Place: Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia Islands

Details

Roviana Lagoon is on the coast of New Georgia. The Roviana cultural area covers a large section of southwestern New Georgia and extends to Parara and Kohinggo. The history of this cultural area reaches back to between thirteen and fifteen generations. Intensification dates back to at least the mid-sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries, as inland groups moved down to occupy the lagoon and its barrier islands. In the nineteenth century the lagoon was the centre of headhunting (q.v.) throughout the Western Solomons. (Aswani and Sheppard 2003; Sheppard, Walter and Nagaoka 2000; Sheppard, Aswani, Walter and Nagaoka 2002; Aswani and Sheppard 2003) It was the headquarters for the Methodist Mission (q.v.) from 1902 and the Methodists used the Roviana language as a lingua franca. (Sheppard, Walter, and Aswani 2004)

Related Concepts

Related Corporate Bodies

Methodist Church

Related Places

New Georgia Islands

Published resources

Book Sections

Sheppard, Peter, Aswani, Shankar, Walter, Richard, and Nagaoka, Takuyu, 'Cultural Sediment: The Nature of a Cultural Landscape in Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia, Solomon Islands', in Thegn N. Ladefoged;Michael W. Graves (ed.), Pacific Landscapes: Archaeological Approaches, The Easter Island Foundation, Los Osos (Cal.), 2002, pp. 37-61. Details

Journal Articles

Aswani, Shankar, and Sheppard, Peter, 'The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Exchange in Precolonial and Colonial Roviana: Gifts, Commodities, and Inalienable Possessions', Current Anthropology, vol. 44, Supplement, 2003, pp. S51-S78. Details
Sheppard, Peter, Walter, Richard, and Aswani, Shankar, 'Oral Tradition and the Creation of Late Prehistory in Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands', Records of the Australian Museum, vol. 29, 2004, pp. 123-132. Details
Sheppard, Peter, Walter, Richard, and Nagaoka, Takuyu, 'The Archaeopogy of Head-Hunting in Roviana Lagoon', Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 109, no. 1, 2000, pp. 9-38. Details