The Evolutionary Archaeology of Ceramic Diversity in Ancient Fiji

The research presented here investigates the evolution of material cultural diversity in the Yasawa Islands in the northwestern corner of the Fijian archipelago. This work builds upon several field seasons of basic research in the Yasawas, as well as other large-scale ceramic analyses in Fiji. This study constructs answers using an explanatory framework explicitly designed to account for the evolution of cultural diversity in prehistory. This explanatory framework combines the effects of cultural transmission, selection and other sorting processes, and innovation. Using this explanatory framework this research attempts to answer the following three questions: 1. What domains of ceramic similarity in the Yasawa Islands can be used to define culturally transmitting populations or lineages; 2. What are the spatial and temporal distributions of transmission lineages defined along different avenues of transmission; and 3. What are the possible explanations for the distribution of these lineages?