Abstract:
This preliminary analysis of ceramic technological change on Waya Island, Fiji documents the variation present over three thousand years of innovation, interaction, and change. Hypotheses relating the observed variation in sherd thickness, tempering practices, and vessel type diversity are proposed. These hypotheses may be tested through experimental and other analyses that are briefly described here. Finally, these hypotheses and their tests are structured by the universal evolutionary mechanisms of cultural transmission, adaptation and natural selection, and innovation and thus have implications for not only Wayan prehistory, but all of the Pacific.