The volcanic cone of Pouerua and its surrounding land, a major site of pre-European settlement and recently in the news, was the focus of an important archaeological research project from 1982-1985. This study covers the first season of the project--the excavation of undefended settlements dating from 1400-1830--providing new and vital information on the organization and arrangement of kainga, and shedding light on the social and political structures within Maori society both before and after European settlement.

The third book to emerge from the Pouerua Project focuses on the pa itself, and explores the innovative attempt to use archaeological techniques to explore and understand socio-political processes. This book should be of interest to scholars, students and amateur archaeologists and historians.

Drawing on archaeology, Maori oral history, European accounts, this is a fascinating study of cultural change and development by Maori in a single region of New Zealand.

The Archaeology of Difference presents a new and radically different perspective on the archaeology of cross-cultural contact and engagement. The authors move away from acculturation or domination and resistance and concentrate on interaction and negotiation by using a wide variety of case studies which take a crucially indigenous rather than colonial standpoint.

'Though stronger evidence of this horrid practice prevailing among the inhabitants of this coast will scarcely be required, we have still stronger to give.' - Captain James Cook This Horrid Practice uncovers an unexplored taboo of New Zealand history - the widespread practice of cannibalism in pre-European Maori society. Until now, many historians have tried to avoid it and many Maori have considered it a subject best kept quiet about in public. Paul Moon brings together an impressive array of sources from a variety of disciplines to produce this frequently contentious but always stimulating exploration of how and why Maori ate other human beings, and why the practice shuddered to a halt just a few decades after the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand. The book includes a comprehensive survey of cannibalism practices among traditional Maori, carefully assessing the evidence and concluding it was widespread. Other chapters look at how explorers and missionaries saw the practice; the role of missionaries and Christianity in its end; and, in the final chapter, why there has been so much denial on the subject and why some academics still deny that it ever happened. This Horrid Practice promises to be one of the leading works of New Zealand history published in 2008. It is a highly original work that every New Zealand history enthusiast will want to own and read.