Phylogenetic reconstruction, originally developed for biological systematics, is a tool which is increasingly being used for anthropological studies addressing the problems of population origins and settlement patterns. Given the nature of the phylogenetic model, it is expected that phylogenetic analyses only work well on populations that have stopped sharing biological information. This is particularly pertinent when looking at phylogenies of Pacific populations. This thesis presents a unique biological approach to the study of human settlement and population mobility in Polynesia, focusing on an animal that was transported through the Pacific by the ancestral Polynesians. I argue that analyses of genetic variation of the Polynesian rat (Ratus exulans) are appropriate for a phylogenetic model of human colonisation and mobility. DNA phylogenies derived from 132 mitochondria1 control region sequences of ratus exulans from East Polynesia are - presented. These results (1) identify a Southern Cook/Society Islands origin for all East Polynesian R. exulans populations, (2) indicate dual origins for Hawaiian R. exulans, and (3) indicate multiple origins for New Zealand Ratus exulans. These results are inconsistent with models of Pacific settlement involving substantial isolation following colonisation, and confirm the value of genetic studies of commensals for human prehistory.

Karam is spoken in the Bismarck-Schrader Ranges on the northern border of the Western Highlands District of Australian New Guinea. Karam speakers, numbering some 10,000 to 14,000, occupy several valleys both on the Ramu and the Jimi falls of these ranges. On the Ramu fall they occuPY the AiomeRamu slopes, the Asai Valley, and the Upper Simbai Valley as far east as Songuvak on the northern side and Tembiamp on the southern side. On the Jimi fall they occupy the Aunjang and Kaiment Valleys, and the Upper Kaironk Valley as far west as Aynong Resthouse. 1.2 External relationships of Karam. Wurm states that Karam is related to but is not a member of his East New Guinea Highland? Stock, a stock to which he assigns 50 of the 60-odd languages spoken in the three Highlands districts of Australian New Guinea. On the basis of lexicostatistical and typological evidence (see Appendix A) Wurm claims that Karam, together with the East New Guinea Highlands Stock and several other languages spoken in Australian Highlands form a micro-phylum which he calls the East New Guinea Highlands

Lapita is the name given by archaeologists to a material culture complex distributed from Papua New Guinea to Samoa about 3000 years ago, which marks major economic changes in Near Oceania and the first settlement by humans of Remote Oceania. Those parts of Solomon Islands that lie in Near Oceania, together with Bougainville, comprise a large gap in the recorded distribution of Lapita, which the current research seeks to explain. At Roviana Lagoon, centrally located in this gap, scatters of pottery, stone artefacts, and other stone items are found in shallow water in this sheltered, landlocked lagoon, initially thought to be late derivatives of Lapita. This research seeks method and theory to aid in the interpretation of this type of archaeological record. Intensive littoral survey discovered a wider chronological range of pottery styles than had previously been recorded, including materials attributable directly to the Lapita material culture complex. A study of vessel brokenness and completeness enabled sample evaluation, estimation of a parent population from which the sample derived, assessment of the state of preservation of the sample, and systematic choice of unit of quantification. Studies of wave exposure of collection sites and taphonomic evidence from sherds concluded that the cultural formation process of these sites was stilt house settlement (as found elsewhere in Near Oceania for Lapita) over deeper water than today. Falling relative sea levels and consequent increasing effects of swash-zone processes have resulted in high archaeological visibility and poor state of preservation at Roviana Lagoon. Analysis of ceramic and lithic variability and spatial analysis allowed the construction of a provisional chronology in need of further testing. Indications are that there is good potential to construct a robust, high-resolution ceramic chronology by focussing on carefully controlled surface collection from this sort of location, ceramic seriation and testing/calibration using direct dating by AMS radiocarbon and Thermoluminescence. Data on preservation and archaeological visibility of stilt house settlements along a sheltered emerging coastline allows preservation and visibility for this type of settlement to be modeled elsewhere. When such a model is applied to other areas of the Lapita gap, which are predominantly either less favourable for preservation or less favourable for archaeological visibility, the gap in the distribution of Lapita can be seen to be an area of low probability of detection by archaeologists, meaning there is currently no evidence for absence of settlement in the past, and good reason to think that Lapita was continuously distributed across Near Oceania as a network of stilt village settlement. This finding highlights the need for explicit models of probability of detection to discover or read the Lapita archaeological record. Keywords: pottery; Lapita; formation processes; surface archaeology; tidal archaeology; Oceania

