63 History of Paleopathology in the Pacifi c MICHAEL PIETRUSEWSKY AND MICHELE TOOMAY DOUGLAS INTRODUCTION in the Pacifi c, however, the theoretical importance In this chapter we present a brief chronological his- of islands as laboratories for assessing the dynamic, tory of paleopathology in the Pacifi c, highlighting long- term relationship among health, culture, and key individuals who have contributed to the study environment may never be fully realized given the of disease in this vast ocean world. Unlike other diffi culties of studying human remains from this regions covered in this volume, the sheer enormity region. Such limitations, as discussed in this chap- and relative isolation of many of the islands of the ter, include the nature of salvage archaeology and Pacifi c further warrants that we consider national skeletal analysis, repatriated skeletal collections, and as well as regional variables that have infl uenced increasingly stringent local regulations on studies of these contributions to paleopathology. human skeletons, among others. As is the case for other areas of the world, the availability and access to human skeletal collec- PACIFIC ISLANDS: tions has been greatly infl uenced by the history of GEOGRAPHY AND early collecting expeditions, museum accessions, PREHISTORY archaeological excavations, and more recently, With tremendous variation in size and diversity, Cultural Resource Management (CRM) work as many as 7,500 Pacifi c islands span one- third of involving modern development and construction the Earth’s surface and thus comprise the world’s projects. Th e relatively recent exploration and set- largest assemblage of islands (Lobban and Scheft er tlement of the Pacifi c has also infl uenced research 1997). Our survey will cover the three traditionally initiatives in bioarchaeology. Because the oldest recognized geographical groups of tropical Pacifi c occupied regions of the Pacifi c did not receive their islands (sometimes also referred to as Oceania): fi rst modern human inhabitants until approxi- Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Although mately forty to 50,000 years ago and the remain- this tripartite classifi cation, fi rst introduced by der of the Pacifi c was void of human presence until the French voyager Dumont d’Urville (1832), is less than 1,000 years ago, physical anthropologists based on a faulty perception of Pacifi c Island cul- have tended to focus more on the origins of these ture history, these labels have become entrenched colonizers rather than on issues involving health in anthropology (Kirch 2000). For that reason and lifestyle of Pacifi c Islanders. we retain them mainly as geographical referents. As physical anthropologists studied the com- Th is chapter will therefore focus on studies of the plex histories of settlement and exploration, they inhabitants of the islands east of the Lesser Sunda also documented the uniqueness of these island Islands (Nusa Tenggara) of Indonesia, beginning environments—their physical isolation, constrained with the Molucca Islands and Irian Jaya (eastern resources, severe climate events, and so on. Research New Guinea) and extending east, north, and south in some regions of the Pacifi c, such as the remote into the Pacifi c (see Figure P.1, map of world, island arcs of Central East Polynesia, is beginning within the Preface). to suggest that the combination of late colonization From the perspective of prehistory and histor- (Hunt and Lipo 2006; Tuggle and Spriggs 2002), and ical linguistics, archaeologists have further divided relative (if not complete) isolation (Brewis et al. 1990; the Pacifi c into Near Oceania (comprising the Kirch 1989) has generated unique island historical islands of New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, trajectories that approach the conceptual ideal of and the Solomon Island chain), and Remote the “island as laboratory” criteria for human popu- Oceania, which comprises all of Micronesia, and lation studies. For physical anthropologists working the Melanesian archipelagoes of Vanuatu, Loyalty Book.indb 594 4/11/2012 2:31:42 AM Pacifi c 595 Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji, and Polynesia (Green 18th century, expeditions that acquired a vast 1991). Humans began entering the western mar- array of fl oral and faunal (including human) mate- gins of Near Oceania approximately forty to 50,000 rial. Such explorations, mainly European, contin- years ago, crossing Wallace’s Line from Southeast ued well into the early decades of the 19th century, Asia into the ancient continent of “Sahul” (con- along with the appearance of additional collectors sisting of New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania). of human skeletal remains in the form of traders, From there, they expanded to occupy Sahul and missionary groups, and imperial colonizers from all of Near Oceania and regions as far as the main Britain, France, Germany, United States, and Japan. Solomon Islands by 35,000 BP (Kirch 2000). Much Skeletal remains accumulated by these disparate later, at approximately 3,500 years before present, a means typically have the barest of