This research will describe and analyze the relationships between environmental conditions, sociopolitical complexity and degree of social stratification for 22 Micronesian islands. The PI will do archival research in a controlled comparison methodology. Using archaeological, ethnographic, ethnohistorical and linguistic sources the PI will reconstruct key elements of proto-Micronesian culture to describe and analyze variations in political and stratification systems. This project is important because it will provide a major synthesis of our knowledge of the peoples and cultures of Micronesia, and will provide a comparative case to similar studies for other areas of Polynesia. By applying a phylogenetic approach to cultural evolution in a little-known part of the world it will enhance our understanding of how systems of inequality arise and persist in human societies.