This thesis explores representations of Maaori women characters in plays written by Maaori between 1980 and 2000, arguing that, as the level of self-determination in Maaori theatre has increased, these representations have become less stereotyped and more reflective of a range of Maaori women’s realities. The thesis suggests that waahine dramatists in particular represent contemporary Maaori cultural identity as flexible, diverse and changing. The Introduction gives reasons for the thesis' focus on Maaori women and outlines three major influences which have determined the approach to close-readings and analyses of waahine characters in the body of the thesis: an early Paakehaa representation of Maaori women, an increase of Maaori dramatists and the emergence of Maaori women's feminism. The thesis comprises a further six chapters. Chapter One contextualises the play analyses which appear in Chapters Four Five and Six by describing a Maaori theatre and drama whakapapa that stakes a significant and influential place for waahine theatre practitioners. Chapters Two and Three explore tino rangatiratanga/sel-determination and marae-concept theatre (respectively), arguing that between 1980 and 2000 these aspects of content and form have created theatrical conditions which facilitate Maaori women's representation. Chapters Four, Five and Six show that, as Maaori women such as Renee' Rena Owen, Riwia Brown, Roma Potiki and Briar Grace-Smith have become more active in the Maaori theatre whakapapa, contemporary representations of Maaori women have become more complex and diverse. A set of bibliographic appendices provides detailed lists of first productions of plays mentioned in the thesis. Throughout, the thesis maps the increased visibility and presence of Maaori women on the New Zealand stage, showing how in the years 1980-2000 the theatre has become a potent site for expression and exploration of Maaori cultural identity.

This study seeks to establish how cultural change is transforming Samoan perceptions of alcohol and its role in social life by comparing understandings of, attitudes to, and patterns of alcohol use in successive generations of Samoans to establish how these are changing, and how trends in alcohol use might be expected to affect Samoan health status. It examines the complex relationships between alcohol and culture, and how such relationships interact to influence health. As well, it explores how Samoan culture, fa'asamoa, has changed since contact with Europeans, how, these changes have influenced Samoan people's perceptions and use of alcohol, and the role alcohol now plays in Samoan social life. Moreover, the thesis documents the social history of alcohol in Samoa since the nineteenth century, and explores the roles of some of the Europeans in shaping Samoan people's attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol and its use. Additionally, it examines the commercial and political economic interests of early European agencies in Samoa such as beachcombers, traders, colonial administrators, and missionaries which impacted on and influenced, to a considerable extent, Samoan people's drinking patterns. The study uses a qualitative methodological approach, utilizing qualitative interviewing as the main method of gathering data and various other methods to supplement the data. The sample population included Samoan men and women, of various religious denominations, drinkers and abstainers, born and raised in Samoa and in New Zealand. Unstructured interviews with thirty-nine participants, and eight key informants were conducted in Apia, Auckland, and Christchurch. The key informants included: a bishop of the Church of Latter Day Saints, the Samoan Police Commissioner, and the Secretary of the Samoan Liquor Authority who were interviewed in Apia; a pastor/lecturer of the Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa who was interviewed in Pago Pago, American Samoa; while two Samoan-born medical health professionals, a pastor of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa, and one New Zealand-born woman researcher were interviewed in Auckland. The study found that alcohol and the drinking of it has secured a place in the social life of Samoans in the islands and in migrant communities such as those in Auckland, and to a lesser extent, Christchurch. It also found that while older women's and men's experiences and attitudes to alcohol differ significantly, particularly those born and raised in the islands, some similarities in the attitudes and practices of younger people towards alcohol, especially those born- and raised in New Zealand have emerged.

