Open research questions in Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
35 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,695 Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
Admittedly some locally grown taro were bought from Chinese and Japanese farms and markets, though leaves were relatively scarce in Cali- fornia's less exuberant climate, but the bulk of the taro was imported from Hawaii and occasionally (like kava) from Samoa. But even where Samoan families were numerous they tended to be interspersed with families of other ethnic backgrounds, and some were sparsely scattered through suburban areas. The relevant statistics are lacking, but perhaps a hint is given by the fact that Samoan census-takers in the Los Angeles area, after accounting for 21,000 identifiable Samoans, reckoned the total as 25,000 to include those whose surnames were relinquished on intermarriage as well as others who had lost touch with the community.
One project which sounds fascinating, but on which there is insufficient data, is the duplication of old photographs from the Japanese period of influence (1914-1944).
Conservation of indigenous cultural heritage in Guam and Micronesia: A partial survey<sup>1</sup> · 1972 · DOItend on in The book begins with an excellent overview by the editor and in the following nine chapters looks in turn at the main islands or island groups of Polynesia and Micronesia.
', he wrote, were 'the principal authentic materials for these extensive but very little known coasts', and he deplored the fact that they had been 'carefully concealed from the world in the Hydrographie Office', whereas the originals had been 'liberally communicated to the French Government'.
No power formally annexed the group and the maintenance of law arid order was limited to an occasional patrolling or punitive expedition dispatched by the French from New Caledonia or by the British from Fiji. Many Downloaded by [] at 21:11 18 March 2016 46 THE JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY modern-style houses were erected, dozens of jeeps were brought back (many are still in action today), and there is scarcely a household that cannot boast a fine collection of U.
A substantial amount of research has been completed in recent years, or is currently in progress, on the role of Protestant missions in relation to social and political, as well as religious, change; but much more remains to be done. Further work is needed, for example; on problems of land use and control, although some research has been completed, or is in progress, in relation to several territ- ories. Further work of this kind will represent a contribution, however, mainly to one aspect of the history of Christianity in the Pacific.
395) rejects the early date because of the lack of evidence for cist burial in the Early Period at Vinapu, not on grounds of its general unacceptability as a date. We have argued not only that Mulloy's arguments from topography for Vinapu 1 being older than Vinapu 2 are inconclusive but also that some indication exists that in fact Vinapu 2 is older than Vinapu 1. Unfortunately the evidence is lacking to attempt such explanation, Ferdon's own statement being particularly unsatisfactory.
I now have the misfortune to find, however, that material to establish this conclusion is lacking from my notebooks, and that I have no record of any such statement as, " The nanarangs gave this district therefore we now have the right to live here. I once heard Jaua back up his right to live in Dap by a specific reference to these boulders when a request was made that he should come and settle in Mwarok, his father's village, on the grounds that there were insufficient men there to carry out communal work "Have I not a nanarang-helper at Dap as well as at efficiently.
Glauert, Director of the Western Australian Museum, informs me that so far as he knows grindstones were used practically all over Western Australia, and "TRADE" IN ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA 435 where suitable material was lacking the stones were carried about by the blacks as they travelled from place to place. 28) says that" boomerangs are now being traded to Port George IV and the Kimberley coastal country where they are lacking.
“TRADE” IN ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA, AND “TRADE” RELATIONSHIPS WITH TORRES STRAIT, NEW GUINEA AND MALAYA · 1939 · DOIU2 PROCREAnON AMONG THE TROBRIAND ISLANDERS One other matter remains to be stated, and has reference to the help which the father gives in the formation of the child when the lovers or the husband and wife sleep together night after night.
In the rapidly growing library of sensory studies, Asia has remained underexplored compared to the extensive literature on Western sensory history and culture.
It shall be seen that the ethno-historical records are inconclusive about the koala’s distribution in Queensland, whether they were hunted across all of the state at the point of colonization and whether they were considered an integral food source in some regions.
The Importance of the Koala in Aboriginal Society in Nineteenth-Century Queensland (Australia): A Reconsideration of the Archival Record · 2021 · DOIThe proximity of the breeding habitat of an endangered species to significant cultural heritage previously led to competing stakeholder interests which limited research and effective management.
A tale of two taonga: mutualistic research and management of heritage landscapes on Codfish Island (Whenua Hou), Aotearoa New Zealand · 2020 · DOIThere has been some investigation into the history of archaeology in Australia and New Zealand, and other piecemeal work focusing on single countries or biographies of individuals, but much remains to be done.
Although critical to the successful settlement and sustainability of Pacific populations, the history of the coconut is little known, its presence being recorded by only a handful of archaeologists.
