrous queer women as Western media’s latest anti-hero, and in doing so highlight the role gender has in shaping our understanding of violence. This thesis examines this trend, looking at how representations of violent lesbians are interpreted and used by viewers to aid in shaping and understanding their own identities. I use close textual analysis of three queer horror shows- Ratched (2020-); Killing Eve (2017-2022); and The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)- alongside discussions with fans via focus groups and in-depth interviews to understand how women and non-binary individuals collectively create meaning from queer woman’s TV representations and apply this to their own lives. I examine how these shows represent queerness and femininity in relation to violent monstrosity, to explore how viewers perceive their own identities in relation to TV representations, and in turn how their identities shape their interpretations of these shows. I argue that while these shows present viewers with alternative, interrogated images of femininity, they also contribute to the reinforcement of certain gender norms, thus supporting intersecting dominant power structures that present a restrained image of queer women’s deviancy, that is not available to all bodies. Viewers critically engage with this material, utilising these shows to expand their own understandings and expressions of identity, while also challenging some of the shows’ limitations.
Davis, Catherine: Let her be: Exploring feminine divine, pilgrimage as continuum, and ritual creativity on the Camino de Santiago
Master of Arts in Social Anthropology, Massey University
Advisors: Robyn Andrews and Amy Whitehead
Abstract: As one of the world’s most popular pilgrimages, the Camino de Santiago runs millennium deep and has been the subject of much scholarly research. However, I argue there is a gap in research concerning what is characterised throughout this thesis (by historic and symbolic associations) as being feminine divine aspects of the Camino in contemporary pilgrimage and anthropological religious studies. This contrasts with measurable increases in feminine divine studies and Marian pilgrimage studies in recent times. Through the use of an impressionist narrative, phenomenological approach, this digital ethnographic research explores the experiences of six pilgrims, asking how, and if, they applied any significance to the Camino’s feminine divine. And, where this was not the case, the research establishes that there were significant aspects of the Camino that led the participants to respond to a recruitment notice with ‘feminine divine’ as its organising principle. This research was conducted during periods of isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, and consequently participants were recruited from a private Facebook community that had an ethos of enabling virtual pilgrimage. The study reveals multiple ways that participants suggested both beneficent and problematic associations with the Camino’s feminine divine. Additionally, it explores the ways that pilgrims enacted and regarded pilgrimage as a continuum while living as ‘pilgrims in place’. To achieve this, the research determines the creative ritual practices and material means that pilgrims used to enable a sense of simultaneous pilgrimage between their homes and Santiago de Compostela. I conclude this research underscores the value of understanding feminine divine associations, as well as other aspects of alternative pilgrimage, with Santiago de Compostela, alongside existing studies of the dominant pilgrimage narrative, to broaden pilgrimage scholarship and better appreciate the particular sociocultural indicators that such research offers.
Davis, Storme: Just a job: Stuckness and security in the lives of women in the freezing works in Aotearoa New Zealand
Master of Arts in Social Anthropology, Massey University
Advisors: Carolyn Morris and Nina Harding
Abstract: Women employed at freezing works in Aotearoa New Zealand are often understood to be “stuck” in a shit job. As no qualifications are required to work at freezing works, it is considered to be “just a job”, lacking the social and economic mobility of a career. This is because, under neoliberalism, a good job is one that is self-fulfilling and that allows you to “go places” or “get ahead”. However, the flip side of mobility is economic precarity and insecurity. Based on interviews with nine female freezing workers, as well as autoethnography, this thesis demonstrates women’s own understanding of what it means to be stuck in the freezing works. These women do not understand stuckness to be unambiguously negative. Stuckness is also economic security. Freezing works jobs not only provide necessities and some luxuries, but they are also just jobs, that do not demand the full involvement of the self. Contemporary concepts of work cannot fully account for these women’s experiences of work. This thesis, therefore, develops the women’s own concept of “stuckness” as a framework for understanding their work lives. It explores how the freezing works becomes a sticky job, through analysing how women come to work in the freezing works and end up staying there, how they experience everyday work on the production line, and how this stuckness is embodied. This case study demonstrates that in a world of precarity, what looks like getting stuck in a shit job is actually an increasingly rare instance of achieving security.
