Cosmo‐political landscapes of Torres Straitadhiandmisœristones: Closing the gap between Islander and non‐indigenous perspectives

Abstract

Torres Strait (TS), on Australia's north-east border, has a long history of research on poerapoeral kulal: powerful stones. Poerapoeral kulal contain vital power from site-of-origin and therefore their movement across the Coral-Arafura Sea corridor provides important information about past and present human relationships (Elu 2004). With few exceptions Western models draw on anthropological, linguistic and site origin research collated by a Cambridge University field team over 100 years ago, with little detailed reassessment of stone raw material and distribution or geological and archaeological surveys conducted within the intervening period. It is also unclear how TS Islanders engage with this literature, particularly the many communities poorly represented by 19th-century studies. In this paper, we test several assumptions influencing recent literature from contemporary islander and non-indigenous perspectives. This includes assessing whether: (a) western scholarship models oversimplify terminology and discussion; (b) early geological assessments of substantive movement of stones is correct; and (c) movement of exotic stones was a common feature across TS. Finally, using detailed cultural, archaeology, geology, and language data sets we reinterpret the regionally-varying role and antiquity of poerapoeral kulal within this animate cosmo-political land and seascape.

Archaeology of powerful stones in the Australia‐Pacific region: an Introduction

“…The partnership between archaeology (specifically artefact geochemistry) and ethnography is arguably particularly compelling in this context, providing intimate detail into cultural landscapes and pathways. While recognising the dangers of non-critical comparisons between temporally and spatially discrete sites (e.g., Ballard & Wilson, 2014), it is anticipated that studies presented here (e.g., Ballard;Mitchell et al 2023) will be valuable to those interested in transport of powerful stones elsewhere. Examples include the wide distribution of axeheads from selected sources of stone along the Atlantic façade of northwest Europe (Bradley & Edmonds, 1993) or the fifth and fourth millennia BC presence of jadeite axeheads on the Orkney Islands some 1800 km from source outcrops in the Italian Alps (Pétrequin et al, 2012).…”