Society Islands Research Articles

Molecular phylogeography of the Society Islands (Tahiti; South Pacific) reveals departures from hotspot archipelago models

AbstractAimPhylogeographical and modelling studies have suggested that the biotas of oceanic hotspot archipelagos (such as the Hawaiian, Canary and Galápagos islands) diversify in parallel with the formation of the islands on which they live. Here, we review the phylogeography of the native terrestrial biota of the Society Islands, an archipelago formed < 4.6 Ma, to test this model.LocationSociety Islands, French Polynesia (Pacific Ocean).MethodsWe reviewed 49 phylogenetic and phylogeographical studies incorporating Society Island terrestrial animal and plant taxa. We ask: (1) Where are the sister groups of Societies lineages distributed? (2) Are Societies‐endemic ‘radiations’ monophyletic or polyphyletic? (3) What between‐island barriers are seen in the phylogeography of Societies taxa? (4) What within‐island barriers are seen in the phylogeography of Societies taxa? (5) How old is the Societies biota?ResultsMost Societies lineages are closely related to those in other tropical Pacific archipelagos, particularly the Cook, Austral and Marquesas Islands (< 2000 km distant). More genera show strong evidence for polyphyly (13 genera) than for monophyly (4 genera) in the Society Islands. The most common within‐archipelago phylogeographical barrier corresponds to the straits (150 km) between the Windward Society and Leeward Society Islands. Only a few groups, primarily species‐rich invertebrate radiations, show divergence among or within islands. Published divergence time estimates suggest that much of the Societies biota may be much younger than the age of the archipelago.Main conclusionsMuch of the Societies biota does not appear to have diversified in parallel with the formation of the archipelago, differing from ‘progression rule’ and general dynamic models for the diversification of oceanic archipelago biotas. Rather, many Societies ‘radiations’ may have been assembled via repeated, independent colonizations, which may have entailed extensive macroevolutionary turnover of colonizing lineages. These patterns have implications for the biogeography of other Pacific hotspot archipelagos.

Ecological and genetic variation in reef-building corals on four Society Islands

We quantified benthic community structure on shallow (10 m isobath) reefs separated by 3–130 km on four islands in the south Pacific, and evaluated the roles of disturbances vs. coral recruitment as causes of spatial heterogeneity. Reefs were surveyed in 2013 on Moorea, Tahiti, Tetiaroa, and Maiao, with community structure sampled at two sites on each island using photoquadrats. The effects of coral recruitment on population structure were evaluated through genetic analyses of Pocillopora on three of the islands. Benthic community structure with functional group resolution differed among islands and generally among sites, but coral community structure (generic resolution) differed among islands, but generally not among sites. Genetic analyses of Pocillopora using the open reading frame of host mtDNA revealed varying relative abundances of Pocillopora meandrina/Pocillopora eydouxi, Pocillopora verrucosa, Pocillopora effuses, and two unnamed haplotypes on each island. These results suggest that corals on each island represent unique samplings of genetically discrete larval assemblages rather than random samplings of a single larval assemblage. Together, our findings emphasize the extent to which coral community structure varies over a scale of <200 km, and suggests that recruitment from spatially discrete pools of coral larvae plays an important role in creating spatial variation in community structure, even where reefs are connected by prevailing currents.

Validity of &lt;i&gt;Epigonus megalops&lt;/i&gt; (Perciformes: Epigonidae), Redescription of &lt;i&gt;E. atherinoides&lt;/i&gt;, and First Record of &lt;i&gt;E. draco&lt;/i&gt; from the Central South Pacific

A deepwater cardinalfish, Hynnodus megalops Smith and Radcliffe in Radcliffe, 1912 , originally described from four specimens from the Philippines, is redescribed as a valid species of Epigonus. Epigonus megalops is similar to E. atherinoides ( Gilbert, 1905 ) but differs in having a relatively longer head and upper jaw, a relatively deeper caudal peduncle, and ctenoid scales on the lateral sides of the body. Epigonus atherinoides is redescribed based on the holotype, previously known specimens, and newly collected ones from the Society Islands and Western Australia. Additionally, two specimens of E. draco Okamoto, 2015 collected from the Society Islands represent the first record of this species from the central South Pacific.

