Early Evidence for Fijian Cannibalism? Refining the Methods for Identifying Cannibalism in the Archaeological Record
Early Evidence for Fijian Cannibalism? Refining the Methods for Identifying Cannibalism in the Archaeological Record
Date
2014-01-15
Authors
Rieth, Timothy
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
Abstract
Cannibalism has been, and remains, a controversial topic. Despite the fact that thousands of species (Crump 1 99 1 ; Dong and Polis 1 992; Elgar and Crespi 1 992), including our closest genetic relative the chimpanzee, have been documented committing cannibalistic acts (Nishida and Kawanaka 1985; Norikoshi 1982), the assertion that cannibalism has occurred among human groups often sparks a heated debate. Archaeology has become an arena for these debates. The contentious nature of this topic requires a strict analytic method to identify and document evidence for cannibalism in the archaeological record. In this paper, I have focused on refining the methods used for identifying the archaeological evidence ofcannibalism. Human skeletal remains excavated from Olo, site Y2-25, Waya Island, Fiji were examined as a case study.
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