Pacific history
Book
Transforming Hawai‘i: balancing coercion and consent in Eighteenth-Century Kānaka Maoli statecraft
This study examines the role of coercion in the unification of the Hawaiian Islands by Kamehameha I between 1782 and 1812 at a time of increasing European contact.
Thesis
Time of Transition: Patterns of Obsidian Exchange and Utilization during the Lapita and Post-Lapita Periods on Watom Island, Papua New Guinea
The aim of this research is to investigate the nature of the social and economic transition occurring between the Lapita to post-Lapita periods on the island of Watom, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea.
Thesis
Reading the Bones: A Taphonomic Analysis of Lapita Mortuary Practices
People carrying the Lapita culture, which first appeared in the Bismarck archipelago c. 3300 BP, were the first colonists of Remote Oceania. While over 200 Lapita sites have been identified throughout the Pacific, very few contain any skeletal remains. The scarcity of burials has limited insight into Lapita mortuary practices, actions that bring forth the...
Conference paper
Beginning a conversation: writing a history about Mangaia
Imagine the following scene: Rarotonga International Airport, the date 26 April 1988. A young Pacific historian is standing in front of a weighing machine at the domestic check in. About to place his bags on the tray, he is told that the counter staff must first weigh him. Has he heard right? But they insist...