Fernander, Pasha: If I Giya Soma Dis Ting You Ga Talk It: An Exploration of the Use of Bahamian Creole and Standard English by Young Bahamians
Master of Arts in Cultural Anthropology, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
Advisors: Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich and Jennifer de Saxe
Abstract: This thesis examines the use of Bahamian Creole and Standard English among educated young Bahamians. It explores the divide between formal Standard English and informal Bahamian Creole within the historical context of British colonization in The Bahamas. The study analyzes the relationship between these two language variations, tracing their development from childhood influenced by family to experiences abroad for university. It discusses how previous generations were shaped by colonial attitudes that devalued Bahamian Creole and elevated Standard English, leading to the ability to code switch between the two languages.
Furthermore, the thesis explores how the university experience challenges these ingrained linguistic attitudes as students strive to assert their Bahamian identity within institutions that reward Standard English. It highlights the emergence of a double identity in different linguistic situations, revealing the reliance on oppressive structures through code switching. However, the thesis suggests that this is changing and explores how students actively resist these linguistic rules, seeking freedom and alternative ways of expression. Ultimately, this ethnography sheds light on the evolving linguistic landscape of young Bahamians, examining the complex interplay between language, identity, and resistance.
Griggs, Georgia: Being 'Good' in the Classroom: Whiteness and Moral Liminality in the 2023 Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum
Master of Arts in Cultural Anthropology, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
Advisors: Lorena Gibson and Corinna Howland
Abstract: This thesis explores how Year 10 social studies students and teachers at Kāpiti College, a secondary school in the North Island of New Zealand, are affected emotionally by whiteness and the White desire to be ‘good’ when learning about colonisation. The influence of whiteness is invisibilised and normalised in the 2023 Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum, influencing students and teachers to think of whiteness as ‘neutral’. The new curriculum was introduced to primary and secondary schools in 2023 and was adopted early by Kāpiti College in 2022. Emotional reactions to colonial topics and the effect of whiteness in New Zealand schools have been the subjects of previous research (MacDonald, Funaki, and Smith 2021; MacDonald 2020; Manning 2018; Bell and Russell 2021; MacDonald and Kidman 2021; Harcourt 2020). My research builds on this through an investigation of the influence of the 2023 Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum in maintaining and obscuring whiteness. Data was collected over eight weeks of fieldwork with five Year 10 social studies classes at Kāpiti College, using classroom participant observation, teacher semi-structured interviews, one lunchtime focus group with students, and an anonymous student survey. This thesis explores the effect that the dominance of whiteness had on the emotional responses of my participants. This included Pākehā students and teachers and their desire to maintain White innocence, tauiwi students who sometimes bought into that whiteness and did not see their settler stories reflected in the classroom, and Māori students whose anger and sense of injustice were silenced by whiteness.
Using Thomassen’s (2014) discussion of liminality, Fassin’s (2013) discussion of resentment and ressentiment, Applebaum’s (2010) discussion of whiteness, and Abraham and Torok’s (1986) cryptonomy, I argue that teachers and students experience varying types of discomfort. These include the desire to be ‘good’ and the resulting moral liminality which influences them to self-censor and become silent. Pākehā teachers and students are unsure how to be ‘good’ in response to the violent histories of colonisation, attempting to suppress uncomfortable emotions within the classroom environment, thus maintaining whiteness and coloniality through silence. Māori students’ emotional expressions are limited by White silences and the omission of Māori resistance histories, disregarded in the name of ‘neutrality’.
