Book Details

Te Puna - A New Zealand Mission Station : Historical Archaeology in New Zealand

Publication year: 2008

ISBN: 978-0-387-77622-4

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The historical archaeology of Te Puna demonstrates the particularities of one outpost of early nineteenth century British colonization, but its story resonates around the globe, reflecting local differences as well as common patterns in missionization. In all mission types, domesticity is revealed as a central, unifying concern of the ‘civilizing mission’; other themes of interaction with indigenous peoples, household economy, the development of commerce, and social and gender relations were played out. Across the globe, a common material culture traveled with its evangelizing (and colonizing) settlers, with artifacts appearing as cultural markers from Cape Town in South Africa, to Tasmania and Victoria in Australia, and the even more remote Bay of Islands in New Zealand.


Subject: Humanities, Social Science and Law, Colonisation, Colonization, Cultural Studies, Indiginous Peoples, Missionary, Oceania, archaeological investigations, historical archaeology, material culture