Lapitoid settlements of Futuna and Alofi, Western Polynesia

Abstract

change in the Fiji-West Polynesian region, change due at least in part to adaptation to truly 'oceanic' environmental conditions (Green 1979; Kirch 1980), although we are still ignorant of the details of this transformation. Green (1978, 1979) has demonstrated that the Lapita Cultural Complex exhibits both spatial and temporal variability, and has convincingly distinguished major Western and Eastern subgroups. Within the Eastern subgroup (the Fiji-West Polynesian area) which concerns us here, there are only a handful of excavated, well-analyzed and published sites. The most important of these sites are: Natunuku, Yanuca, and Sigatoka in Fiji (Birks 1973; Hunt 1980); TO-2, Mangaia Mound, Vuki's Mound, and TO-6 on Tongatapu (McKera 1929; Poulsen 1968; Groube 1971); Lolokoka, Lotoa, and Pome'e on Niuatoputapu (Kirch 1978); and Ferry Berth, Sasoa'a, and Vailele on Upolu, Western Samoa (Green and Davidson 1969, 1974). To understand how Lapita colonizers diversified to become the cultures known historic-