Summary: European colonial expansion during the past five centuries has had serious repercussions for many indigenous populations. Responses to intrusive European culture have varied. Aboriginal Tasmanian culture was extinguised (Plomley 1966). The Cheyenne (Höebel 1964) and the Mapuche Indians (Faron 1968) have struggled to retain their identity and their compromises with European culture have been grudging. Many indigenous societies have been ravaged by disease and warfare and others have been transformed into a culture with both European and indigenous elements. Then there are the Swazi (Kuper 1964), who are continuing, at the present time to adjust to colonialist regimes. The New Zealand Maori have adopted elements of European culture without losing a distinctive cultural identity (Metge 1968).
Details of events following initial contact between indigenous societies and Europeans are obscure, usually because of poor documentation. Yet it is precisely this initial period of culture contact that is often of particular interest to anthropologists. Until recently, accounts of culture contact have been left to historians, political scientists, ethnographers and social anthropologists. Archaeologists have tended to overlook this area of research, probably on the assumption that it is already well documented. However, the study of recent culture-contact situations is clearly the provenance of archaeology as well as other disciplines (Sturtevant 1966 : 41). Indeed, one of the major attractions of post-contact archaeology is the very fact that there are usually some relevant data from non-archaeological disciplines (op.cit.: 42-3).
There are several self-evident areas of potential research in post-contact archaeology. Historical documentation may be used to locate archaeological sites (Pilling 1968; Trigger 1969); ethnic groups may be traced back into the late prehistoric period from the ethnographic present by using the "direct historical approach" (see Sturtevant 1966: 9; Hall 1969; Stewart 1942; Stewart 1969; Wright 1968); the effects of culture contact (Oswalt and van Stone 1967) or the expansion of the colonial settlements (Allen 1967; Nöel Hume 1963) may be the principal foci; and there is also the possibility of projecting cultural adaptations back into the late prehistoric part (Fitting and Cleland 1969) in order to discover the corresponding cultural patterns.
The present study will consider culture change induced by contact with an intrusive culture. The indigenous culture is New Zealand Maori, the intrusive culture, European.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/217674 |
| Date | January 1972 |
| Creators | Coutts, P. J. F. (Peter J. F.), n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of Anthropology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright P. J. F. (Peter J. F.) Coutts |
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