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Book Reviews BOOK REVIEWS Aboriginal Pathways in Southeast Queensland and the Richmond River. J. G. Steele. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1983. xix + 366 pp. Reviewed by Matthew Spriggs, University ofHawaii Despite its title, the book is an anecdotal for either event. To provide the context one ethnohistoric survey of the subtropical and might look at Raymond Evans, Kay Saunders, coastal area centered on what is now the city of and Kathryn Cronin's book Exclusion, Exploita­ Brisbane, stretching from Lismore in New tion and Extermination: Race Relations in Colonial South Wales north to the vicinity of Fraser Queensland (Australia and New Zealand Book Island. The book purports to describe Aborig­ Company, 1975). One will certainly gain a inallife at the time of earliest contact but use is fresh viewpoint on the material Steele provides! made of materials from first contact accounts This aside, as an anecdotal history Aborig­ to the memories of living Aboriginals and set­ inal Pathways is generally well written. It is tlers in the 1960s. Although Steele draws on clearly a product for local consumption and I ethnographic, historic, archaeological, and can't see it finding much of an audience else­ museum collection sources representing a where. I said earlier that it is a popular rather tremendous amount of research, the book is than an academic work because there is a lack not really an academic work. Nor does it claim of any sustained source criticism of the ethno­ to be. The aim is to deepen local residents' historic record, and also any theoretical frame­ knowledge and appreciation of Aboriginal his­ work of interpretation of the evidence. Details tory and past lifeways, but more importantly: of the varied environments and subsistence "to assist the white man towards a sympa­ practices of the region are given but as isolated thetic understanding of Aboriginal people, and facts that give no concept of how the system to help Aboriginals to know who they are and "worked"-how the different groups of where they came from, so that they may be Aborigines interacted and maintained them­ better able to play their full part in the selves through time. On the other hand, the Australia of today" (p. xviii). Laudable aims book is well-referenced for those who wish to no doubt but the book often appears to be delve further into the evidence. patronizing towards the Aborigines and the Little use is made of the archaeological find­ reasons for the massive dislocation of Aborig­ ings from the area apart from reports of Bora inal culture in the area are curiously absent. grounds (nearly a quarter of the book's many Hostile encounters between colonizers and illustrations are of these ceremonial circles). colonized are glossed over. We are told (p. More archaeological information was available 151) of one Aboriginal group becoming "a at the time of writing than Steele uses, but serious problem to the white settlers," and there has certainly been an explosion in archae­ earlier of a large settlement being torn down ological research in the area since the book was "by order of the Superintendant of Flocks at completed in 1981/1982. Archaeology only Grantham" (p. 148), but no context is given became a distinct discipline at Queensland Uni- 272 Asian Perspectives, xxvn(2), 1986-1987 versity in 1976 and its growth since that time terrible history of the area over the last 150 has been nothing short of amazing, so that by years and the consequent disappearance of the 1984 a new and substantial journal Queensland cultures he describes. We are given a five-page Archaeological Research could be launched. Its introduction, 21 chapters describing particular first issue contained no less than seven articles areas, and a chapter on museum collections of on Steele's study area. artifacts from the area, at which point the book The book is profusely illustrated (144 just stops. Clearly an academic synthesis of the figures) with many valuable nineteenth century ethnohistory of this area still remains to be photographs as well as the author's own written, although it will draw on many of the photographs of various sites. Some of the latter same sources that Steele references. As the book are a bit amateurish, with scale and prominent lacks a conclusion perhaps we can add a post­ points of interest marked by sheets of paper, script to it from the nineteenth century mus­ notebooks, and a straw hat! The three aerial ings of Donald Macdonald (quoted by Evans et photographs are ruined by the inking in of the al. fop. cit., p. 65]: features they are meant to show. One looks in We are indeed a civilizing race ... when we vain for a concluding chapter that will bring came here, the aborigines covered these wide together what the author has learned of the plains in thousands. Where are they today? region as a whole or perhaps comment on