This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge about the realities of women's lives in the seventeenth-century Iberian peninsula, through a socio-historical interpretation of the poetic production of five women. One is Portuguese, Violante del Cielo, and four are Spaniards: Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, Leonor de la Cueva y Silva, Marcia Belisarda and Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán. All are from the educated upper or noble classes and their lives span some one hundred and forty years, from 1566 to 1693. The thesis focuses particularly on their sonnets of love and friendship, both secular and religious. The sonnet was specifically chosen as the vehicle to study the ideas and concerns of literate, seventeenth-century women. As a difficult form of poetry requiring wit, artistry and education, sonnets enable a display of intellectual capabilities and offer opportunities for veiled criticism of contemporary systems of control. These women do not overtly rail against a system that offers them much in terms of social advancement and privilege. However, they do re-write our understanding of the Baroque by presenting their interests, pleasures and discontents from a feminine viewpoint. This detailed, contextual study of women's works, set against the philosophical, religious and moral treatises that governed their age, enables a wider interpretation of women's thought and intentions in the Iberian peninsula than may hitherto have been acknowledged, particularly in terms of relationships of affection within the family. Collectively, their individual works display a determination to demonstrate women's intelligence and moral strength. Furthermore, it becomes clear that women living within a system that utilised biological determinism as proof that they were incapable of reason, strive in their works to show that they are both capable of reason and determined to demonstrate it as undeniable fact.

In acknowledging continual educational under-achievement of Maori children, this thesis investigates the relationship between education policy and Maori under-achievement. It argues that under-achievement is framed within boundaries of changing recognitions and realisations of power and difference: that conceptions of difference have influenced education policy and schooling practices for Maori. Theoretically, the thesis examines 'what counts as difference' and 'what differences count'. In recognising that unequal power relations between dominant and subordinate groups produce distinct views about difference, 'what counts as difference' encompasses the perspectives of dominant groups and 'what differences count', subordinate groups. The former view is developed to expand the basis for investigating 'Pakeha conceptions of difference', and the latter, 'Maori conceptions'. The thesis traces the interactions and relationships of 'difference' and 'power', and examines, historically, how they have contributed to and sustained Maori educational under-achievement. The contribution of these conceptions of difference to informing schooling practices is investigated through four sequential 'Classification Schemes' of Assimilation, Integration, Multiculturalism and Biculturalism. The thesis argues that Biculturalism is based on a positive view of Maori cultural differences, and examines the extent of Maori influence on four recent education policy making processes. The thesis also acknowledges a Maori focus on the importance of structural differences for addressing their needs. On the basis of those two different perspectives, the thesis develops the concepts 'Maori-friendly' and 'Maori-centred', to examine processes, and structures and the relative influence of Maori on mainstream policy forming processes. The thesis shows that Tomorrow's Schools, Education for the Twenty-First Century and the Maori Affairs Select Committee Inquiry encapsulate different degrees of both Maori-friendly and Maori-centred approaches, though arguing that ultimately, it is Pakeha conceptions of difference that inform and influence all the policy forming processes. However, the fourth policy process examined was originally a wholly Maori-centred initiative - Te Kohanga Reo. The thesis points to and traces the incorporation of Te Kohanga Reo into the mainstream education system and its consequences for Maori, and concludes that structural differences ensure continuing Pakeha control over Maori conceptions of difference and henceforth Maori educational under-achievement.

This thesis is based on 18 months fieldwork in 1979-80 in the Solomon Islands. The study was carried out among the Tikopia people both on their home island and in the settlement of Nukukaisi in Makira. The central focus of this study is an analysis of the women of Tikopia from several perspectives. First they are examined in time: the women of Professor Raymond Firth's study of 1929 are contrasted with women 50 years on. Next they are described in different geographical settings - the home island and the settlement. Special attention is paid to two categories of women: the fafine taka 'unmarried women' and the fafine avanga 'married women'. These two groups stand in strong contrast with one another. The unmarried women have considerable social and sexual freedom. However, their structural position in society is undergoing some redefinition as they are required to replace in the domestic workforce their brothers who have migrated as wage labourers to other parts of the Solomons. The departure of the young men has caused some demographic imbalance among the young and their absence decreases opportunities of marriage for the young women. No other career is available to young women as they do not leave Tikopia for schooling or work as their brothers do. By contrast, the married women, to whom marriage ostensibly brings social maturity, are the most tightly controlled section of the population, being responsible to the patriline into which they have married. The social and symbolic elements of gender relations in Tikopia are therefore examined through the lives of these two groups of women. A further concern which underlies this work are the developments in theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of gender by anthropologists, with special reference to their application in the Pacific area.

