Asian Perspectives 

About: Asian Perspectives is an academic journal published by University of Hawaii Press. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Archaeology & Prehistory. It has an ISSN identifier of 0066-8435. Over the lifetime, 520 publications have been published receiving 7845 citations. The journal is also known as: Asian Perspectives: The Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific.

Was the Emergence of Home Bases and Domestic Fire a Punctuated Event? A Review of the Middle Pleistocene Record in Eurasia

Abstract: The concept of a home-based land use strategy is fundamental for studying recent and prehistoric foraging populations. A proposed datum for the emergence of this behavior is set during later Middle Pleistocene times, around 400–350 kya, and temporally linked with the first established evidence for domestic fire making. Precise causes for this dual appearance remain obscure. Surveying the known Paleolithic record and contexts serves to identify possible factors and processes leading to this development. The emphasis here is on fire technology, particularly domestic fire making and uses, and fire's relationship with home base sensu lato characteristics, as contrasted with a previous land use system that reflects earlier primate patterns. Intentional bush and grassland burning could be components of this home base and domestic fire system. The issue of domestic fire and home base at Locality 1 in Zhoukoudian Cave is evaluated from the perspective of contemporaneous hominid behavior in Eurasia and Africa.

"The Products of Minds as Well as of Hands": Production of Prestige Goods in the Neolithic and Early State Periods of China

Abstract: This article examines the production of prestige goods in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age (Erlitou and Erligang Cultures) of China, focusing on procurement of raw material, and on manufacture, redistribution, and consumption of ritual objects made of jade, white pottery, and bronze. During the Neolithic period elite groups in several regions may have been directly involved in jade manufacture, which facilitated the formation of interaction networks based on shared cosmological concepts and aesthetic values. The elite enhanced their personal status by controlling ritual power, which was based on access to prestige goods and esoteric knowledge. During the early Bronze Age ritual vessels made of white pottery and bronze entered the inventory of prestige goods. These new types of ritual objects best facilitated the ancestor-worship ceremony, which was the ideological basis for politically legitimizing the ruling lineages. The process of bronze production and distribution, monopolized by the highest elite in the primary center (core), formed the backbone of the political hierarchy, enabling the development of a centralized political economy. These fundamental political and economic changes taking place in the Erlitou Culture indicate the transition from pre-state to state societies in north China.

New Radiocarbon Ages of Colonization Sites in East Polynesia

Abstract: The archaeological chronology of initial human colonization in East Polynesia has relied substantially upon radiocarbon dating results from a small number of sites in the central region, notably Motu Paeao cemetery (Maupiti) and Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia (Huahine) in the Society Islands, and Hane (Ua Huka) and Ha'atuatua (Nuku Hiva) in the Marquesas Islands. Recent field research and new radiocarbon dates showed that Ha'atuatua and Motu Paeao were occupied significantly later than had been suggested by earlier results. We now report the results of new radiocarbon dating on the remaining two sites. Leaving aside questionable results on bone and wood samples, six shell samples from Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia indicate occupation in the period a.d. 1050–1450. Five shell and five charcoal samples from Hane indicate that occupation did not begin earlier than about a.d. 1000. Taken together with other recent research on the chronology of initial colonization in East Polynesia we suggest that habitation did not begin until a.d. 900 or later.

Hinterlands, Urban Centers, and Mobile Settings: The "New" Old World Archaeology from the Eurasian Steppe

Abstract: Archaeological studies of pastoral nomadic societies have been invigorated by recent collaborative research projects across the Eurasian steppe zone. This research contributes an important comparative perspective on processes of complex sociopolitical organization practiced among mobile groups. This essay employs a novel approach to understanding the organizational techniques and methods of finance that supported large-scale imperial polities of eastern Eurasia, specifically those centered on the Mongolian steppe. Using full-coverage survey data from the northern Mongolian valley of Egiin Gol, we present the results of diachronic spatial and environmental analyses in order to evaluate current models for nomadic political economy. We argue that eastern Eurasian subsistence economics are best understood not as a single ''type'' of production but as a productive process based on multiresource capacities (agro-pastoral, hunting, gathering, fishing) and the flexibility to readily adjust resource emphasis, degree of mobility, and specialization relative to a changeable environment. We o¤er a revised model for eastern steppe political integration emphasizing the spatial management of political relationships within a mobile setting. Our essay concludes with a brief overview of the potential for Eurasian steppe archaeology to contribute novel comparative insights for anthropologists studying the diversities and commonalities of complex social organization.

The Pigs of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific: New Evidence for Taxonomic Status and Human-Mediated Dispersal

Abstract: This paper undertakes a major survey of the genus Sus from Island Southeast Asia and specifically attempts to re-examine the taxonomic status of the pigs of Wallacea, in order to re-evaluate the complex evidence for human mediated dispersal. This was undertaken using the combined approach of tooth outline and mitochondrial DNA analysis. The data provide clear evidence for three dispersal events: The first involved domesticated pigs, originating from wild Sus scrofa stock in mainland Southeast Asia, being introduced to the Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands, to the Mollucas, New Guinea, and Oceania. Archaeological specimens clearly link these pigs with the Lapita and subsequent Polynesian dispersals. Since the pigs on New Guinea are specifically linked with this dispersal, it follows that the current wild populations of the island must be the feral descendants of introduced domestic pigs from mainland Southeast Asia, which came into New Guinea via the Lesser Sunda Islands. A second dispersal event also involved domesticated pigs (this time from wild Sus scrofa populations from mainland East Asia), introduced to the Philippines and Micronesia, while a third involved the endemic warty pig of Sulawesi (Sus celebensis), which data from Liang Bua cave shows was introduced to Flores perhaps as early as 7000 B.C.