A study on environmental functional differentiation and environmental boundaries in a Polynesian far-remote atoll society

  The Cook Islands are a multi-island country in the Pacific Ocean region known as Polynesia. The Pukapuka atoll is located at the north-western end of the archipelago. An atoll is a coral reef formation that develops in a ring. The Pukapuka atoll is a remarkably fragile world for human habitation. This is because the land area is very small, low and separated from other islands and continents. Furthermore, it is prone to climatic and weather anomalies caused by the El Niño phenomenon, which has been recurring for thousands of years. In addition, these environmental risks are thought to have been amplified in the present day, during the Anthropocene epoch.

　This study repositions the inhabitants of the Pukapuka atoll as intergenerational survivors in such a fragile world. The study takes the new perspective that they have made this possible by raising the environmental boundaries, while at the same time extending their life-worlds beyond the atoll by differentiating the environmental functions of the individual islets that make up the atoll. This dynamic construction of life-worlds will be comprehensively examined by researchers with different specialisations, such as social anthropology, historical anthropology, archaeology and geography, through collaboration in the field, with collaborators inside and outside the Pukapuka atoll.

This research is supported by the JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (Project/Area No. 24H00127).