The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms

The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms PDF Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521273169
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
A first study from an archaeological perspective of the elaborate systems of Polynesian chiefdoms presents an original account of the processes of cultural change and evolution over three millennia.

The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms

The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms PDF Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521273169
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
A first study from an archaeological perspective of the elaborate systems of Polynesian chiefdoms presents an original account of the processes of cultural change and evolution over three millennia.

Chiefdoms

Chiefdoms PDF Author: Timothy K. Earle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521448963
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
These eleven case studies of different chiefdoms examine how ruling elites retain and legitimize their power.

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 : History
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.

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.

Polynesia in Early Historic Times

Polynesia in Early Historic Times PDF Author: Douglas L. Oliver
Publisher: Bess Press
ISBN: 9781573061254
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
"This book presents a comprehensive and balanced description of major aspects of Polynesian cultures, using both the accounts of the European "discoverers" and the up-to-date writings of archaeologists and anthropologists".--BOOKJACKET.

Chiefdoms, Collapse, and Coalescence in the Early American South

Chiefdoms, Collapse, and Coalescence in the Early American South PDF Author: Robin Beck
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107355052
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
This book provides a new conceptual framework for understanding how the Indian nations of the early American South emerged from the ruins of a precolonial, Mississippian world. A broad regional synthesis that ranges over much of the Eastern Woodlands, its focus is on the Indians of the Carolina Piedmont - the Catawbas and their neighbors - from 1400 to 1725. Using an 'eventful' approach to social change, Robin Beck argues that the collapse of the Mississippian world was fundamentally a transformation of political economy, from one built on maize to one of guns, slaves and hides. The story takes us from first encounters through the rise of the Indian slave trade and the scourge of disease to the wars that shook the American South in the early 1700s. Yet the book's focus remains on the Catawbas, drawing on their experiences in a violent, unstable landscape to develop a comparative perspective on structural continuity and change.

The Cambridge World Prehistory

The Cambridge World Prehistory PDF Author: Colin Renfrew
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107647754
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 5256

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Book Description
The Cambridge World Prehistory provides a systematic and authoritative examination of the prehistory of every region around the world from the early days of human origins in Africa two million years ago to the beginnings of written history, which in some areas started only two centuries ago. Written by a team of leading international scholars, the volumes include both traditional topics and cutting-edge approaches, such as archaeolinguistics and molecular genetics, and examine the essential questions of human development around the world. The volumes are organised geographically, exploring the evolution of hominins and their expansion from Africa, as well as the formation of states and development in each region of different technologies such as seafaring, metallurgy and food production. The Cambridge World Prehistory reveals a rich and complex history of the world. It will be an invaluable resource for any student or scholar of archaeology and related disciplines looking to research a particular topic, tradition, region or period within prehistory.

The Growth and Collapse of Pacific Island Societies

The Growth and Collapse of Pacific Island Societies PDF Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824831489
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Were there major population collapses on Pacific Islands following first contact with the West? If so, what were the actual population numbers for islands such as Hawai‘i, Tahiti, or New Caledonia? Is it possible to develop new methods for tracking the long-term histories of island populations? These and related questions are at the heart of this new book, which draws together cutting-edge research by archaeologists, ethnographers, and demographers. In their accounts of exploration, early European voyagers in the Pacific frequently described the teeming populations they encountered on island after island. Yet missionary censuses and later nineteenth-century records often indicate much smaller populations on Pacific Islands, leading many scholars to debunk the explorers’ figures as romantic exaggerations. Recently, the debate over the indigenous populations of the Pacific has intensified, and this book addresses the problem from new perspectives. Rather than rehash old data and arguments about the validity of explorers’ or missionaries’ accounts, the contributors to this volume offer a series of case studies grounded in new empirical data derived from original archaeological fieldwork and from archival historical research. Case studies are presented for the Hawaiian Islands, Mo‘orea, the Marquesas, Tonga, Samoa, the Tokelau Islands, New Caledonia, Aneityum (Vanuatu), and Kosrae.

Foundations of Social Inequality

Foundations of Social Inequality PDF Author: T. Douglas Price
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489912894
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
In this authoritative volume, leading researchers offer diverse theoretical perspectives and a wide-range of information on the beginnings and nature of social inequality in past human societies. Their illuminating work investigates the role of status differentiation in traditional archaeological debates and major societal transitions. This volume features numerous case studies from the Old and New World spanning foraging societies to agricultural groups and complex states. Diachronic in view and archaeological in focus, this book will be of significant interest to archaeologists, anthropologists, and students.

The Separation of Heaven and Earth

The Separation of Heaven and Earth PDF Author: Harold W. Montzka
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1426941269
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
Unlike todays world religious views, the belief in one Supreme Being was once a widespread phenomenon. In The Separation of Heaven and Earth, author Harold Montzka provides evidence of this contemporary view with new arguments. By studying anthropology and the history of religions, Montzka shows evidence for the belief system of the egalitarian hunters who spread across the globe. In the Near East, the area from the mountains in Turkey to the Persian Gulf, people traded freely without evidence of borders or conflict. Then, social hierarchy became evident in a small area. Shortly after this, a number of hierarchical sites appeared suddenly, and society saw massive buildings, city walls, ethnic divisions, trade to benefit the elites, war, and instability. Developed over forty years, The Separation of Heaven and Earth points out that a single cosmological theme was present in ancient literature as well as recent preliterate hierarchies. The cosmology justifying the elites in hierarchical societies provided for the society by control of nature. Those few groups who have remained egalitarian do not use this cosmology. They are not dependent on the rituals of a social hierarchy; they depend on the providence of their creator.