Developing Maritime Economies of the Pre-Colonial Massim, Papua New Guinea : The Making of an Island World and the Foundations of Kula

The Massim region of Papua New Guinea has been the focus of ethnographic interest for over a century because of sociocultural practices and maritime economies that connect island populations, including the Kula ring. This Element explores the history of Massim maritime economies from an archaeological perspective.

The Massim region of Papua New Guinea has been the focus of intensive ethnographic interest for over a century because of sociocultural practices and maritime economies that connect island populations, including the famed Kula ring. Ethnographic models of Kula have been critiqued as ahistorical and heavily influenced by colonial interventions. This volume explores the long-term history of Massim maritime economies from a predominantly archaeological perspective, but draws on ethnographic, linguistic and biomolecular information. Maritime economies have connected islands for at least 17,000 years, with parallels to historically documented networks emerging over the last 3000 years. The Massim region can be considered as a network of decentralized, micro-world economies that frequently overlapped, were shaped by local value systems, clan affiliations, and defined by strategic advantages of location, natural resources and technologies. Maritime interaction in the Massim shaped cultural and linguistic diversity, providing a comparative case study for maritime economies globally.