McGrath, Maggie: Clothes Do Not Maketh the Man: A study of the potential skeletal changes associated with wearing medieval European plate armour
Master of Anthropology (Research), The University of Auckland
Advisor: Judith Littleton
Abstract: Culture shapes bodies, and the medieval practice of armour wearing is likely an example of this. Much of our knowledge of armour comes from armour that has been passed down through families and institutions such as churches, because the metal was often recycled (Wijnhoven, 2015). This evidence, alongside rare, excavated finds, has been studied extensively. However, it is rare for skeletal remains to be found in association with armour, as it was usually removed prior to or after death (Appleby et al., 2015). As a result, we know comparatively little about the individuals who wore the armour we have studied, and how it affected their bodies. In other words, bioarchaeological, historical and archaeological evidence for armour wearing have not been compared or combined to a significant extent. This research will contribute to encouraging interdisciplinary study regarding armour and conflict more broadly. Alioto (2020) suggests that, in general, the reconstruction of the past through a combination of historical analysis and bioarchaeological methods is underperformed. Interdisciplinary research benefits bioarchaeology in many ways, for example, historical data is critical to narrowing down the causes of activity-related skeletal changes (Jiménez-Brobeil et al., 2012). The depth provided by interdisciplinary knowledge is also essential to the study of armour because armour and weaponry should be studied with their use in combat in mind, which involves their effects on the body. Without this, our understanding of their characteristics lacks the fundamental context of why they have those characteristics, in relation to protecting or harming the body (Halpin, 2013). Thus, we can and should investigate how the characteristics of armour affected the wearer, and how the wearer affected the characteristics of armour. Furthermore, interdisciplinary research can prevent misconceptions about past behaviours, including armour wearing. The development of misconceptions around armour wearing has occurred, alongside misconceptions around other examples of cultural body shaping for which scholars have favoured historical and archaeological evidence (Gibson, 2015). To attack these misconceptions and learn more about the individuals who wore armour, a method for identifying them in the common event that they were not buried in or with their armour is required. To form this method, it is necessary to investigate the core relationship: how medieval armour wearing shaped the body. Little is known about this due to the rarity of armour-associated burials, and there is a similar lack of relevant discussion about the bodily effects of armour wearing in historical records (Breiding, 2010; Clements, 2012). This research aims to develop a model for identifying wearers of medieval European armour through the effects it had on their bones. Throughout the research, the relationship between medieval armour and the body will be investigated. A top-down approach will be used to create the model: patterns in modern armour wearers' injuries, pathologies, and activity-related skeletal changes will be used to create a model of the key skeletal changes associated with armour wearing. This model will then be tested on medieval skeletal data from a group of potential armour-wearers (based on archaeological and historical evidence), and a control group, to investigate whether it can accurately distinguish potential armour wearers from the wider population.
Schalburg-Clayton, Jessica Renate: Isotopes, agriculture, and climate change: Exploring biosocial adaptation at Iron Age Non Ban Jak, Northeast Thailand
Doctor of Philosophy in Anatomy, University of Otago
Advisors: Hallie Buckley, Charlotte King, and Sian Halcrow
Abstract: The Upper Mun River Valley (UMRV), located in Northeast (NE) Thailand, underwent a transition from hunter-gatherer occupation to the formation of early settlements during the Neolithic. Social development continued through the Bronze Age (BA) and into Iron Age (IA), culminating in state formation and the Angkorian Kingdom. With social transitions and technological change came biosocial adaptation, such as improving agricultural techniques, land modification in the form of moating for irrigation, concepts of land ownership, and potentially increased social inequality.
This thesis focuses on the UMRV moated site, Non Ban Jak (NBJ), a site primarily occupation during the late IA. NBJ is one of the largest and best-preserved, skeletal assemblages from the IA period in the region. By using isotopic analysis of human and faunal dental enamel, this thesis aims to better understand the relationship between human socio-economic, agricultural, and environmental change during the IA. This investigation is categorised into three main themes: subsistence, population interaction, and environmental change.
Theme one, Subsistence, has been explored using carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to identify dietary trends of the human population in addition to a subsample of animal species . Carbon (𝛿13C) isotope results indicate that the population was mostly subsisting on C3 crops, likely rice, with moderate inclusion of C4 resources. The C4 contribution could be from consumed animal protein, as many fauna were subsisting on predominately C4 plants. Oxygen (𝛿18O) isotope results from NBJ, compared with the BA occupation at Ban Non Wat (BNW), highlight a greater amount of isotopic variability at NBJ, which could be explained by increased variability in monsoon intensity or the introduction of standing water sources.
