Prehistory in the Pacific Islands

Prehistory in the Pacific Islands PDF Author: John Terrell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521369565
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
How, asks John Terrell in this richly illustrated and original book, can we best account for the remarkable diversity of the Pacific Islanders in biology, language, and custom? Traditionally scholars have recognized a simple racial division between Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, Australians, and South-east Asians: peoples allegedly differing in physical appearance, temperament, achievements, and perhaps even intelligence. Terrell shows that such simple divisions do not fit the known facts and provide little more than a crude, static picture of human diversity.

Prehistory in the Pacific Islands

Prehistory in the Pacific Islands PDF Author: John Terrell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521369565
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
How, asks John Terrell in this richly illustrated and original book, can we best account for the remarkable diversity of the Pacific Islanders in biology, language, and custom? Traditionally scholars have recognized a simple racial division between Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, Australians, and South-east Asians: peoples allegedly differing in physical appearance, temperament, achievements, and perhaps even intelligence. Terrell shows that such simple divisions do not fit the known facts and provide little more than a crude, static picture of human diversity.

Prehistory in the Pacific Islands

Prehistory in the Pacific Islands PDF Author: John Terrell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description


The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific

The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific PDF Author: Geoffrey Irwin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521476515
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The exploration and colonisation of the Pacific is a remarkable episode of human prehistory. Early sea-going explorers had no prior knowledge of Pacific geography, no documents to record their route, no metal, no instruments for measuring time and none for exploration. Forty years of modern archaeology, experimental voyages in rafts, and computer simulations of voyages have produced an enormous range of literature on this controversial and mysterious subject. This book represents a major advance in knowledge of the settlement of the Pacific by suggesting that exploration was rapid and purposeful, undertaken systematically, and that navigation methods progressively improved. Using an innovative model to establish a detailed theory of navigation, Geoffrey Irwin claims that rather than sailing randomly downwind in search of the unknown, Pacific Islanders expanded settlement by the cautious strategy of exploring upwind, so as to ease their safe return. The author has tested this hypothesis against the chronological data from archaeological investigation, with a computer simulation of demographic and exploration patterns and by sailing throughout the region himself.

On the Road of the Winds

On the Road of the Winds PDF Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520234618
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Providing a synthesis of archaeological and historical anthropological knowledge of the indigenous cultures of the Pacific islands, this text focuses on human ecology and island adaptations.

Historical Ecology in the Pacific Islands

Historical Ecology in the Pacific Islands PDF Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300066036
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
The Pacific Ocean islands have long been considered a natural laboratory where the evolution of human cultures can be studied in the context of thousands of island ecosystems. This text presents research in the ecological history of the Pacific Islands. Focusing on the environmental impact wrought by the Oceanic populations before the advent of Western contact, it challenges earlier views that the islands underwent dramatic environmental change only after European colonization. They demonstrate instead that in some cases the indigenous peoples had an often irreversible effect on the landscapes and biotas of the Pacific Islands and assert that these effects often had important consequences for island societies, economies, and political systems.

A History of the Pacific Islands

A History of the Pacific Islands PDF Author: Steven Roger Fischer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135030672X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
This wide-ranging study of the Pacific Islands provides a dynamic and provocative account of the peopling of the Pacific, and its broad impact on world history. Spanning over 50,000 years of human presence in an area which comprises one-third of our planet – Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia – the narrative follows the development of the region, from New Guinea's earliest settlement to the creation of the modern Pacific states. Thoroughly revised and updated in light of the most recent scholarship, the second edition includes: • an overview of the events and developments in the Pacific Islands over the last decade • coverage of the latest archaeological discoveries • several new maps • an updated and expanded bibliography Steven Roger Fischer's unique text provides a highly accessible and invaluable introduction to the history of an area which is currently emerging as pivotal in international affairs. A History of the Pacific Islands traces the human history of nearly one-third of the globe over a fifty-thousand year span. This is history on a grand scale, taking the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia from prehistoric culture to the present day through a skilful interpretation of scholarship in the field. Fischer's familiarity with work in archaeology and anthropology as well as in history enriches the text, making this a book with wide appeal for students and general readers.

On the Road of the Winds

On the Road of the Winds PDF Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520968891
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the earth’s surface and encompasses many thousands of islands that are 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. Decades of archaeological excavations—combined with allied research in historical linguistics, biological anthropology, and comparative ethnography—have revealed much new information about the long-term history of these 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. This updated edition, enhanced with many new illustrations and an extensive bibliography, synthesizes the latest archaeological, linguistic, and biological discoveries that reveal the vastness of ancient history in the Pacific Islands.

The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania

The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania PDF Author: Ethan E. Cochrane
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199925070
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
"The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania presents the archaeology, linguistics, environment and human biology of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. First colonized 50,000 years ago, Oceania witnessed the independent invention of agriculture, the construction of Easter Island's statues, and the development of the word's last archaic states."--Provided by publisher.

The Polynesians

The Polynesians PDF Author: Peter S. Bellwood
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789999449878
Category : Ethnology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


The Prehistory of Polynesia

The Prehistory of Polynesia PDF Author: Jesse David Jennings
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description