Paper originally presented at the Circum-Pacific Prehistory Conference Session VIII Prehistoric Trans-Pacific Contacts, Seattle Washington, U.S.A., August 1-6, 1989. By Grant Keddie Introduction The question of whether or not Asiatic cultures have influenced cultures of the New World is linked with the problem of how we tell whether cultural charge is internal or external. As Hodder points out “all change incorporates continuity and the archaeologist can emphasize one or the other at will”. The problem he suggests has been “the failure to identify continuity and change as social-symbolic processes”. There is, he argues, a “need for archaeologists to examine the origin and divergence of long-term cultural traditions” (1987a:8). I will present an overview of my ongoing studies on the long-term … Continue reading “Symbolism and Context: The World History of the Labret and Cultural Diffusion on the Pacific Rim”