The NAO Research Line formally originates in a proposal submitted by María Cruz Berrocal, as author and principal investigator, to the European Research Council (ERC), in 2010. A modified and improved version, in 2015 and 2016, was entitled “Networks Across Oceania. Studying the impacts of the earliest European presence in the Western Pacific, 16th-17th centuries AD”. Both versions can be downloaded here (shortened to the scientific sections):
Here is the abstract:
“This multidisciplinary project investigates the impacts on native societies of the earliest European presence in the Western Pacific during the 16th-17th centuries, both through direct contact and its repercussions, and the indirect consequences caused by the introduction of new species into the local environments. The project will 1) study for the first time all documentary sources pertinent to the early European presence in the Pacific; 2) study direct contacts in two extremely well-suited archaeological case studies, Taiwan and Alofi, paying attention to two European commensal species: pathogens and sweet potato; 3) study indirect contacts using Network Analysis for constructing models of the spread of these species; 4) integrate data in an Information System to create innovative analytical capacity and a tool for publication. Although not exclusive, the special focus of NAO on bioecological aspects is due to their material long-term effects, that can be detected in the record. Besides, mounting evidence shows that the Pacific was an interconnected region in which short- and long-distance navigation played a key role. In this context, any impact on any part of the network should have a subsequent impact in it, a conceptualization that provides a unique way forward to develop an understanding of European influences: they will not be analysed as an aggregate of disconnected events (expeditions, failed/successful colonization attempts), but through the underlying patterns of connectedness. NAO addresses the transformation of events into historical processes of cultural transformation through the action of the local peoples, focusing on the ecological and cultural aspects significant for understanding social and ecological long-term changes caused by the earliest European presence in the Pacific.
This project is the first systematic study of the consequences of the earliest European presence in the Pacific, and challenges traditional views on the history of the region.”
Proposals in 2010 and 2015 reached the second stage of evaluation; none was successful. In spite of these rejections, the NAO research has received the following funding so far:
- M. Cruz Berrocal, PI, 2024 “Hålomtåno”: Chamorro past and future inland on Rota, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands”. The National Geographic Society, USA
- M. Cruz Berrocal, PI, 2018-2020 “An Archaeology of first European contact in the Pacific”. Research Grants Programme – Individual Proposal GZ: CR 613/1-1. Projektnummer 395237127. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Extended to 2023 due to Covid-19 travel restrictions
Also, specific funding for our research in Taiwan is listed here.