Chris Urwin, I.J. McNiven, L. Macquarie, T. Whap. Hearing from bones: the archaeology of human hunting influence on dugong demographics over the past 1000 years at Mabuyag, Western Torres Strait. Presented at the Australian Archaeological Association conference, Cairns QLD, 1-4 December 2014. (original) (raw)
Dugong hunting has a rich history in Torres Strait, dating to at least 4000 years ago. The traditional fishery remains one of the most significant Indigenous marine mammal harvests in the world, legally enshrined since 1985. Recent times have seen the practise come under fire from zoologists, lawyers and mainstream media, all couching the harvest as cruel and unsustainable. However, a lack of historical dugong population data has significantly hindered any reliable investigation of long-term human impacts on the mammals. This paper adds empirical data to the debate by accessing ancient dugong demographic hunting profiles from Mabuyag Island, western Torres Strait. It was hypothesised that long-term hunting impact would be expressed as decreasing dugong size through time. This hypothesis was tested by investigating chronological changes in the size of dugong ear bones as a proxy for dugong size. Three sites were selected for comparison on the basis of function and chronology -a village site (Goemu) and two ritually-constructed dugong bone mounds (Dabangai Bone Mound and Moegi Sibuy), which span c. 1000 years up to 1900 AD. Statistical analysis revealed that ear-bone measurements from each site have complex and varied relationships with their respective chronologies. At Goemu village site, dugong ear-bones increased slightly in size through time, whereas Moegi Sibuy and Dabangai bone mounds both show non-significant relationships between chronology and ear-bone size. Overall, mean ear-bone sizes from the three assemblages provide no support for human-induced predation pressure on dugongs at Mabuyag. Alternatively, these new data support the inference that Mabuyag Islanders practiced sustainable dugong hunting over the 1000 year period prior to European contact.
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