The Island Melanesians (The Peoples of South-East Asia and the Pacific)

Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 5
Contents......Page 9
List of Plates......Page 13
List of Figures and Tables......Page 17
Preface......Page 21
Introduction: an Archaeological View......Page 29
Island Melanesian Languages......Page 32
The Island Melanesian People......Page 37
An Island Melanesian Culture?......Page 39
The Island Melanesian World......Page 41
Conclusions......Page 49
Early settlement in Island Melanesia: who and when?......Page 51
Voyaging......Page 55
Settlement and Subsistence prior to 20,000 Years Ago......Page 59
Early Settlement of Vanuatu and New Caledonia?......Page 68
Sea-Level Changes......Page 71
The Archaeological Sites......Page 73
Cultural Changes......Page 79
Economic Change: 20,000 to 6000 BP......Page 89
Early Island Melanesians......Page 93
The Lapita Cultural Complex......Page 95
Sites of the Immediately Pre-Lapita Period......Page 101
The Argument for Continuity......Page 110
The Agriculture Question......Page 112
Lapita Discontinuities......Page 116
The Origins of the Lapita Culture......Page 118
A Lapita Language?......Page 124
A Lapita People? The Evidence from Genetics......Page 127
How South-East Asian is Lapita?......Page 128
Lapita Social Organization......Page 130
The Structure of the Lapita Migration......Page 131
Lapita Origins Revisited......Page 134
5 Success and Failure of Lapita: 3000 to 2000 Years Ago......Page 136
The Bismarcks......Page 139
The Solomons......Page 154
Vanuatu......Page 166
New Caledonia......Page 171
Contemporary Non-Lapita Sites?......Page 174
The Micronesian Connection......Page 177
The Lapita Legacy......Page 178
The End of Lapita......Page 180
Investigating the Alternatives......Page 189
The Bismarcks......Page 190
The Solomons......Page 198
Vanuatu......Page 204
New Caledonia......Page 211
The Diversification of Island Melanesian Cultures......Page 213
7 Canoes from the East: the Polynesian Connection......Page 215
The Incidence of Drift Voyaging......Page 217
The Bismarcks......Page 221
The Solomons......Page 224
Vanuatu......Page 235
New Caledonia......Page 247
The Legacy of Polynesian Contact......Page 249
The Conquest of the Conquistadors, 1528-1606 AD......Page 251
Fleeting Glimpses, 1616-1722 AD......Page 268
The Major European ‘Discoveries’, 1767-1774 AD......Page 271
Final First Meetings, 1781-1850 AD......Page 279
Legacies of Contact......Page 281
The Impact on Population......Page 283
Impact on Settlement Pattern......Page 291
Subsistence Change......Page 294
Environmental Degradation......Page 296
Mobility......Page 300
Challenges to Authority Structures......Page 302
The Position of Women......Page 307
Directions and Constraints from the Past......Page 309
10 An Island Melanesian Future?......Page 314
Bibliography......Page 325
Index......Page 347