Globalisation past and present. Ethno-archaeological research on material culture and identity in Melanesia

Globalisation past and present. Ethno-archaeological research on material culture and identity in Melanesia

Professor Helle Vandkilde, Dr. Phil., Institute of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics, University of Aarhus

What underlies the extensive spread of uniform material culture that may periodically be observed across vast geographical areas from ancient times until the present day? The overall aim of the project is to contribute to the research on globalisation in this field. In concrete terms, this is to be carried out through an ethno-archaeological pilot project in Melanesia, a location where the past and the present remain intimately connected to this day. Archaeological research of the Lapita culture from the second millennium BC is to be linked with an ethnographic analysis of canoe voyages of recent time. Both phenomena are expressions of the globalisation trends of different periods and will be able to throw light on each other. The reason for this is that they are intimately connected, as the geographically extensive Lapita complex, the first agricultural society accompanied by a new language and a special material culture, must have spread through navigation in seagoing outrigger canoes. Comparative research on and around the island of Mbuke, in the province of Manus in the Bismarck Sea at Papua New Guinea, is to illuminate the issue. The researchers are to carry out an archaeological test excavation of a Lapita site and make an anthropological analysis of the current use of the canoe as a means of communication and marker of identity. One significant focus of the research is the cross- cultural dependence that is thus generated between otherwise separated ethnic groups. The research is to contribute to improving our understanding of globalisation as a phenomenon of both past history and the present day. How is culture and knowledge disseminated, and how are these received locally? Furthermore, which consequences does this have for the formation of social identity? The project is part of a wider research effort (FKK and Aarhus University): “Material Culture and the Formation of Identity in the Past and Present” together with the cooperation partners of Moesgaard Museum at Aarhus in Denmark, the National Museum of Papua New Guinea and the ANU in Canberra.