Prologue

Prologue Hiroshi Aramata meeting taote sinoto “Hey, an amazing Japanese man is working here. Would you like to meet him?” It was the mid-1980s, and I was visiting a friend who lived in Tahiti. “He is exploring all the islands of the Pacific Ocean, excavating sites and studying ancient Polynesian culture. Just recently he was researching the moai statues on Easter Island. Can you believe that he went there with just shoyu and wasabi for provisions? He makes his own sashimi! Two or three days from now he’ll be back on Huahine. I’m sure you’ll be astonished by his stories about his research and adventures!” When my friend told me about this man, the first image that came to my mind was Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I didn’t picture Harrison Ford, exactly, but a brilliant, resourceful, rough-and-tumble explorer from the past—a swashbuckling adventurer roaming the South Seas to find the hidden treasures of Polynesian chiefs. According to my friend, he was called Taote Sinoto. The name didn’t sound Japa nese to me, and I had no idea how to write it in kanji. By chance I knew that taote in the Tahitian language means “doctor.” Given a name like that, I concluded he must be an eminent person in the Pacific. For many years, I had avidly read accounts of early South Sea expeditions, such as the journals of Bougainville, Cook, and others. I never suspected that among these famous Pacific explorers would be someone from Japan. I wanted to meet Taote Sinoto, but I was intimidated by what my friend had said about him. I therefore declined my friend’s offer to introduce us. However, the exotic name—Taote Sinoto—made a lasting impression on me. Several years later, I was in Honolulu to photograph Hawaiian artifacts at the Bishop Museum, which has the largest collection in the Pacific, and to write an article. While I was photographing a reconstructed heiau there, a curator came up to me and asked if I would like to meet the museum’s foremost authority on Polynesia. When I asked who that was, he replied, “Dr. Sinoto.” “Ah, I know that name!” I blurted out. It had never occurred to me that the Japanese Indiana Jones of my imagination was a museum-affiliated scholar. I asked the curator what Dr. Sinoto was like. He replied that, as a young man, Dr. Sinoto had planned to study archaeology at an American university when World War II ended. On his journey [End Page xi] Click for larger view View full resolution The fish-shaped nameplate over Dr. Sinoto’s office door at Bishop Museum was made by his son, Akihiko, as a middle-school student. The poster on the door is for the annual Heiva Festival in Tahiti, a month-long celebration of tradi tional culture, dance, music, and games. A painting by artist and musician Bobby Holcomb is reproduced on the poster. [End Page xii] to California by ship in the summer of 1954, he stopped over in Hawai‘i to participate in an archaeological dig. As a result of that unplanned stopover, he met Dr. Kenneth Emory and ended up staying in Hawai‘i, working at first as Dr. Emory’s research assistant. It wasn’t long before Dr. Sinoto made the groundbreaking discovery that ancient fishhooks could be used to reconstruct the chronology of human habitation in Hawai‘i and across the Pacific. After this revolutionary finding, he continued—undaunted by dangers and hardships—to explore every place in Oceania: Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, the Marquesas, the Society Islands, Easter Island, New Zealand, and elsewhere. His archaeological research overturned the prevailing assumption that ancient artifacts could not survive in the tropical heat and humidity of the Pacific and, therefore, nothing could be used to establish a timeline of human habitation. His work also paved the way for the development of new theories about Polynesian migrations. Additionally, Dr. Sinoto undertook the restoration of significant ancient sites and structures that had long been in ruins or abandoned. What an exceptional person, I thought. I can’t miss a second opportunity to meet...

Tobacco Networks in the Aegean Islands

The Aegean Archipelagos could be seen as a networked cultural space covered by multilevel web frameworks. The lines (flows or trajectories) are routes of people, goods, ideas and the nodes are the islands and their communities. At the same time islands are also fields of production that makes them matrixes of social and cultural creation. This paper deals with the cultivation and marketing of tobacco in the Aegean islands from the second half of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century. The presence of tobacco was combined with the transition to modernity for island communities when the capitalistic economy was spread and became dominant in the eastern Mediterranean. Following the division of labor, the tobacco processing reinforced the dependency of island economies from regional and global financial systems; also the establishment of an industrial working class within island societies. The tobacco left its mark in social and spatial formation in the Aegean islands both in urban and rural environments.

Adapting postcolonial island societies: Fiji and the Solomon Islands in the Pacific

Sovereign Pacific island states attract little attention from the great powers. They achieved independence peacefully, mostly from the United Kingdom, and have generally maintained functional democratic societies. Nonetheless, some Pacific states have struggled with the political, institutional and economic legacy of colonization. Tensions between indigenous norms and practices and the expectations of a transposed Western model of society have led to crises. This paper focuses on two Pacific Island states, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. The collapse of the state in the Solomons at the turn of this century, and repeated military coups in Fiji, are due in part to the failure of British-derived institutions to be fully accepted. In both these countries, indigenous people have proposed reforms of these inherited models. Nonetheless, as we shall see, the recent rewriting of these two countries’ constitutions has maintained the fundamentals of the Westminster system, and a government by Westernized indigenous élites.

