Dr. Seth Quintus of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Department of Anthropology will give a Math + Science + X Seminar talk titled “Examining of the Diversity of Pre-European Cultivation in Polynesia: Lesson on Long-term Sustainability and Resiliency” from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. this Friday, Oct. 27, in E132.
Quintus will explore sustainability and resilience issues including how Hawaiʻi is becoming a model of how indigenous cropping systems and can contribute to discussions surrounding sustainability, food security, and food sovereignty.
The presentation also will describe the diversity in Polynesian cultivation and how that diversity was created. Different pathways of cultivation are visible on every island in Polynesia. In fact, what might be a more fundamental lesson of Polynesian cultivation techniques is the importance of flexibility, which has allowed populations to produce food in markedly different environments.
The talk will conclude with a summation of the important lessons that collective Polynesian cultivation systems can teach us about sustainability and resiliency at the regional and global scale. Hawaiʻi will remain an important center for discussing how indigenous knowledge can contribute to a sustainable future, but learning from many is often times better than learning from one.
Quintus is an assistant professor of anthropology with professional research interests in human-environment interaction, production systems, environmental anthropology, GIS, Geoarchaeology and Oceania. His dissertation at the University of Auckland was Dynamics of Agricultural Development in Prehistoric Samoa: the Case of Ofu Island.