Three millennia of human and sea turtle interactions in Remote Oceania |
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Authors: | M S Allen |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand |
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Abstract: | Sea turtles are one of the largest vertebrates in the shallow water ecosystems of Remote Oceania, occurring in both sea grass
pastures and on coral reefs. Their functional roles, however, over ecological and evolutionary times scales are not well known,
in part because their numbers have been so drastically reduced. Ethnographic and archaeological data is analysed to assess
long-term patterns of human–sea turtle interactions (mainly green and hawksbill) prior to western contact and the magnitude
of turtle losses in this region. From the ethnographic data two large-scale patterns emerge, societies where turtle capture
and consumption was controlled by chiefs and priests versus those where control over turtle was more flexible and consumption
more egalitarian. Broadly the distinction is between societies on high (volcanic and raised coral) islands versus atolls,
but the critical variables are the ratio of land to shallow marine environments, combined with the availability of refugia.
Archaeological evidence further highlights differences in the rate and magnitude of turtle losses across these two island
types, with high islands suffering both large and rapid declines while those on atolls are less marked. These long-term historical
patterns help explain the ethnographic endpoints, with areas that experienced greater losses apparently developing more restrictive
social controls over time. Finally, if current turtle migration patterns held in the past, with annual movements between western
foraging grounds and eastern nesting beaches, then intensive harvesting from 2,800 Before Present in West Polynesia probably
affected turtle abundance and coral reef ecology in East Polynesia well before the actual arrival of human settlers, the latter
a process that most likely began 1,400 years later. |
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Keywords: | Sea turtles Human impact Pacific prehistory Lapita colonisation Polynesia |
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