Lighthouses, pilotage and technology: the impact on small island societies

This paper discusses how lighthouses and pilot services have been bearers of technology intended to improve the safety and reliability of maritime shipping. The introduction of technology has had a considerable impact on many small island societies through state involvement meant to reduce hazards in navigation and shipping. The impact has, however, been manifold and varied, and including positive and less positive impacts. Indeed, small islands and islanders have generally never been the beneficiaries of large scale, state-driven technology programs seeking to modernize society. As an exception, however, certain small islands have traditionally been of interest to the state due to their locations, either for defence purposes or to assist seafarers’ navigation in hazardous waters. This paper reviews the thrust and effects of investment in lighthouses and pilotage services on small islands. It concludes with a brief case story from a small populated island in Sweden that has undergone several periods of development and stagnation as a result of technology and state involvement.

Mental health in the island nations of the Western Pacific: a rapid review of the literature.

The aim of the study was to identify mental-health-relevant literature accessible to policy makers and healthcare workers in the island nations of the Western Pacific. Material collated to support the inaugural Leadership in Mental Health: Island Nations course held in Cairns in May 2015 was used as the basis of a "rapid review". The rapid review considered 303 documents identified by a search carried out using James Cook University's OneSearch, Google Scholar, and the authors' knowledge. Search terms included mental health and the like, and terms with Pacific and current Pacific island country names. Findings were classified by region/country, year of release/publication, mental health issue addressed, peer-reviewed or grey literature, and type of study. Almost half of the findings had been released in the previous five years. However, only 36% were peer-reviewed publications and only 3.6% of the findings were intervention studies. There is limited easily accessible documentation to confidently direct practice or policies regarding which strategies are likely to be effective in responding to the high rates of mental ill-health experienced in the Pacific island nations, or to plan for increases as a consequence of rapid social and demographic changes that are transforming Pacific island societies.

Critical Localisms and Global Education in Jeju’s Local Streets

Globalization and global competitiveness have become principal concerns in Jeju Island, a former agrarian periphery whose leadership aspires to become a prime international destination. Despite trophy accolades in the form of UNESCO designations and the New Seven Wonders selection, Jeju’s development remains uneven and contradictory. Jeju Island also still lacks an active citizen participation in framing and debating globalization issues. A lack of consensus, democratic process, and resident participation has deepened divisions existing in island society and further puts native locals at a severe disadvantage. Where policymakers have failed, however, grassroots efforts are taking up the task of globalizing Jeju residents. Using the two examples of JICEA’s “Wondosim Yetgil Tamheom”(“Exploring Jeju City’s Old Town Streets”) walks and Global Inner Peace’s September 2015 UN Peace Day event, I discuss the ways these locally-based and locally-founded NGOs are utilizing local experience to provide more nuanced critiques of globalization discourse or to reframe it. I argue that a form of critical localism is necessary to foster more global perspectives.

Rapid societal change as a proxy for regional environmental forcing: Evidence and explanations for Pacific island societies in the 14–15th centuries

AbstractGiven the unquestioned impacts of recent/future environmental changes on human societies, it is reasonable to posit that past societal responses could be used as proxies of contemporaneous environmental forcing and might help identify the drivers of these, particularly where independent evidence of the effects of these events is inadequate. Such areas include Pacific oceanic islands for most of which there is evidence of a societal perturbation in the 14th and 15th centuries that saw the outbreak of region‐wide conflict, abandonment of coastal settlements and the abrupt end of long‐distance cross‐ocean voyaging networks. The contemporaneity of these effects across a vast region requires a driver that is external to particular island groups with the only possibility that of oceanic origin, most likely large waves (tsunamis or storm surges) or rapid sea‐level change. The explanation is less important than the principle that societal changes can be used as proxies for environmental activity.

Review: Why the Pacific status quo is no longer an option

Hezel, Father Francis X. (2015). Why the Pacific status quo is no longer an option. Pacific Journalism Review, 21(2): 195-196. Review of Idyllic No More: Pacific Island Climate, Corruption and Development Dilemmas, by Giff Johnson. Majuro, Marshall Islands: CreateSpace. 2015. 153 pp. ISBN 978-1-512235-58-6Giff Johnson’s latest work, Idyllic No More: Pacific Islands Climate, Corruption and Development Dilemmas, is a call to serious planning and more. The Marshall Islands Journal editor summons leaders to recognise that life has changed in the country and the status quo is the road to disaster. There was a time when this might not have been true—when people who wanted to kick back and live a simple island life could quietly opt out of school and retire to the family land to provide for themselves as their ancestors had done for generations in an island society that offered the resources, physical and social, to support its population.