Here we recast aspects of the linguistic evidence that Arnold overlooks, provide evidence from oral history which she says is lacking, and discuss chronological issues that are much less straightforward than she suggests.
On Linguistics and Cascading Inventions: A Comment on Arnold's Dismissal of a Polynesian Contact Event in Southern California · 2009 · DOIMicronesia and Polynesia, by contrast, comprise of much smaller islands and their natural resources are limited to the ocean; they mostly comprise of small atolls with poor soil, with elevations usually between one and two metres (Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu).
Availability, accessibility and utilization of Pacific island demographic data - Issues of data quality and user relevance · 2007 · DOIAbstract Relatively little is known about demographic processes in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, although since the reports of the first ethnographers, population growth has been thought a significant issue.
Considerable borrowing (probably more by the Tanna languages from Futuna-Aniwa than in the reverse direction) is apparent in other areas of material culture, although these have not been fully documented as yet.
Borrowed moieties, borrowed names: sociolinguistic contact between Tanna and Futuna-Aniwa, Vanuatu · 1994Land and Exchanges among the Anga (Papua New Guinea) The lineage model worked out by africanists does not account for the definition of local groups or, more generally, for the nature of social bonds in New Guinea.
2 But no agreement has been reached on whether the early Austronesian speakers moved fairly rapidly from island southeast Asia through Melanesia into the further reaches of the Pacific or whether they lingered for an extended period in a 'homeland' in the Bismarck Archipelago.
As the traders pointed out to the home government, the reduction of the duty was insufficient to give a filip to the cinnamon trade and the decline continued unabated.
Like most of the Aleutian Islands, all of which had Aleut occupation prior to Bering's discovery voyage, very little is known historically of Amchitka 's Aleuts.
Archaeological Reconnaissance of Amchitka Island, Alaska · 1970But now the future expansion of plantation agriculture had to take place within the bounds of the freehold land as delimited by the Land Claims Commission.
The location and names of such populations remain unknown, and there are no photographs to establish their existence or word lists to substantiate their reputed linguistic affiliation.
Most-cited papers in Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
- Rice’s trajectory from wild to domesticated in East Asia · Science · 2024 · 132 citations
- Dating the first New Zealanders: the chronology of Wairau Bar · Antiquity · 1999 · 85 citations
- On Being Late: Cruising Mauna Kea and Unsettling Technoscientific Conquest in Hawai‘i · American Indian Culture and Research Journal · 2021 · 41 citations
- Eating and Being Eaten: The Meanings of Hunger among Marind · Medical Anthropology · 2021 · 32 citations
- Some Remarks on Beads and Trade in Lower Guinea in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries · The Journal of African History · 1962 · 27 citations
- A holistic approach to manta ray conservation in the Papuan Bird’s Head Seascape: Resounding success, ongoing challenges · Marine Policy · 2022 · 24 citations
- Were the Ancient Coast Salish Farmers? A Story of Origins · American Antiquity · 2021 · 21 citations
- Earliest Evidence for Geophyte Use in North America: 11,500-Year-Old Archaeobotanical Remains from California's Santarosae Island · American Antiquity · 2021 · 20 citations
- Early oceanic linguistic prehistory:<i>A Reassessment</i>∗ · Journal of Pacific History · 1989 · 16 citations
- Human dispersal and plant processing in the Pacific 55 000–50 000 years ago · Antiquity · 2024 · 14 citations
Most recent work
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- The Otter Lovers: History and ritual in Southwestern Amazonia · History and Anthropology · 2026
- Birds of Oeno Atoll, Pitcairn Islands, in September 2025 · Notornis · 2026
- In the service of archaeology and community: The entangled biographies of private collections of ethnographic objects: A reflection on C. Buckley’s <i>Stone and Fibre: Daily Life in the Baliem Valley, Papua</i> · Australian Archaeology · 2026
- The Future of the Tiwi Islands: A Tiwi Community Perspective · Journal of Intercultural Studies · 2026
- Fifty years of avian change on Ahuahu, Great Mercury Island · Notornis · 2026
- Feasting and Gift Giving in Precontact and Spanish Colonial Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands of Micronesia · Historical Archaeology · 2026
- In kinship with harakeke phormium tenax: how one plant and its materials facilitate transitional knowledge through inter-indigenous and inter-cultural exchange. · Proceedings of DRS · 2026
- Fish bones and scorching hair: new research shows how Aboriginal people fought smallpox · 2026
- Guillaume Robin & Ron Adams. 2025. Ethnoarchaeology of rock-cut tombs: a study of Toraja cemeteries (Sulawesi, Indonesia). Oxford: Oxbow; 979-8-88857-220-7 paperback £30.40. · Antiquity · 2026
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