Ode to the Real Oceanic Archaeologist. Lisa Matisoo Smith
Ode to the Real Oceanic Archaeologist. Lisa Matisoo Smith
Summary
Limerick composed on the occasion of awarding the Marsden Medal to Professor Roger Green by the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Author
Date
November 2003
Location
Auckland, New Zealand.
Limerick
Once some Flannery guy, first name Kent
Wrote a book ‘bout an archaeology gent
That he calls RMA
Due to personal sway
Towards a particular theoretical bent
RMA applies his vocation
In a Mesoamerican location
Some find it a mystery
- his love, Culture History
and his study of village formation
In the Southwest too Roger did play
But thankfully he chose not to stay
Off to Harvard he went
Where he picked up that bent
That was favoured by old RMA
To the Pacific he chose then to go
Tahiti, Samoa, Nenumbo
Adzes plano-convex
And that cultural complex
With the pottery we’ve all come to know
From the fieldwork to things theoretical
used the “E word” – that’s almost heretical!
Phylogenetic reconstruction,
And linguistic deduction
Used approaches you might call synthetical! (oh no!)
From the students he trained through the years
Some so stubborn they brought him to tears
The often imprudent
Sceptical Graduate Student
Feel to Roger we are in arrears
Now with real jobs we are spread about
Of Roger's influence there can be no doubt
As much as we’re hopin’
This bottle you’ll open
Don’t drink it – worms aren’t good for gout!
