Under the direction of Dr. Patrick Kirch, MS Julie Endicott, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Working in conjunction with her advisor she will conduct archaeological excavations on Mangaia, one of the Cook Islands. Excavation to date indicates that Mangaia was settled by Polynesian peoples and developed a chieftan level of society. To date however no villages have been excavated and little is known about how households and larger settlement units were organized. MS Endicott will conduct large areal excavations of open terraces which contain habitation sites. Work will involve the removal of overburden and careful exposure of habitation floors. The spatial distribution of artifacts and features will be recorded and artifactual, faunal and floral materials recovered will be returned to Berkeley for analysis. Sediment samples will be taken to provide information about depositional processes. Through this work MS Endicott hopes to elucidate the structural context within which household activities took place, identify individual activities and note variation from household to household. Polynesian peoples have been the focus of intensive anthropological study because of the extreme variation in social organization which has been noted among different groups. Within a relatively short time span Polynesians expanded from a Southeast Asian point of origin and populated many of the islands of the Pacific. Anthropologists believe that through comparison across island groups one can gain insight into the underlying processes of cultural adaptation and change. However to accomplish this goal one must set present day groups into a broader historical context and MS Endicott's work is directed towards this end. Very little is known about prehistoric organization at the important household level and this work will help to fill the gap. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will increase our understanding of how cultural diversity originates and is maintained. It will also assist in the training of a promising young scientist.
