On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European ContactThe Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the earth's surface and encompasses many thousands of islands, the home to numerous human societies and cultures. Among these indigenous Oceanic cultures are the intrepid Polynesian double-hulled canoe navigators, the atoll dwellers of Micronesia, the statue carvers of remote Easter Island, and the famed traders of Melanesia. Recent archaeological excavations, combined with allied research in historical linguistics, biological anthropology, and comparative ethnography, have begun to reveal much new information about the long-term history of these Pacific Island societies and cultures. On the Road of the Winds synthesizes the grand sweep of human history in the Pacific Islands, beginning with the movement of early people out from Asia more than 40,000 years ago, and tracing the development of myriad indigenous cultures up to the time of European contact in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Questions that scholars have posed and puzzled over for two centuries or more are illuminated here: Where did the Pacific Islanders come from? How did they discover and settle the thousands of islands? Why did they build great monuments like Nan Madol on Pohnpei Island in Micronesia or the famous Easter Island statues? This book provides an up-to-date synthesis of archaeological and historical anthropological knowledge of these fascinating indigenous cultures. In particular, Kirch focuses on human ecology and island adaptations, the complexities of island trading and exchange systems, voyaging technology and skills, and the development of intensive economic systems linked to the growth of large populations. He also draws on his own original field research conducted on many islands, ranging from the Solomons to Hawai'i, as he takes us on an intellectual voyage into the Oceanic past. |
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Page xi
... Mar- quesas Islands in 1956 32 1.14 . Robert Suggs's cultural sequence for the Marquesas Islands 33 1.15 . Roger C. Green in the field in Western Samoa , 1960s 34 1.16 . Map of a marae or temple complex in xi List of Figures.
... Mar- quesas Islands in 1956 32 1.14 . Robert Suggs's cultural sequence for the Marquesas Islands 33 1.15 . Roger C. Green in the field in Western Samoa , 1960s 34 1.16 . Map of a marae or temple complex in xi List of Figures.
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... Marquesas Islands 236 7.18 . Early Eastern Polynesian fishhooks from the Marquesas Islands 237 7.19 . Artifacts from the Tangatatau Rockshelter site on Mangaia Island 239 7.20 . A Polynesian double - hulled canoe at sea between Tonga ...
... Marquesas Islands 236 7.18 . Early Eastern Polynesian fishhooks from the Marquesas Islands 237 7.19 . Artifacts from the Tangatatau Rockshelter site on Mangaia Island 239 7.20 . A Polynesian double - hulled canoe at sea between Tonga ...
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... Marquesas 262 8.10 . Plan map of the Vahangeku'a tohua site in Taipivai Valley , Nuku Hiva , Marquesas 263 8.11 . A large anthropomorphic statue at Puamau , Hiva Oa Island , Marquesas 264 8.12 . Marquesan dwelling platform of the Clas ...
... Marquesas 262 8.10 . Plan map of the Vahangeku'a tohua site in Taipivai Valley , Nuku Hiva , Marquesas 263 8.11 . A large anthropomorphic statue at Puamau , Hiva Oa Island , Marquesas 264 8.12 . Marquesan dwelling platform of the Clas ...