The size-structure of corals with contrasting life-histories: A multi-scale analysis across environmental conditions

We report variation in the size-structure of three coral taxa in the Society Islands (French Polynesia) using a hierarchical sampling design that integrates the regional (among three islands: Moorea, Raiatea, Tahiti), island (among three locations around each island), and local levels (among three depths: 6, 12, 18 m, at each location). All coral taxa exhibited strong heterogeneity in their size-structure, with marked variation among depths, locations, and islands. Porites spp. and Acropora globiceps populations at 6 m depth were dominated by smaller size classes compared to other depths. Regional-scale variation was particularly evident for Pocillopora meandrina and A. globiceps, with a higher proportion of smaller colonies found at Raiatea, probably as a result of recent cyclones followed by higher recruitment rates. Porites spp. populations were characterized by a preponderance of larger colonies, and greater size ranges compared to the other two taxa.

The Information Needs and Media of Small Islands Society

The purpose of the study is to identify the needs and appropriate media for information services regarding the management of freshwater and sanitation of small island community in North Lombok. The data was collected using a questionnaire with the households as respondents. The study then compared two samples i.e. the community in the district of Lombok north and Kepulauan Seribu using Kolmogorov-Smirnov technique. The community in both districts has similarities and differences in the aspect of demographic, understanding, behaviors as well as the information needs and the preferred media. The study concludes that the community in Lombok Utara needs information about global warming and its effect to the damage of freshwater and sanitation. The media information such as film animation is necessary to be considered due to fact that people of the two districts have a longer time on the land.

Fighting Spells: The Politics of Hysteria and the Hysteria of Politics on Tristan da Cunha, 1937–1938

The British island of Tristan da Cunha in the mid-south Atlantic has long found a place in the scholarly literature on mass hysteria on the basis of an epidemic of “fainting spells” that afflicted women on the island in 1937–38. This prominence is due to the coincidental presence of a Norwegian scientific expedition on the island at the time. The paper draws on the published and private accounts of the Norwegian expedition to offer a re-reading of the epidemic as an indigenous political response to both the subsistence crisis afflicting the island and the exacerbation of that crisis by the missionary regime of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Young women were the most vulnerable to both the subsistence crisis and missionary regime and took the lead in forcing the pace of their economic independence by performing a “fighting spell” that challenge the new missionary imposed economic and moral order on the island and their elders acquiescence to the new regime. The pathologisation of this female youth politics through the hysteria diagnosis is shown to be driven by metropolitan observers’ duel commitments to a romantic notion of island society and the maintenance of patriarchy. While the natives were diagnosed as suffering from a psychopathology, the psychopathologies of the resident Englishmen on the island were written out of the record to create the illusion of a rule of reason.

New records of marine tardigrades from Moorea, French Polynesia, with the description of Styraconyx turbinarium sp. nov. (Arthrotardigrada, Halechiniscidae).

Five marine arthrotardigrade species are recorded from Moorea, Society Islands, French Polynesia. Four were collected from coral sand; two, Dipodarctus anaholiensis Pollock, 1995 and Florarctus kwoni Chang & Rho, 1997, are new records for the region, and two, Halechiniscus perfectus Schulz, 1955 and Styraconyx kristenseni kristenseni Renaud-Mornant, 1981, have been previously reported. The fifth, a new species Styraconyx turbinarium sp. nov., is described and was collected from the drifting brown alga Turbinaria ornata. The new species is characterized by the presence of peduncles on all digits, an elongate primary clava, and the lateral cirrus A arising from a common pedestal and enveloped by a common membrane extending almost to the claval tip. The new species differs from the most similar species, Styraconyx tyrrhenus D'Addabbo Gallo, Morone De Lucia & de Zio Grimaldi, 1989, by having longer and differently shaped primary clavae which are elongated in the new species and club-shaped in S. tyrrhenus. By having a dorsal cuticle that is coarsely punctated but without folds or other ornamentations, the new species can be easily distinguished from S. craticulus (Pollock, 1983), a species with similar primary clavae, but with cuticular dorsal folds ornamented with a grid-like pattern.