Whole document restricted, see Access Instructions file below for details of how to access the print copy. / This thesis is a history of Maori ship and flourmill ownership set into the wider economic context of mid-nineteenth-century New Zealand. It examines why and how Māori purchased flourmills and trading ships in this period and questions the currently popular view that these were ill-advised investments driven by a desire for status symbols or mere fads resulting from a culturally characteristic neophilia. It argues that both industries were generally well-considered enterprises, appropriate to contemporary conditions, and that they made significant contributions to the New Zealand colonial economy at a particularly fragile stage. An examination of Māori trading practices from the time of European contact establishes that certain aspects of their social relationships and commercial practice were 'traditional' and therefore provide points from which to consider the process of change. It is argued that customary modes facilitated the optimisation of economic benefits presented by a hugely expanded marketplace but that contemporary Christian and western political economic ideas, which gave ideological support to flourmill and ship ownership, also contributed significantly to the involution of Māori commercial enterprise. Māori necessarily responded to these teachings, but a consideration of the rationale behind their acquisition of these assets supports the appropriateness of such investments under contemporary conditions. Evidence from a wide range of Māori and Pakeha sources forms the basis for examining the motivations and management of Māori shipping and flourmilling enterprises and for tracking changes in understandings of proprietary rights. In this context, philosophical and political intervention by missionaries and other Pakeha agents, including the valorisation of individual ownership and enterprise, can be seen to have enticed those from the lower echelons of Māori society to forsake the obligations of a communal economy. As well as undermining the communal nature of Māori society and the authority of traditional leaders, these interventions also fostered greater rigidity in Maori social, economic, and political structures so that the advantages of customary ways were lost. Combined with the loss of resources and a concomitant rise in the political power of the rapidly growing Pakeha population, these changes made it increasingly difficult for Māori to sustain their economic predominance.

Recent research focusing on improving educational outcomes for Māori students in mainstream secondary schools in Aotearoa/New Zealand have asserted that building positive student-teacher relationships in the classroom are fundamental (c. f. Bishop, Berryman, & Richardson, 2003; Bishop & Tiakiwai, 2003; Ministry of Education, 2002, 2006). In contrast, attempts to investigate the educational benefits associated with Māori students participating in cultural learning activities, such as kapa haka, and the implications for improving levels of Māori student achievement, remains relatively unexplored. To embark on such an investigation, Māori kapa haka students and teachers from four mainstream secondary schools were invited to take part in an interview process informed by using a Kaupapa Māori theoretical approach. As a result, the study revealed quite emphatically that not only does kapa haka provide Māori students with an appropriate ‘culturally responsive’ learning experience, but that they also feel more confident and optimistic about school and their education. Moreover, kapa haka provides the opportunity for students to celebrate who they are as Māori and as ‘culturally connected’ learners in mainstream schooling contexts. In addition, Māori students through the kapa haka experience learn to ‘protect’, ‘problem-solve’, ‘provide’, and ‘heal’ their inner self-worth, essence and wellbeing as Māori. Similarly, most teachers agreed that kapa haka provides Māori students with a creative, dynamic and powerful way to access their learning potential as cultural human beings. An overwhelming response by both students and teachers is that kapa haka should be timetabled as an academic subject to provide greater access to indigenous and cultural performing art that affirms their identity as Māori, and our uniqueness as New Zealanders. Finally, the research proposes a ‘culturally responsive’ learning strategy to assist what mainstream secondary schools and teachers provide as valid and purposeful learning opportunities for ‘culturally connected’ learners who are Māori.