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Contents
Preface | xix |
Introduction | 1 |
Defining Oceania | 4 |
Linguistic Human Biological and Cultural Variation in Oceania | 6 |
About This Book | 10 |
A Note on Dates and Time | 11 |
Discovering the Oceanic Past | 12 |
Missionaries Colonists and Academic Beginnings | 14 |
Transformations and Legacy | 115 |
The Prehistory of New Melanesia | 117 |
Trading Societies of Papua and the Massim | 120 |
The Late Holocene in Highland New Guinea | 124 |
The Bismarck Archipelago after Lapita | 126 |
The Solomon Islands | 130 |
Vanuatu | 135 |
The Polynesian Outliers in Melanesia | 142 |
The Problem of Polynesian Origins | 20 |
Te Rangi Hiroa and the Micronesian Route to Polynesia | 24 |
The Discovery of Time Depth and Culture Change | 27 |
The Search for Polynesian Sequences | 29 |
Broadening Research Horizons | 32 |
Archaeology in Melanesia and New Guinea | 36 |
Public Archaeology in the Pacific | 39 |
Contemporary Approaches to Pacific Prehistory | 40 |
The Pacific Islands as a Human Environment | 42 |
Origins and Development of Pacific Islands | 44 |
Types of Islands | 47 |
Climatic Factors in the Pacific | 50 |
Island Life Biogeography | 53 |
The Microbiotic World and Human Populations | 56 |
Island Ecosystems | 57 |
Human Impacts on Island Ecosystems | 59 |
Sahul and the Prehistory of Old Melanesia | 63 |
The Pleistocene Geography of Sahul and Near Oceania | 65 |
Initial Human Arrival in Sahul and Near Oceania | 67 |
Pleistocene Voyaging in Near Oceania | 68 |
Near Oceania during the Pleistocene | 70 |
Cultural Innovations of the Early Holocene | 78 |
A Paradox and a Hypothesis | 83 |
Lapita and the Austronesian Expansion | 85 |
The Human Landscape of Near Oceania at 20001500 BC | 86 |
The Advent of Lapita | 88 |
The Austronesian Expansion | 91 |
Lapita Dispersal into Remote Oceania | 93 |
Lapita in Linguistic and Biological Perspective | 98 |
The Lapita Ceramic Series | 101 |
Lapita Sites and Settlements | 106 |
Lapita Subsistence Economies | 109 |
Exchange among Lapita Communities | 112 |
Ancestral Oceanic Societies | 114 |
Ethnogenesis in La Grande Terre | 147 |
An Archipelago in Between | 155 |
Summary | 161 |
Micronesia In the Sea of Little Lands | 165 |
Colonization and Early Settlement in Micronesia | 167 |
Cultural Sequences in Micronesia | 175 |
Tuvalu and the Polynesian Outliers in Micronesia | 179 |
Atoll Adaptations | 181 |
Later Prehistory in Western Micronesia | 183 |
Development of Sociopolitical Complexity in the Caroline High Islands | 194 |
Polynesia Origins and Dispersals | 207 |
Polynesian Origins | 208 |
Polynesia as a Phyletic Unit | 211 |
Ancestral Polynesia | 215 |
Cultural Sequences in Western Polynesia | 219 |
The Settlement of Eastern Polynesia | 230 |
The Polynesian Chiefdoms | 246 |
Ethnographic Background and Anthropological Significance | 248 |
Sociopolitical Transformation in the Open Societies | 250 |
The Emergence of Stratified Chiefdoms | 283 |
Summary | 301 |
Big Structures and Large Processes in Oceanic Prehistory | 302 |
Correlations between Language Biology and Culture | 305 |
The Role of Demographic Change in Oceanic History | 307 |
Oceanic Populations on the Eve of European Contact | 311 |
The Political Economy of Dynamic Landscapes | 313 |
Intensification and Specialization in Island Economies | 317 |
Transformations of Status and Power | 321 |
A Closing Comment | 323 |
Notes | 327 |
References | 355 |
409 | |
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On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands ... Patrick Vinton Kirch No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
adzes agricultural Allen Ancestral anthropology archaeological record archipelago artifacts atolls Austronesian basalt Bishop Museum Bismarcks Caledonia ceramic changes Chapter chiefdoms coastal colonization complex Cook cultural sequence early Easter Island Eastern Polynesian Emory ethnographic evidence excavations expansion FIGURE Fiji Fijian fishhooks Futuna Golson Gosden Green Guinea Hawai'i Hawaiian high islands Hiroa human indigenous intensification kilometers Kosrae land landscape languages Lapita Lapita sites latte linguistic Mangaia Mangareva Marianas Marquesas Melanesia meters Micronesia midden mounds Mussau Nan Madol nesian Niuatoputapu obsidian Oceanic origins P. V. Kirch Pacific islands Palau Papua period phase Photo by P. V. Pleistocene Pohnpei population pottery prehistory Proto proto-historic radiocarbon dates Rapa Nui reef region Remote Oceania Rockshelter Sahul Samoa Sand settlement pattern shell Sinoto social Society Islands sociopolitical Solomons Spriggs stone Talepakemalai taro terraces Tikopia tion Tonga Valley Vanuatu volcanic voyaging Western Polynesia Yapese Zealand