An Introduction to Nissology (2)―Characteristics and Development Potentials of Island Societies―

An Introduction to Nissology (2)―Characteristics and Development Potentials of Island Societies―

Using range filling rather than prevalence of invasive plant species for management prioritisation: the case of Spathodea campanulata in the Society Islands (South Pacific)

Biological invasion science lacks standardised measures of invasion success that would provide effective prioritisation of invasive species and invaded areas management. Prevalence (area of occupancy) of invasive species is often used as proxy of their success but this metric ignores the extent to which a species fills its potential distribution. This study aims to estimate the performance of invasive tree species by computing the ratio between the compressed canopy area (CCA), assessed through remote sensing, and their potential distribution, estimated using invasive species distribution modelling. This index of ‘range filling’ (RF) has applicability to a broad set of invasive plant species in any biome. A case study is provided using the invasive African tulip tree Spathodea campanulata (Bignoniaceae) on three small tropical oceanic islands (South Pacific) exhibiting different invasion levels to test for differences between CCA and RF. The results show that the RF of Spathodea campanulata varied within islands depending on elevation but not proportionally to the CCA of the species. Another key result was that the RF of the species and its CCA provided different between-island perspectives on the invasions and lead to distinct ranking among islands to prioritise for management. Therefore, managers should disregard species’ prevalence as a measure of success and rather weight it with potential distribution to quantify how an invader is performing in a given environment.

A Coral-reef Fish with Large, Fast, Conspicuous Larvae and Small, Cryptic Adults (Teleostei: Apogonidae)

Settlement-stage larvae of the widespread apogonid Gymnapogon urospilotus are described and illustrated from specimens captured with crest nets at Moorea, Society Islands. Identification was confirmed by COI mitochondrial DNA analysis. Otoliths of the larvae had no settlement mark, indicating they had not previously settled, and 33–40 presumed daily rings. The larvae are transparent with large orange/red blotches on the tail, and limited melanophores on head and pelvic fins. The larvae have very long pelvic-fin rays (40–50% standard length [SL]) with black tips and contrasting white bands, and limited inter-ray membranes. They are apparently unique among teleost fishes in having a strongly serrate urohyal. These serrations disappear after settlement. Critical speed of the larvae was measured in a swimming chamber. Larvae of G. urospilotus are the largest (19–24 mm SL), oldest (33–40 days), and fastest (>36 cm s−1) known apogonids at settlement. Photos of larvae of G. urospilotus from Guam, Ryukyu Islands, and Indonesia reveal they swim 2–3 m above coral reefs at night with the pelvic rays spread wide, presumably looking for settlement habitat. They are very conspicuous and may be mimicking small lionfish. In contrast, adults have never been seen alive on the reef. The largest reported adult G. urospilotus is 37 mm SL, which implies that this species undergoes a major portion of its growth as a pelagic larva, a life history pattern that also occurs in some reef gobiids.

Mid- to Late Prehistoric Landscape Change, Settlement Histories, and Agricultural Practices on Maupiti, Society Islands (Central Eastern Polynesia)

ABSTRACTWe report on excavations and dating results from Maupiti Island, the smallest high island in the Leeward group of the Society Islands. Our discussion focuses on archaeological and paleo-ethnobotanical data from three coastal sites and two interior sites, in addition to presenting preliminary results of an inland reconnaissance survey. The first goal was to outline the settlement history of Maupiti, including aspects of coastal and inland habitation and subsistence. Utilizing data from auger transects, test excavations, AMS radiocarbon dating of short-lived species, and archaeo-botanical samples, we outline shifts in mid- to late prehistoric settlement and subsistence patterns. Wood charcoal and macro-botanical analyses provide evidence for human-induced landscape change and the first records of pre-contact vegetation on Maupiti. Excavations at two inland agricultural sites document the timing of agricultural intensification. Finally, utilizing data from the analysis of fish, marine shell, and terrestrial faunal remains in addition to the anthracology results, we discuss how vulnerable Maupiti was as a socioecosystem.

Continuing drivers of violence in Honiara: making friends and influencing people

The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has provided a relative decline of violence in Honiara for over a decade. However, the combination of customary cultural practices utilised in negotiating status and power in Solomon Islands society with ongoing demographic and economic processes exacerbated by the period of foreign intervention has perpetuated underlying drivers of violence that are likely to reignite once RAMSI fully departs. The use of practices of social reciprocity and compensation in order to gain and effectively wield key resources such as cash, access to jobs and access to land is ongoing in Honiara, where new opportunities provide new pathways to utilising these practices by growing cohorts of youth. This article examines the use of these forms of negotiation in Honiara and argues that three ongoing processes are likely to drive future outbreaks of violence in the capital once RAMSI departs: a rapidly expanding urba; ongoing contestation over access to land; and the effects of international investment and presence of urban foreign enclaves.