1. Alfred R. Wallace Wallace Line "On the Monkeys of the Amazon“ (1853,
based on travels to Amazon in 1848)
"On the Law Which has Regulated
the Introduction of Species“ (1855,
based on trips to Pacific in )

2. Darwin The Voyage of the Beagle (1839)
Galapagos finches
Darwin The Voyage of the Beagle (1839)
(five years from )
"Seeing this gradation and diversity of structure in one small, intimately related
group of birds, one might really fancy that from an original paucity of birds
in this archipelago, one species had been taken and modified for different ends“ (1845)

3. Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia,
Ubeidiya,
Homo ergaster/erectus Dispersal
Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia,
million years ago
Physiology and technology enabled rapid colonization of new areas,
budding off (not far) from parent group

4. Homo sapiens Dispersal

6. Deep skull, 40k
Niah Cave, Sarawak

7. Boats from south-east Asia to Australia,
Lake Mungo (40k+)
Burial with red ocher
Boats from south-east Asia to Australia,
100km at its shortest point back then
(can’t see from coast to coast)

8. Migrations of early Humans into Island SE Asia and Melanesia

9. New Guinea transition to farming

10. Kuk Swamp, New Guinea
Evidence for transition to agriculture from early hunter-gatherer societies
forest clearing and possible water management (diversion), ca BC
Early Holocene domestication of taro and banana, together with some varieties of sugarcane and yams
More organized agricultural works, including mounding for cultivation by ca BC and grid-like ditching by 2000 BC, with evidence for more extensive forest clearing related to banana and taro cultivation
Recent development of more complex systems related to introduction of sweet potato (the “Ipomean revolution”); food for pigs?
Foundation for surplus production for exchange rituals in pigs and shells (called “Big-man” systems)

12. Early “Vegeculture”
In the 1950s, geographer Carl Sauer suggested that early agriculture occurred first in tropical forest regions of SE Asia
Based on vegeculture, growing not by seeds by plant cuttings, of tropical forest plants, most notably root crops
Happened along major rivers first, where early settled villages had emerged based on highly productive exploitation of rich aquatic resources

14. The Austronesians
Peter Bellwood

15. British-American
English

17. Taiwan Earliest Austronesians Dabenkeng culture (3000-2000 BC)
Nanguanli site, waterlogged site dating to BC, which yielded cord-marked, red-slipped ceramics, clay spindle whorls, shell knives, carbonized rice and foxtail millet
From BC Austronesians spread from Taiwan through Philippines, eastern Indonesia, Western Pacific (Micronesia and Island Melanesia), and western Polynesia (Tonga and Samoa)
Red-slipped and often cordmarked pottery; outside of Taiwan developed into circle and punctate stamped pottery in the Philippines, Micronesia, and Lapita sites in Melanesia

18. Today, Austronesians (Formosans) make up
Beinan
Large village site (40 ha) in Taiwan with 50 dry-stone houses, 1500 burials, dating to BC (post-dates cord-marked pottery)
Today, Austronesians (Formosans) make up
about 1% of island

19. Settlement pauses relate to development of watercraft, notaby
outrigger canoes
(pause 1) by 2000 BC
and “double canoe”
in Polynesia
(pause 2)
500 BC-AD 1
1500 BC AD BC

20. Outrigger canoe

21. Double canoe

22. Pigs, chickens, yams, dog, taro carried on sailing vessels
Lapita Colonization in Melanesia, BC (Proto-Oceanic Austronesian)
“Tattooed pottery”
Pigs, chickens, yams, dog, taro carried on sailing vessels

23. In malaria-free regions, beyond Vanuatu, populations grew rapidly.
Lapita settlements, with sand and crushed shell tempered and decorated pottery, are
rich in diverse artifacts and cultural features, like ovens, hearths, and postholes,
tied to maritime and horticultural economy, which included pigs, fowl, and dogs.
Sites average 1 ha (2.5 acres) with some larger sites (7-8 ha; acres).
In malaria-free regions, beyond Vanuatu, populations grew rapidly.

24. Groundstone
Bone, and
Shell Tools
Tikis

27. Tapa (bark cloth)

28. Polynesian Colonization
Eastern Polynesia colonized ca. AD (according to Bellwood’s chapter)
500 BC – AD 1 AD
APS

29. Forms of Social Organization (Elman Service, 1962)
Pre-State small-scale and kin-based “simple” societies:
bands and tribes: small-sized (10s to 100s autonomous social groupings, egalitarian, division of labor and status based on age, sex, and personal characteristics or achievements);
Chiefdoms: medium-sized social formations
(1000s to 10,000s), ranked kin-groups based on hereditary status (incipient classes), regionally-organized, integrated (non-autonomous) communities
State (territory and class-based societies);
Large societies divided into stratified social classes, with centralized government, a ruling elite class, able to levy taxes (tribute), amass a standing army, and enforce law.

