Meanings of a Lapita Face: Materialized Social Memory in Ancient House Societies

本文旨在解析拉比塔(Lapita)帶有人臉紋飾的點刺梳紋陶器，以及這類器物在一個持續地往新的島嶼擴展，且可能是屬於家屋組織的社會分化過程中所扮演的角色。拉比塔陶器的製作視為是一項轉化社會記憶成為物質表徵的行為。拉比塔陶器的紋飾象徵著一個家的社會、經濟、政治和靈力地位，甚至能進一步產生權力及位階。作者分析從新刺里多巴亞島(New Caledonia)WKO013A遺址出土的拉比塔陶器人臉紋飾組合模式，其與器型、製作方式之間的關係，並由拉比塔點刺梳紋陶器在整個大洋洲分布地域範圍內的變化著手，進一步將這些現象與許多大洋洲和東南亞社會的民族誌研究及其社會中的家/氏族之物質化象徵做比較。作者認為，拉比塔陶器以及它在社會中所扮演的社會角色，既是歷史的產物，同時也在其生產過程中形塑出拉比塔社群的歷史。

This article proposes an interpretation of Lapita dentate-stamped pottery and its roles in social differentiation within a society that was constantly expanding to new islands. Lapita pottery is seen as an authentic item associated with founding ancestors; it expresses a house’s social, economic, political, and spiritual status, and generates power. The ceramic assemblages from Site 13A on New Caledonia are examined and compared with numberous ethnographic studies of Oceanic and Southeast Asian societies and their house/clan symbols. Lapita pottery and its social roles in Lapita societies are thus historically made and at the same time constitute history-in-the-making.