TY - JOUR
T1 - Risk, reliability, and the importance of small-bodied molluscs across the Hawaiian Windward-Leeward Divide
AU - Rogers, Ashleigh
AU - Weisler, Marshall I.
N1 - Funding Information:
Thank you to the anonymous reviewers whose thoughtful comments greatly sharpened and clarified our manuscript. This research was supported by The Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE Postgraduate Research Award) and an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, awarded to Rogers. Grants from The Society for Hawaiian Archaeology (SHA Student Grant), Society of American Archaeology (SAA Dienje Kenyon Memorial Fellowship), and the School of Social Science, The University of Queensland (UQ) contributed funding to the 2018 excavation of the Kai‘ehu site. The Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i (TNCH) financially supported the excavations, initial lab analyses, and access to the Kai‘ehu site in 1989. Ed Misaki (TNCH) championed the need for the research and access to the Mo‘omomi Preserve where the Kai‘ehu site is located. The Kawela Mound excavations were supported by Kawela Plantation Development Associates and Moloka‘i Ranch Inc., administered through the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum during 1980-82 where Sara Collins and Virgil Meeker assisted with the lab processing. Charmaine Wong (Archaeology Collections Manager, Bishop Museum) facilitated the loan of the Kawela Mound shellfish for further analysis. We greatly thank all and especially the Bishop Museum for curation of the Kawela material for the past 40 years which has made this research possible.
Funding Information:
Thank you to the anonymous reviewers whose thoughtful comments greatly sharpened and clarified our manuscript. This research was supported by The Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE Postgraduate Research Award) and an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, awarded to Rogers. Grants from The Society for Hawaiian Archaeology (SHA Student Grant), Society of American Archaeology (SAA Dienje Kenyon Memorial Fellowship), and the School of Social Science, The University of Queensland (UQ) contributed funding to the 2018 excavation of the Kai‘ehu site. The Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i (TNCH) financially supported the excavations, initial lab analyses, and access to the Kai‘ehu site in 1989. Ed Misaki (TNCH) championed the need for the research and access to the Mo‘omomi Preserve where the Kai‘ehu site is located. The Kawela Mound excavations were supported by Kawela Plantation Development Associates and Moloka‘i Ranch Inc., administered through the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum during 1980-82 where Sara Collins and Virgil Meeker assisted with the lab processing. Charmaine Wong (Archaeology Collections Manager, Bishop Museum) facilitated the loan of the Kawela Mound shellfish for further analysis. We greatly thank all and especially the Bishop Museum for curation of the Kawela material for the past 40 years which has made this research possible.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - The windward-leeward dichotomy is an important biogeographical distinction when investigating prehistoric island colonisation, settlement patterns, site use, and subsistence regimes. We analysed the mollusc remains from late prehistoric windward and leeward coastal midden sites from Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands, to understand exploitation strategies in differing environmental contexts. Analysis of molluscan remains and their associated habitats, through a patch-choice framework, indicated that, instead of practicing different foraging regimes relative to their location, windward and leeward groups targeted small Neritidae gastropods from habitats adjacent to their home site. Despite the broad environmental differences, similar subsistence strategies may have been adopted for multiple reasons. In our windward-leeward assemblages, we suggest that mollusc size is not the paramount driver of forager decision making. Through a foraging theory lens, mollusc rank is reinterpreted beyond body size in response to prey-specific biological and ecological factors, such as aggregation and predictability. We also consider that targeted exploitation of stable, reliable, and resilient prey populations may instead be indicative of a risk management strategy in marginal, high variance environments. The best explanation may be a combination of both interpretations–where the risk sensitive forager ranks prey by a different set of optimality criteria that includes targeting high-density clusters of small gastropods.
AB - The windward-leeward dichotomy is an important biogeographical distinction when investigating prehistoric island colonisation, settlement patterns, site use, and subsistence regimes. We analysed the mollusc remains from late prehistoric windward and leeward coastal midden sites from Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands, to understand exploitation strategies in differing environmental contexts. Analysis of molluscan remains and their associated habitats, through a patch-choice framework, indicated that, instead of practicing different foraging regimes relative to their location, windward and leeward groups targeted small Neritidae gastropods from habitats adjacent to their home site. Despite the broad environmental differences, similar subsistence strategies may have been adopted for multiple reasons. In our windward-leeward assemblages, we suggest that mollusc size is not the paramount driver of forager decision making. Through a foraging theory lens, mollusc rank is reinterpreted beyond body size in response to prey-specific biological and ecological factors, such as aggregation and predictability. We also consider that targeted exploitation of stable, reliable, and resilient prey populations may instead be indicative of a risk management strategy in marginal, high variance environments. The best explanation may be a combination of both interpretations–where the risk sensitive forager ranks prey by a different set of optimality criteria that includes targeting high-density clusters of small gastropods.
KW - Archaeomalacology
KW - Foraging theory and patch-use
KW - Hawaiian Islands
KW - Marine subsistence strategies
KW - Risk management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119866529&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10745-021-00297-y
DO - 10.1007/s10745-021-00297-y
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85119866529
SN - 0300-7839
VL - 50
SP - 141
EP - 165
JO - Human Ecology
JF - Human Ecology
IS - 1
ER -