Prodigious Birds: Moas and Moa-Hunting in New Zealand

by Atholl Anderson

Overview

Prodigious Birds brings together the entire field of moa-related research, some 150 years of enquiry. The moa was a large flightless bird, hunted into extinction by the Maori tribes of New Zealand before the arrival of Europeans. Atholl Anderson brings an historical perspective to the development of moa research and its formative debates, analytical methods and results, reviewing evidence from palaeontology, biology, archaeology, ethnography and history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521543965
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/30/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	8.27(w) x 10.98(h) x 0.55(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. Introduction; Part I. Discovery and Biology of Moas: 2. Discovery; 3. Systematics; 4. Origins and development; 5. Morphology and behaviour; 6. Maori traditions; Part II. Moa-Hunting, Processing and Extinction: 7. The Moa-hunter debate; 8. North Island sites; 9. South Island coastal sites; 10. South Island island sites; 11. Hunting strategies; 12. Processing technology; 13. Chronology and extinction; 14. Conclusions; Index.