Asian Perspectives, 2004 - Volume 43, Number 1 (Spring)
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Asian Perspectives is the leading peer-reviewed archaeological journal devoted to the prehistory of Asia and the Pacific region. In addition to archaeology, it features articles and book reviews on ethnoarchaeology, palaeoanthropology, physical anthropology, and ethnography of interest and use to the prehistorian. International specialists contribute regional reports summarizing current research and fieldwork, and present topical reports of significant sites. Occasional special issues focus on single topics.
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Center for South Asian Studies
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Recent Submissions
Item Review of State Formation in Korea: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives, by Gina L. Barnes; The Prehistory of Buka: A Stepping Stone Island in the Northern Solomons, by Stephen Wickler; Histories of Old Ages: Essays in Honour of Rhys Jones, by Atholl Anderson, Ian Lilley and Sue O'Connor (eds.); On the Margins of Sustainability, Prehistoric Settlement of Utrok Atoll, Northern Marshall Islands, by Marshall I. Weisler; Ban Chiang, A Prehistoric Village Site in Northeast Thailand I: The Human Skeletal Remains, by Michael Pietrusewsky and Michele Toomay Douglas; Southeast Asian Archaeology 1998. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, by Wibke Lobo and Stefanie Reimann (eds.); Pacific 2000: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific, by Christopher M. Stevenson, Georgia Lee, and F. J. Morin (eds.); An Archaeological History of Japan, 30,000 B.C. to A.D. 700, by Koji Mizoguchi; Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China, by Anne P. Underhill; Genetic, Linguistic, and Archaeological Perspectives on Human Diversity in Southeast Asia, by Li Jin, Mark Seielstad, and Chunjie Xiao (eds.); Subsistence-Settlement Systems and Intersite Variability in the Moroiso Phase of the Early Jomon Period of Japan, by Habu Junko.(University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu), 2004) Pak, Yangjin; Holdaway, Simon; O'Connell, James; Hunter-Anderson, Rosalind L.; Oxenham, Marc; Miksic, John N.; Weisler, Marshall I.; Hudson, Mark J.; Barnes, Gina L.; Pietrusewsky, Michael; Ken'ichi, KobayashiItem Glass Beads in Ancient India and Furnace-Wound Beads at Purdalpur: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach(University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu), 2004) Kanungo, Alok KumarToday glass beads are a major product of India from at least three different locations, using altogether different techniques. Each production process leaves behind debitage unique to its individual manufacturing process. Archaeologically, it is imperative to identifY and record the production techniques of glass bead manufacture and to identify the various specifIc waste products rather than merely speaking of beads and production centers on the basis of statistics. There have been a number of studies on Indo-Pacific bead production, but few on other methods. An ancient and important technique of bead manufacture, used even today, is the "furnace-winding" technique. Beads produced by this technique have been found in large numbers at various archaeological sites. This paper discusses the details of beads and bead waste produced by the furnace-winding technique and the specific criteria of production. It also uses the results of a detailed ethnographic analysis at a manufacturing village, Purdalpur, to understand the production and dispersal mechanisms. An understanding of these mechanisms allows us to formulate certain criteria that can be used to draw better inferences about archaeological sites in which bead debitage has been found. KEYWORDS: Banaras Beads Limited, debitage, furnace-wound beads, India, Purdalpur.Item Archaeological Paleobiogeography in the Russian Far East: The Kuril Islands and Sakhalin in Comparative Perspective(University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu), 2004) Fitzhugh, Ben; Moore, Scotty; Lockwood, Chris; Boone, CristieThis article presents analyses of lithic and zooarchaeological data from the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East to better understand the effects of island isolation and biodiversity on human settlement and subsistence. Using the theory of island biogeography, we examine predictions about lithic raw material use, trade, mobility, and foraging behavior for different island groups. This study finds convincing evidence that insularity imposed significant constraints on prehistoric maritime hunter-gatherer access to lithic raw materials and foraging targets in this part of the North Pacific. We find that lithic raw materials are constrained in their distribution and conserved in more insular areas, while zooarchaeological taxonomic composition and richness data pattern according to expectations from optimal foraging theory applied across islands of variable biogeographic diversity. While based on limited samples, the results of these analyses provide support for a biogeographical approach to the prehistory of islands and add to our understanding of human adaptation in the Sea of Okhotsk. KEYWORDS: island biogeography, Kuril Islands, lithic analysis, maritime hunter-gatherers, North Pacific Rim, Sakhalin, Sea of Okhotsk, zooarchaeology.Item Quartzite and Vein Quartz as Lithic Raw Materials Reconsidered: View from the Korean Paleolithic(University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu), 2004) Seong, ChuntaekThe present study challenges the widespread notion of an unchanging crude technology of quartzite and vein quartz assemblages in the Korean Paleolithic. Though mostly coarse and tough, the raw materials vary in texture, homogeneity, and thus quality in lithic manufacture, which in turn is the main reason why there is significant variability in the lithic technology. In contrast to the common impressionistic assumption, these materials produce not only large tools but also small flake tools. The exam.ination of Paleolithic assemblages from the middle Korean Peninsula shows differences in raw material use in making artifacts of various form and size. Using the local raw materials, which allowed for hard and sharp edges when flaked, was a very effective strategy in lithic technology. KEYWORDS: lithic technology, Paleolithic, quartzite.Item Hunter-Gatherers and the Archaeology of Discard Behavior: An Analysis of Surface Stone Artifacts from Sturt National Park, Western New South Wales, Australia(University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu), 2004) Holdaway, Simon; Shiner, Justin; Fanning, PatriciaAn analysis of surface scatters of stone artifacts from late Holocene contexts at Stud Creek, Sturt National Park in the northwest of New South Wales, Australia, is reported. A sedimentological and archaeological chronology for Stud Creek shows archaeological remains are no older than 2000 years and Stud Creek saw repeated occupation during the last two millennia. Methods are proposed whereby conflated stone artifact assemblages from different locations within the Stud Creek catchment can be analyzed to understand how use of the catchment differed from place to place. We propose "place use history," as a more useful concept than "settlement system" for understanding surface artifact assemblages. KEYWORDS: arid Australia, hunter-gatherers, late Holocene, lithics.Item Who Invented the Bronze Drum? Nationalism, Politics, and a Sino-Vietnamese Archaeological Debate of the 1970s and 1980s(University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu), 2004) Han, XiaorongThis paper reviews the Sino-Vietnamese archaeological debate of the 1970s and 1980s pertaining to the origins of the bronze drum, specifically analyzing how nationalism and international politics had an impact on both the questions posed by archaeologists as well as the answers they provided to these questions. Based on a reading of the major works on the bronze drum published in Viet Nam and China since the 1950s, particularly those published in the 1970s and 1980s, this paper argues that the debate between Chinese and Vietnamese archaeologists on the origins of the bronze drum in general, and the dating, classification, and interpretations of the decorations of the bronze drum in particular, had many of its origins in the political and military conflicts between the two countries, to the extent that an individual archaeologist's views of certain issues were largely determined by his nationality. KEYWORDS: archaeology, bronze drum, China, nationalism, Viet Nam.Item Don Bayard (1940-2002): Outstanding Southeast Asian Archaeologist and Much More(University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu), 2004) Hutterer, Karl L.Item 43:1 Table of Contents - Asian Perspectives(University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu), 2004)