Theme two, Population Interaction, was tested using the isotopic system strontium (87Sr/86Sr). A new strontium isotope baseline, commonly referred to as an isoscape, was developed using plant, soil, and geological samples to establish a series of ‘local’ isotopic ranges for the UMRV and for six nearby archaeological sites sampled in the UMRV. All humans from NBJ were found to be from the UMRV. However, many had 87Sr/86Sr signatures which did not fall into the local NBJ range. When previously published nearby sites (BNW and NUL) were re-examined against these new baseline data, similar patterns of individuals falling outside their burial site’s baseline were identified. This suggests that there may have existed some form of intraregional subsistence or mobility. Faunal strontium isotope analysis identified three clear outliers, two bovids and one Sus scrofa. These faunal outliers, suggests that long-distance trade of food resources may have been occurring during the IA.
Examination of theme three, Environmental Change, involved the use of incremental 𝛿13C and 𝛿18O isotope analysis. Incremental sampling of animal and human dental enamel allowed the identification of possible changes in water availability through an individual’s period of tooth formation. Capturing the full modern monsoon oxygen shift, and bovid intratooth oxygen variation, suggest there was less precipitation change between wet and dry seasons during the early and late IA. The early occupation period of NBJ corresponds with a time of moat-building and therefore this isotopic evidence supports the idea that moating was a social response for the continuation of rice agriculture during times of low rainfall. Incremental isotopic analysis also contributed to understanding of birth seasonality and management of herds as well as faunal mobility during the IA.
Overall, this thesis contributes to and expands on the models of social change previously developed in the UMRV, which posit that shifting economic strategies may have been linked to environmental change during the IA.
Tuagalu, I'uogafa: Tāla'iga o le gafa o le vā: Storying the Ontology, Genealogy, and the Energetics of Vā: The Development of Samoan Worldview c.1000AD-1914
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Art and Design, Auckland University of Technology
Advisors: Albert L. Refiti, Billie Lythberg, and Tina Engels-Schwarzpaul
Abstract: The Samoan concept of vā is widely used in academic studies on Pacific peoples. The term vā is usually defined as “relationship, relations (between two things and people).” This thesis examines the ontological status of the Samoan notion of vā; and traces its development in Samoan history from c.1000AD-1914. This development culminates in the emergence of a 19th century Samoan worldview. The three research questions that drive this present study are: first, what is the ontological status of vā? Second, how is vā manifested in Samoan history and culture? And last, does an historical analysis of vā enable an articulation of a Samoan view of history? The thesis focusses on four features of Samoan storytelling and telling of history: gafa (genealogy), Tala (narrative), people and place.
In this study, Samoan history is divided into two broad time periods: The Gafa period (c1000AD-1722s), where the Samoan vā worldview is exemplified by gafa or genealogical way of looking at the world; and the colonial phase (1722-1915), where the gafa worldview, which had always been changing, transforms at an even faster rate primarily because of European contact and influence. Two methods of historiographical enquiry are employed:
the ontology of the Samoan vā is examined via critical studies enquiry of philosophic and linguistic usages;
secondly, an historical and ethnographic approach is employed to trace the transformations of vā through the documentary and artefactual record of two time periods in Samoan history.
Priority is given to nineteenth century Samoan language sources, when stories, myths, and legends were first collected primarily by Europeans from Samoan pundits commentators.
This study argues that the notion of field, ie, “a region in which a body experiences a force as the result of the presence of some other body or bodies” enhances our understanding of vā relations between people and things; and that objects in vā-fields are subject to vā-forces, i.e., factors that impel Samoan movement or behaviour. In tracing the changes in vā-fields ( the relations between people and things) and vā-forces (factors that led Samoan behaviour), one can get a Samoan understanding of their history.
