Event: Pizza Talk: "Roads of Social Responsibility: The Stone Paths of Yap, Micronesia"


Date & Time

January 11, 2017 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Save to your calendar

Contact Information

Matthew Swanson
mswanson@ioa.ucla.edu

Location

Fowler A222

Event Type

Pizza Talk

Event Details

Speakers: Dr. James Snead, California State University, Northridge; Austin Ringelstein, National Park Service

Archaeologists working within they landscape paradigm have increasingly begun directing attention toward the subject of movement. Recent  work has underlined the centrality of "motion" to the human experience, creating a body of  theoretical and empirical literature that has wide application. This presentation will discuss new fieldwork on Yap, in the Eastern Caroline islands of Micronesia. Famous among anthropologists for "stone money" (or rai), the remarkable built environment of Yap also includes hundreds of kilometers of stone paths. Documentation of these features, including physical mapping as well as the collection of ethnographic information, is being conducted in collaboration with the Historic Preservation Department of Yap State. More than mere routes of convenience, the paths have been called "roads of social responsibility" and are fundamental organizational elements of Yapese society. Their study, supported by the Cotsen Institute, provides a distinctive case study for landscape archaeology.