Fijian cannibalism and mortuary ritual: bioarchaeological evidence from Vunda

Abstract

The human skeletal remains from the site of Vunda (AD 800–1600) in Fiji have been interpreted as evidence of cannibalism. The cannibalism hypothesis is tested by examining the modifications of the Vunda skeletal sample. The sample consists of human and non-human bones from a midden context, as well as intact human burials extracted from the midden. Most modifications are more common in the medium mammal sample than in the midden human sample—burning (9% of medium mammal remains and 5% of human remains), cutmarks (4 and 1.5%), percussion pits (1 and 0%), and peeling (2 and 0%)—though these differences are not statistically significant. There are no significant differences between the human burials and the midden human sample in the rates of cutmarks, percussion pits, peeling, or in the pattern of element representation. Therefore the cannibalism hypothesis is not supported at Vunda. Most of the ‘midden’ human remains were probably part of the formal burials. The modifications and context of the Vunda sample are compared with the remains from the nearby, partially contemporaneous site of Navatu (where an inference of cannibalism is supported) to tentatively establish the characteristics of Fijian mortuary rituals versus cannibalism. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.