Sean P. Connaughton

Introduction:

Sean P. Connaughton is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University and an Instructor in the Department of Anthropology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Sean has over 12 years of archaeological and anthropological experience working in the southeastern United States, British Columbia, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.  For the past 10 years he has worked closely with Indigenous communities in the Pacific; directing field projects, teaching archaeological field methods, conducting field ethnographies, and learning local languages and customs. Sean views fieldwork as a reciprocal exchange in which he shares what he has learned through archaeology and allows it to be enriched through the perspectives of the direct descendants, who, in some cases, still live on ancestral lands.  Sean is committed to continuing existing relationships and pursuing new partnerships between Indigenous communities and archaeologists.  Sean hopes that future collaboration will inspire his hosts to integrate archaeology and traditional knowledge within their worldview and western society.

Ph.D. Research: Emergence and Development of Ancestral Polynesian Society in Tonga

MA Thesis: Onset of Pottery in the Subsistence Economy of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the St. Johns River Valley

Publications:

Edited Volumes:

2007 (Bedford, Stuart, Christophe Sand and Sean P. Connaughton) Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement, Terra Australis 26, ANU E-Press, Australian National University, Canberra.

Journal papers and book chapters:

In Press (Connaughton, Sean P.) A story of yams, worms, and change from Ancestral Polynesia.  Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology.

2011 (David, Bruno, Ian J. McNiven, Thomas Richards, Sean P. Connaughton, Matthew Leavesley, Bryce Barker and Cassandra Rowe) Lapita Sites in the Central Province of Mainland Papua New Guinea. World Archaeology 43(4):576-593.

2010 (Burley, David V., Andrew Barton, William R. Dickinson, Sean P. Connaughton, and Karine Taché) Nukuleka as a Founder Colony for western Polynesia: Recent Excavations and New Insights.  Journal of Pacific Archaeology 1(2):128-144.

2010 (Connaughton, Sean P., Karine Taché, and David V. Burley) Taupita: A 3000-Year-Old Shell Game in the Lapita Cultural Complex of Tonga.  Journal of Social Archaeology 10(1):118-137.

2007 (Connaughton, Sean P.) Can We Dig It? Archaeology of Ancestral Polynesian Society in Tonga: A First Look from Falevai. In Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement, edited by Stuart Bedford, Christophe Sand and Sean P. Connaughton. Terra Australis 26, pp. 199-212. ANU E-Press, Australian National University, Canberra.

2007 (Burley, David V. and Sean P. Connaughton) First Lapita Settlement and its Chronology in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga. Radiocarbon 49(1):131-137

2007 (Jones, Sharyn, Patrick O’Day, and Sean P. Connaughton) New Archaeological Insights from the Central Lau Group, Fiji.  Domodomo  20(1&2):17-38.