The archaeology of islands / Paul Rainbird.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-192) and index.

Print version record.

Archaeologists have traditionally considered islands as distinct physical and social entities. In this book, Paul Rainbird discusses the historical construction of this characterization and questions the basis for such an understanding of island archaeology. Through a series of case studies of prehistoric archaeology in the Mediterranean, Pacific, Baltic, and Atlantic seas and oceans, he argues for a decentering of the land in favor of an emphasis on the archaeology of the sea and, ultimately, a new perspective on the making of maritime communities. The archaeology of islands is thus unshackled from approaches that highlight boundedness and isolation, and replaced with a new set of principles - that boundaries are fuzzy, islanders are distinctive in their expectation of contacts with people from over the seas, and that island life can tell us much about maritime communities. Debating islands, thus, brings to the fore issues of identity and community and a concern with Western construction of other peoples.

1. A Consciousness of the Earth and Ocean: The Creation of Islands -- 'Full fathom five': islands in Western history -- Suffering a seachange: islands in popular literature -- Imaginary islands -- Islands of the dead -- Prison and plantation islands -- Insiders and outsiders -- Shores and lines on a map -- boundaries and scale -- Islands in a world of perceptions -- 2. Seas of Islands: Anthropology, Biogeography, Archaeology and Postcolonialism -- Islands and anthropology -- Islands and biogeography -- Archaeology and island biogeography -- Islands and the postcolonial critique -- Small worlds and big issues -- microcosms -- 3. An Archaeology of the Sea -- Maritime cultural landscapes -- Mariners and maritime communities -- Being on the seas -- The sea(s) and phenomenology -- Material culture, gender and practical experience -- Intimate relations -- Archaeologies of the sea(s) -- Facing the sea -- 4. The Mediterranean: Malta -- Malta -- Seas within seas -- Back to Malta -- 5. Oceania: Pohnpei and the Eastern Carolines -- Island histories in Oceania -- Micronesia -- Polynesia -- Fusion -- 6. The Baltic: Gotland -- Gotland -- Mesolithic Gotland -- Pigs on Gotland -- Pitted Ware period -- Bronze Age Gotland -- Ship-settings -- Iron Age Gotland -- The Baltic Sea -- 7. Atlantic Archipelago: The Western Seaways of Europe -- Western seaways -- Mesolithic prelude? -- Arrivals (and departures?) -- 'Attention all shipping'- Bronze Age boats -- Iron Age seasiders -- Irish Sea/Mediterranean Sea -- 8. Conclusion-Islands and Histories of the Sea -- Communities in the field -- The archaeology of islands -- The archaeologies of the seas.

English.

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