provenance, or major expansion of Austronesian-speaking people good preservation, and are subject to many and resulted in the relatively rapid spread of humans various biases (e.g., incomplete skeletons, sample beyond the Solomon Islands into Remote Oceania, error, collector’s bias). Two early descriptions of associated with the archaeological horizon known crania and skeletons from the Pacifi c are William as Lapita (Kirch 2000). Aft er a period of perhaps Turner’s (1884, 1886) study of skulls that were col- as many as 1,000 years, eastern Micronesia and lected during the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger eastern Polynesia were settled between 900 BC (1873–1876) and Emil Zuckerkandl’s (1875) and AD 1000. Th e very fi rst human settlers proba- descriptions of crania from Africa, South America, bly did not reach some of the most remote regions Southeast Asia, and the Pacifi c collected during the of Polynesia (e.g., Easter Island, Hawaii, and New Austro- Hungarian scientifi c Novara-Expedition Zealand) until approximately AD 1200 (Hunt and (1857–1859). Th ese were two of the last great sci- Lipo 2006). entifi c expeditions of the 19th century to produce Our chapter begins with initial observations reports with such broad and deep coverage. and descriptive reports of paleopathology using Printed catalogs are another source of early human skeletons (primarily crania) collected dur- descriptions of human skeletal remains (e.g., ing the age of scientifi c expeditions to the Pacifi c Davis 1867, 1875; Ecker 1878; Flower 1879; (1840–1900). Work at the beginning of the 20th Schaaffh ausen 1878; Schmeltz and Krause 1881; century (1900–1950) continued using museum von Luschan 1907). Th e catalogs, which sometimes collections but with the addition of a small num- included items for sale, itemized and described ber of excavated human skeletal series. Aft er World anatomical collections that had been donated or War II (1950–1980), more evaluative comparisons otherwise acquired by museums and private indi- of paleopathological evidence emerged. We con- viduals, mainly in Europe (see the biography of clude with the most recent work encompassing Joseph Davis, below). Today, oft en relegated to the both individual and population aspects of paleo- rare book sections of libraries, they serve as valu- pathological description, diagnosis, and paleoepi- able sources of information on the provenance of demiology that continues into the 21st century in these collections and early descriptions of disease. some regions of the Pacifi c. Short biographies of Th ese publications concentrated mainly on cranial eight key individuals further illustrate some of the morphology and detailed metrical descriptions major contributions and thematic developments for reconstructing human “racial” history and of paleopathology in the Pacifi c. sometimes included observations of paleopathol- ogy. Extensive comparisons of crania from newly EARLIEST STUDIES: discovered regions provided the Western scien- 1840–1900 tifi c community with its fi rst glimpses of new and Initial descriptions of excavated human skeletal exotic people. remains from the Pacifi c, including some of the fi rst observations of paleopathology, were made Joseph Barnard Davis (1801–1881) by individuals trained as medical doctors, anato- Born in York, England (1801), Joseph Barnard mists, and naturalists, using the large numbers of Davis amassed an extensive, global collection of skeletal remains, primarily crania, found in muse- human skulls, including many from the Pacifi c. ums in Europe, the United States, and the Pacifi c. During his long career as a medical practitioner For example, more than 2,000 crania from New in a small Staff ordshire town (Anonymous 1881), Guinea alone are found in museums around the he assembled one of the largest 19th- century col- world (Pietrusewsky 1976, 1983, 1986, 1990a). lections of human skulls (more than 1,500), pro- Many of these collections were the result of the cured through private purchases and donations. great expeditions to the Pacifi c that began in the Following Davis’ death in 1881, the collection Book.indb 595 4/11/2012 2:31:42 AM 596 part iii: regions was donated to the Royal College of Surgeons of Although these initial reports about paleopa- England in London and subsequently transferred thology in the Pacifi c, made by people who had to the Natural History Museum, London, at the never traveled there, were largely anecdotal in end of World War II. nature and tended to focus on unusual fi ndings Davis published numerous papers on anthro- such as tooth ablation and cranial modifi cations, pological topics, including his infl uential Th esaurus there were a few exceptions. For example, Weckler’s Craniorum (Davis 1867), a valuable catalog featur- (1888) pioneering comparative study of cribra ing descriptions of skulls of various “races” repre- orbitalia in crania in European museum collec- sented in his collection along with a vast number of tions included examples from the Pacifi c Islands. measurements (well over 25,000) and literary ref- Similarly, reports by two 19th-century American erences.