ANDERSON, Atholl

PERSONAL:

Male. Ethnicity: "Ngai Tahu Whanui through descent from Rakiura Maori." Education: University of Canterbury, B.A., M.A.; University of Otago, M.A.; Cambridge University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia; fax: 61 02 6249 4917. E-mail—aja@coombs.anu.edu.au.

CAREER:

Educator and author. University of Otago, professor and head of department of anthropology; Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, professor of prehistory.

MEMBER:

Society of Antiquaries of London (fellow); Royal Society, New Zealand (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS:

D.Sc., University of Cambridge.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Birds of a Feather: Osteological and Archaeological Papers from the South Pacific in Honour of R. J. Scarlett, B.A.R. (Oxford, England), 1979.

When All the Moa Ovens Grew Cold: Nine Centuries of Changing Fortune for the Southern Maori, Otago Heritage Books (Dunedin, New Zealand), 1983.

Te Puoho's Last Raid: The March from Golden Bay to Southland in 1836 and Defeat at Tuturau, foreword by Angus Ross, Otago Heritage Books (Dunedin, New Zealand), 1986.

(Editor) Traditional Fishing in the Pacific: Ethnographical and Archaeological Papers from the Fifteenth Pacific Science Congress, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum (Honolulu, HI), 1986.

Prodigious Birds: Moas and Moa-hunting in Prehistoric New Zealand, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1989.

(With Richard McGovern-Wilson) Beech Forest Hunters: The Archaeology of Maori Rockshelter Sites on Lee Island, Lake Te Anua, in Southern New Zealand, New Zealand Archaeological Association (Auckland, New Zealand), 1991.

Race against Time, Hocken Library, University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand), 1992.

(Editor) James Herries Beattie, Traditional Lifeways of the Southern Maori: The Otago University Museum Ethnological Project, 1920, University of Otago Press (Dunedin, New Zealand), 1994.

The Welcome of Strangers: An Ethnohistory of Southern Maori A.D. 1650-1850, Otago University Press (Dunedin, New Zealand), 1998.

(Editor, with Tim Murray) Australian Archaeologist: Collected Papers in Honour of Jim Allen, Coombs Academic Publishing (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia), 2000.

(Editor, with Ian Lilley and Sue O'Connor) Histories of Old Ages: Essays in Honour of Rhys Jones, Pandanus Books (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia), 2001.

(Editor, with G. R. Clark and T. Vunidilo) The Archaeology of Lapita Dispersal in Oceania: Papers from the Fourth Lapita Conference, June 2000, Canberra, Australia, Pandanus Books (Canberra, Australia), 2001.

Archeological consultant for From the Beginning: The Archaeology of the Maori, edited by John Wilson, Penguin, 1987.

SIDELIGHTS:

Archaeologist and anthropologist Atholl Anderson has spent his life studying the prehistory of his native New Zealand and its indigenous inhabitants, the Maori. Anderson, himself a member of the Ngai Tahu tribe of the Maori, may be best known outside of New Zealand for his book Prodigious Birds: Moas and Moa-hunting in Prehistoric New Zealand. Prodigious Birds is a comprehensive study of moas, which were large flightless birds, and the interaction between the animals and the Maori who hunted them until the birds became extinct roughly four hundred years ago.

The first half of the book, which focuses on the natural history of the moa, "spans the entire spectrum of biology, from molecular evolution and systematics to plant evolution, biological anthropology, and even cryptozoology," Alan Feduccia explained in Science. "Anderson is first and formost an archeologist, but his grasp of biology leaves little to be desired," Agnar Ingolfsson commented in a review of Prodigious Birds for Quarterly Review of Biology. Then, in the second half of the book, Anderson discusses the methods with which the Maori hunted the moas, when and where they hunted them, and how they butchered and prepared the birds once they were killed. It is generally believed that the Maori hunted the moa to extinction. The extinction of the moas is "the most dramatic symbol of the devastation inflicted by the Polynesians in their trek through the South Pacific," Feduccia wrote; after Prodigious Birds, "no longer will there be the image of the 'noble savage' living in harmony with the environment."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Antiquity, March, 1988, Wilfred Shawcross, review of Traditional Fishing in the Pacific: Ethnographical and Archaeological Papers from the Fifteenth Pacific Science Congress, pp. 193-194; June, 1991, Matthew Spriggs, review of Prodigious Birds: Moas and Moa-hunting in Prehistoric New Zealand, pp. 422-423.

Archaeology in New Zealand, June, 1999, Nigel Prickett, review of The Welcome of Strangers: An Ethnohistory of Southern Maori, A.D. 1650-1850, pp. 178-179.

Archaeology in Oceania, July, 2002, Peter Veth, review of Australian Archaeologist: Collected Papers in Honour of Jim Allen, pp. 102-103.

Asian Perspectives, spring, 2003, J. Stephen Athens, review of Australian Archaeologist, pp. 181-183.

Choice, November, 1999, S. R. Martin, review of The Welcome of Strangers, p. 596.

Journal of Polynesian Society, June, 2000, Alan Ward, review of The Welcome of Strangers, pp. 199-201.

Landfall, May, 1999, Giselle Byrnes, review of The Welcome of Strangers, pp. 145-149.

New Zealand Journal of History, April, 1999, Michael P. J. Reilly, review of The Welcome of Strangers, pp. 111-112.

Quarterly Review of Biology, December, 1991, Agnar Ingolfsson, review of Prodigious Birds, pp. 503-504.

Science, May 17, 1991, Alan Feduccia, review of Prodigious Birds, pp. 1005-1006.

ONLINE

Centre for Archaeological Research,http://car.anu.edu.au/ (November 14, 2003), "Anderson, Professor Atholl."

Law Associates Consulting Engineers Web site,http://www.lawas.co.nz/ (April 15, 2003), "New Zealand Archaeological News."

New Zealand Books,http://www.nzbooks.com/ (November 14, 2003), "Atholl Anderson."

Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Web site,http://rspas.anu.edu.au/ (November 16, 2003), "Atholl Anderson's Home Page."*