Reflections on the commensal model and future directions in Polynesian interaction studies

One of the central themes of indigenous Polynesian historical narratives involves voyaging, navigation and patterns of inter-island cultural connection. One of the ways archaeologists have long looked at these questions through the lens of material culture studies—distributions of artefact and assemblage traits in time and space. Here we examine patterns of historical interaction inferred from the application of the commensal model with those derived from more traditional archaeological approaches. We suggest that the most reliable and nuanced models of past cultural interaction in Eastern Polynesia will result from a creative synthesis of molecular zooarchaeology and traditional archaeological and zooarchaeological methods.