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.
Human settlement of Polynesia was a major event in world prehistory. Despite the vastness of the distances covered, research suggests that prehistoric Polynesian populations maintained spheres of continuing interaction for at least some period of time in some regions. A low level of genetic variation in ancestral Polynesian populations, genetic admixture (both prehistoric and post-European contact), and severe population crashes resulting from introduction of European diseases make it difficult to trace prehistoric human mobility in the region by using only human genetic and morphological markers. We focus instead on an animal that accompanied the ancestral Polynesians on their voyages. DNA phylogenies derived from mitochondrial control-region sequences of Pacific rats (Rattus exulans) from east Polynesia are presented. A range of specific hypotheses regarding the degree of interaction within Polynesia are tested. These include the issues of multiple contacts between central east Polynesia and the geographically distinct archipelagos of New Zealand and Hawaii. Results are inconsistent with models of Pacific settlement involving substantial isolation after colonization and confirm the value of genetic studies on commensal species for elucidating the history of human settlement.
This paper is focused on the archaeology of Massim exchange and the development of the Kula Ring. It establishes an ethnographic baseline for the European contact period, and summarises fieldwork in the southern Massim. It provides a first description of the prehistoric pottery sequence and draws together previous information from the northern Massim and the Mailu area into a study of the archaeological origins of the Kula Ring. In the last centuries of prehistory the Massim became isolated from the PNG mainland by warfare and, at the same time, islands of the Massim became more connected. The geographical configuration of the Kula was influenced by seasonal winds and the sailing performance of nagega canoes. Some islands were advantaged in their location, but others lay upwind from the Kula islands and outside the Ring. Among the Kula islands, exchanges resolved into a gyre and concepts of Kula magic and ritual spread across the open borders of adjacent communities. In late prehistory the small southern island of Tubetube became a dominant centre when it established a direct connection with the trade in industrial stone from Woodlark Island. Finally, when the Massim was pacified by the colonial government the ethnographic Kula was free to sail, and sea lanes to the mainland opened again. RÉSUMÉCet article se concentre sur l'archéologie de l'échange Massim et le développement du Kula Ring. Ilétablit une ligne de base ethnographique pour la période de contact européenne, et résume le travail de terrain dans le sud Massim. Il fournit une première description de la séquence de poterie préhistorique et rassemble des informations antérieures provenant de la région nord de Massim et de la région de Mailu dans uneétude des origines archéologiques du Kula Ring. Dans les derniers siècles de la préhistoire, les Massim se sont isolés de la partie continentale de la PNG par la guerre et, en même temps, lesîles des Massim se sont rapprochées. La configuration géographique du Kula aété influencée par les vents saisonniers et les performances de navigation des pirogues nagega. Certainesîleś etaient favoriséesà leur emplacement, mais d'autres se trouvaient en amont desîles Kula età l'extérieur du Ring. Parmi lesîles de Kula, leséchanges se sont résolus en un gyre et les concepts de la magie et du rituel de Kula se sont répartisà travers les frontières ouvertes des communautés adjacentes.À la fin de la préhistoire, la petiteîle du sud de Tubetube devint un centre dominant lorsqu'elleétablit un lien direct avec le commerce de la pierre industrielle de l'île Woodlark. Finalement, lorsque le Massim fut pacifié par le gouvernement colonial, l'ethnographique Kula fut libre de naviguer et les voies maritimes pour le continent s'ouvrirentà nouveau.
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