the We have "civilized" them-they are dead. Archaeology in the Tonaachaw Historic District, Moen Island. Thomas F. King and Patricia L. Parker. Micronesian Archaeological Survey, Report No. 18, Occasional Paper No.3. xxxii + 541 pp., 6 plates, 200 figures, 200 tables, 2 maps. Softcover. Reviewed by Ross Cordy, Department ofLand and Natural Resources, State ofHawaii This volume is the report of 1977-1981 archae­ work and in 1981 Parker did the Iras and ological work done in Iras and Mechchitiw Mechchitiw sewer lateral archaeological work. villages on Moen Island in Truk Lagoon, The archaeology consisted of survey of most of Micronesia. Truk Lagoon is in the center of both villages, excavation, and construction Micronesia at 7°20'N, 151°40'Eand, along monitoring. Additionally, an unusual com­ with a number of outlying atolls, forms Truk ponent of this study was intensive social State. Truk State is one of the four states in the anthropological work, with Parker doing emerging nation of the Federated States of work toward her University of Pennsylvania Micronesia; the other states being Yap, Pohn­ Ph.D. in Iras from 1977 to 1979. pei (formerly Ponape) and Kosrae (formerly This monograph, a lengthy one with plenty Kusaie). ofdata, is another report ofthe Trust Territory Truk Lagoon contains a number of small Historic Preservation Office's Micronesian high islands. Moen, one of the largest (11.5 Archaeological Survey (MAS) program. The 2 km ), is the governmental center; it was a MAS Reports are this program's central pub­ focus of development about 1977-1982. Major lication series, but reports are being published expansion took place at the Truk Airport in elsewhere-at the Bishop Museum (Marshalls Iras Village, and sewer systems were con­ work), Pacific Studies Institute on Guam structed in Iras and the adjacent village of (Ulithi, Yap work), Southern Illinois Univer­ Mechchitiw. Archaeological work was re­ sity (Palau work), the University of Hawaii quired by U.S. historic preservation laws. (some Kosrae work), and the University of Between 1977 and 1979 King conducted the Otago (Kapingamarangi work). airport and Iras sewer main archaeological This Truk volume represents a major leap BOOK REVIEWS 273 forward in Trukese archaeology. It reports the Chapter 2 reviews prior archaeology in Truk first regional or settlement pattern project in and poses several research questions; chapters Truk, and this was by far the most substantial 14 and 15 are the interpretive chapters. project ever in Truk, involving months offield Chapter 14 postulates two primary tem­ work. This volume also closely joins ethno­ poral patterns. The Winas Pattern is repre­ graphic and archaeological perspectives. It sented by 500 B.C. to A.D. 500 coastal occupa­ represents a major expansion in research prob­ tions at southern Feefen and Coastal Iras. The lem analysis in Trukese archaeology, beyond Feefen sites, excavated by Shutler, Sinoto, and phase and origin concerns to political organiza­ Takayama in 1977, contained pottery and tion and subsistence studies. And very unique­ "pestle" pounders, while early Iras had but 1 ly, it provides summaries in Trukese, enabling Conus bracelet. The Tonaachaw Pattern con­ older residents of the Lagoon to learn of this sists of A.D. 1300-1900 occupations on the scientific research on their past. coast and in the interior. No pottery was pres­ It is impossible to briefly summarize the ent, and breadfruit processing artifacts were primary data in this volume. Suffice it to say common. Six Tonaachaw site types are pre­ that 14 archaeological sites were identified: a sented-various forms of coastal and interior large coastal site in Iras with scattered midden residential middens, interior cookhouses, and deposits and burials, a smaller coastal site in forts in the interior. All these site types were Mechchitiw, 9 small sites on the mountain of noted ethnographically except summit and Tonaachaw (7 small middens, 1 small earth ridge middens, and it is suggested this type and midden, and 1 platform), and 3 small sites on forts reflect prior intense warfare. Subsistence the bench above the Mechchitiw coastal site. practices closely match ethnographic practices. Nine of these sites were excavated, with con­ Interestingly, no deep water trolling is indi­ siderable excavations on the shore and with cated, rather exploitation of the near reef is. artifacts and midden recovered. Eleven dates Dispersed mortuary practices suggest numer­ were processed from 4 sites: 7 from the Iras ous kin group residences with their own burial coastal site, 2 from the midden on the Tonaa­ areas. chaw summit, and 1 each from the Mechchitiw Chapter 15 addresses several research ques­ coastal site and from the earth midden on tions. One is the gap of 1000 years between the Tonaachaw. The earliest of these dates ranged Winas and Tonaachaw patterns.
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