Axes of entanglement in the New Georgia group, Solomon Islands

Abstract

Regional exchange networks of great variety and complexity are among the most studied phenomena in archaeological and ethnographic accounts of Island Melanesia. Malinowski’s (1922) pioneering ethnography of the kula system of southern Papua New Guinea produced an enduring image of exchange as foundational to Melanesian social life, and subsequent ethnographic efforts dedicated to elucidating the role of exchange in political structures, gender relations, ritual and symbolism (Leach and Leach 1983; Strathern 1988), have made lasting contributions to social theory. Archaeologists, for their part, have focused on identifying the range and pattern of exchange networks—from the expansive material transfers of the Lapita cultural complex (Kirch 1988; Summerhayes 2000) to the development of smaller but more intensive networks of later periods (Allen 1984).