Rainbird P. The Archaeology of Micronesia

Cambridge University Press, 2004. — 315 p. — (Cambridge World Archaeology). — ISBN: 978-0-521-65188-2.This is the first book-length archaeological study of Micronesia, an island group in thewestern Pacific Ocean. Drawing on awide range of archaeological, anthropological and historical sources, the author explores the various ways that the societies of these islands have been interpreted since European navigators first arrived there in the sixteenth century. Considering the process of initial colonization on the island groups of Marianas, Carolines, Marshalls and Kiribati, he examines the histories of these islands and explores how the neighbouring areas are drawn together through notions of fusion, fluidity and flux. The author places this region within the broader arena of Pacific island studies and addresses contemporary debates such as origins, processes of colonization, social organization, environmental change and the interpretation of material culture. This book will be essential reading for any scholar with an interest in the archaeology of the Pacific.Paul Rainbird is a Lecturer in Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Wales, Lampeter. He has conducted archaeological fieldwork in the Pacific islands, Australia and Europe. He co-edited Interrogating Pedagogies: Archaeology in Higher Education (2001).Micronesian/macrofusion.
Micronesians: the people in history and anthropology.
Fluid boundaries: horizons of the local, colonial and disciplinary.
Settling the seascape: fusing islands and people.
Identifying difference: the Mariana Islands.
Asea of islands: Palau, Yap and the Carolinian atolls.
‘How the past speaks here!’ – the eastern Caroline Islands.
Islands and beaches: the atoll groups and outliers.
The tropical north-west Pacific in context.