Database Content ⇫ ¶

Cultures

Being expert voyagers, Austronesians settled as far west as Madagascar and as far east as Rapanui - an area spanning over half the world’s longitude. The physical environments they inhabited ranged from tiny atolls such as Tongareva to the isolated mountainous interiors of large islands such as Taiwan. The social and religious features of these cultures were no less diverse. Social structures ranged from acephalous nomadic bands to large, complex states. Supernatural beliefs systems included localised nature spirits and the spirits of recent ancestors, as well as structured pantheons of powerful gods. Supernatural practices include ritual dances, human sacrifice and headhunting. It was this diversity of religious belief and practice that inspired the first comparative studies of religion (Swain and Trompf 1995).

Variables

Pulotu contains a total of 86 variables, divided into three major sections, each covering a distinct time period in a culture's history. The first and largest section is the traditional state section, which contains information on the state of the culture prior to large-scale modernisation. The second section covers the post-contact history, the time period spanning from the traditional state of the cultures to their contemporary state. The third section is the contemporary state, documenting the contemporary state of the culture.

Further Information

Definitions of the terms used throughout Pulotu can be found in our glossary section. For all other enquiries please visit our contact page.

Publications ⇫ ¶

• Watts, J., Sheehan, O., Bulbulia, J., Gray, R.D., & Atkinson, Q.D. (2018). Christianity spread faster in small politically structured societies. Nature Human Behaviour, 2, 559-564.

• Sheehan, O., Watts, J., Gray, R.D., & Atkinson, Q.D. (2018). Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115 (14), 3628-3633.

• Watts, J., Sheehan, O., Atkinson, Q.D., Bulbulia, J., & Gray, R.D. (2016). Ritual human sacrifice promoted and sustained the evolution of stratified societies. Nature, 532 (7598), 228-231.

• Watts J., Greenhill S.J., Atkinson Q.D., Currie T.E., Bulbulia J., Gray R.D. (2015). Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B., 282.

• Watts J., Sheehan O., Greenhill S.J., Gomes-Ng S., Atkinson Q.D., Bulbulia J., Gray R.D. (2015). Pulotu: Database of Austronesian Supernatural Beliefs and Practices. PLoS ONE 10(9)

The Team ⇫ ¶

Chief Editor
	Dr. Oliver Sheehan Oliver has played a central role in developing and coding the Pulotu database since its inception. In recent years Oliver had lead the ongoing development of the Pulotu database and is the current Chief Editor. Oliver is a postdoctoral researcher in the department of psychology at the University of Auckland.	Email
Leadership and Advisory Team
	Dr. Joseph Watts Project management, database and website design Joseph led the initial design and construction of Pulotu in collaboration with the rest of the project team.	Website Email		Prof. Russell Gray Project Leader, overall coordination.	Website Email
	Dr. Simon Greenhill Associate Investigator, database design	Website		Prof. Quentin Atkinson Associate Investigator, data analysis	Website Email
	Prof. Joseph Bulbulia Associate Investigator, religious studies consultant	Website Email		Prof. Carlos Botero Associate Investigator, ecological modeling	Website Email
Research Team
	Dr. Stephanie Gomes-Ng Cultural research and database development	Email		Dr. Angeline Song Cultural research	Email
	Joanne Ong Cultural research	Email		Dr. Sam Passmore Cultural research	Website Email
	Kirsty Maurits Cultural research	Email		Goldie Hamilton Cultural research	Email
	Kelsey Buntain Cultural research	Email		Alex Thomson Cultural research	Website Email

Funding and Affiliations ⇫ ¶

Funding

Pulotu was constructed thanks to funding from the John Templeton Foundation and the Marsden Grant of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Affiliations

How to cite ⇫ ¶

Please read the conditions of use page before publishing any data from Pulotu.

Pulotu can be cited as follows:

Watts J., Sheehan O., Greenhill S.J., Gomes-Ng S., Atkinson Q.D., Bulbulia J., Gray R.D. (2015). Pulotu: Database of Austronesian Supernatural Beliefs and Practices. PLoS ONE 10(9).