Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography.

This is the third in a series of volumes produced in the Departme of Anthropology from the work of the Comparative Austronesian Project. 1 The first of these volumes examined the comparative design of Austronesian houses and related these spatial forms to the social and ritual practices of their resident groups.The second volume provided a general survey of the Austronesians focusing on their common origins and historical transformations.This third volume explores indigenous Austronesian ideas of origin, ancestry and alliance and considers the comparative significance of these ideas in social practice.As a collection, these papers offer a variety of perspectives across a range of societies of the Austronesian-speaking world from insular Southeast Asia to the islands of the Pacific.of as broadly interdisciplinary.It endeavoured to involve archaeologists, linguists, anthropologists and historians in this common discussion of related comparative concerns.For a period from 1989 to 1991, the Comparative Austronesian Project was given formal project status within the then Research School of Pacific Studies.Since this period and as a result of the Project, comparative Austronesian studies have been recognized as a continuing focus of research within the renamed Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Origins, Ancestry and AllianceThe papers in this volume were originally presented in a marathon six-day conference (25-30 January 1990) on issues of "Hierarchy, Ancestry and Alliance" held in Canberra and the University's property at Kioloa on the south coast of Australia, offering participants a fine view of the Pacific Ocean for the concluding sessions of the conference.The conference produced a total of twenty-nine papers.From these papers, one set dealing specifically with ideas of hierarchy was selected to form the volume, Transformations of Hierarchy, edited by Margaret Jolly and Mark S. Mosko (1994).A second set of papers also concerned with hierarchy and precedence but equally concerned with ideas of origins, ancestry and alliance was selected to form this present volume.A majority of the papers in this volume are based on presentations at the conference but they have been revised, rewritten and, in several cases, substantially expanded as this volume has proceeded toward publication.A feature of this second set of papers is its coverage of a diverse range of Austronesian societies ranging from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines to Micronesia and central Polynesia.Although each paper presents a specific case or cases, the volume, as a whole, has been framed to highlight possibilities of comparison among societies that might otherwise be considered within separate different regional settings.Discussion of issues of hierarchy -rank, stratification and status -as well as issues of equality figure prominently in all of the papers.A principal concern is to examine how hierarchy and equality are created, imagined and maintained by reference to ideas of origin and ancestry as a "founding" ideology in Austronesian societies.To explore these ideas also requires attention to history.Indeed an historical perspective is essential to the comparative effort.The expression of fundamental conceptions that constitute the basis by which these societies are defined as Austronesian is made evident in their history. The Austronesian Language ContextComparisons among the Austronesian-speaking peoples have a long history (see Jolly and Mosko 1994:1-18; Bellwood, Fox and Tryon 1995:1-16).By definition, all such "Austronesian" comparisons must, either implicitly or explicitly, be carried out in reference to some understanding of the Austronesian language