30. The Rise of Social Inequality and Complexity
“Rank Revolution”
What led to the emergence of social stratification (rise of social classes) and complexity (regional integration and institutional differentiation within communities)
How were personal and social autonomy and egalitarian social structures transformed into societies in which people were subordinate to others based on birth and social position, at both community and regional levels

31. Chiefdoms
simple “two-tiered” hierarchy: people are either elite or commoner, in part related to hereditary (incipient classes);
generally based on semi-intensive economies;
various communities integrated into regional society, typically showing a “bi-modal” or rank-ordered settlement pattern: one or a few large (first-order) settlements, with smaller (second-and third-order) satellite settlements linked to these;
formal, even full-time specialists: religious specialists, warriors, chiefs, artisans;

32. Ancient Polynesian Society
The chiefdom was first clearly defined in Polynesia (Sahlins 1958; Service 1962)
Societies based not only on reciprocity, but on redistribution economies: strategic resources were concentrated in the hands of a few (chiefs) who then redistributed these to lower ranking community members
APS has its roots in earlier forms of hierarchical social organization in Lapita societies, and later diversified as it spread throughout Polynesia
In Polynesia, chiefdoms developed complex forms of terrace fields, canal irrigation fields, and other semi-intensive forms of food production (fish ponds, pond fields), marked warfare and conquest, monumental architecture, and, in some cases (Hawaii, Tonga), highly stratified social organization

33. The Ramage or Conical Clan
Internally ranked, or hierarchical, social organization based on primogeniture
Tendency to “ramify,” that is subordinate lineages split off main group to found new communities

34. results in long-distance migrations (island-hopping)
Over time this process
results in long-distance
migrations (island-hopping)
that helps explain colonization
of Polynesia by Austronesians

35. Trade, Interaction, Alliance
Shell necklace, a component of the
famous Kula trade ring in the Trobriands
Trobriand (Melanesia) kula trading vessel
The Tui Tonga, the sacred ruler of the 160+ island polity of Tonga (western Polynesia), for instance, engaged in alliance marriages with daughters of ruling lineages from Samoa and Fiji, many hundreds of miles away.

36. The Navigators
Polynesian ocean map

37. Colonization: Western Polynesia (Lapita), 1350-900 BC,
and eastern Polynesia, AD 700 to 1250

38. Diversification: Population, ecology, and social structure (status rivalry)
As colonizing populations
adapted to the unique
conditions of different islands,
APS groups became increasingly
diversified and distinctive
Marshall Sahlins (1958) proposed that differences in environment
and food production strategies were critical to divergent
cultural development through Polynesia
(big, high islands supported larger groups, with more
Intensive economies and small, low islands less)

39. High islands, which provided the richest environments for human
exploitation, are where
the largest and most complex
of the Polynesian chiefdoms emerged;
Atolls were at the opposite extreme

42. Bora Bora

44. Marae (general term for shrine/temple in Polynesia)
Fish Weirs
Stone Houses

45. Langi: coral slabbed earthen burial mound for Tongan nobles
Mound for Tui Tonga, sacred ruler of Tongan
empire (160 islands), at Tongatapu, the small
sacred capital where the Tui Tonga and related
nobles lived

46. (Marianas, Micronesia)
Latte, stone pillars
(Marianas, Micronesia)
Yap, stone “money”
The stones were made from
imported limestone (most from Palau,
250 miles SW). Very rare and valuable.
Expeditions to get stones led by chiefs
with select a group of brave and
involved great peril, even death.

47. Nan Madol, Pohnpei (Caroline Islands, Micronesia)
Built from large basalt blocks, some weighing as much as fifty tons on an ancient coral reef, with hundreds of artificial structures, intersected by manmade canals.

48. Nan Madol

49. Easter Island (Rapa Nui) first settled ca. AD 900
Moai (giant tikis)
Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
first settled ca. AD 900
(or earlier)
Line of maoi on large platform (ahu)

50. Tallest 11.5 m (38 ft); built ca. AD 1100-1650

51. •Easter
Island
Contact with
South America?

52. Competition, Warfare, Deforestation, and Societal Collapse Many moai toppled during period of intense warfare
“By the time Europeans discovered the island in 18th century it had been
rendered almost treeless, the carving of statues had apparently ceased, and the inhabitants were described as living a fairly wretched existence”

53. Written language
(rongo-rongo)

54. from AD 1200-1400, led to development of larger,
First small colonist chiefdoms (AD 700 or earlier); rapid population growth
from AD , led to development of larger,
regionally integrated, and later island wide paramount chiefdoms.

55. Originally it was argued that rich wet areas of Hawai’i gave rise to largest, most powerful chiefdoms, but Patrick Kirch (1994) argued that in Hawai’i (and Futuna) the most aggressive and expansive chiefdoms originated in the risk-dominated (dry) areas, who came to dominate those societies in areas of fertile alluvial soils suitable for irrigated taro cultivation

56. Hawai’i Pie-shaped distribution of territories (ahupua’a),
corresponding to ecological as well as
social differences.
Hawaiians developed sophisticated technology to support their large population, as well as costly chiefly and priestly ritual.
pondfields

57. Hale-o-pi-ilani-heiau
Puukohola-heiau
Hawai’i became the
largest and most
complex of the Polynesia
chiefdoms after, Chief
Kamehameha I consolidated
by force the five island polities
into a single multi-island
polity in early 19th century
WAS IT A STATE?

58. What is a City? Definitions Vary, and some quite small.
“In Germany as a whole in the late middle ages [ ], 3,000 places were reckoned to have been granted the status of cities; their average population was no more than 400 individuals” (Braudel 1985:482)
Among largest,
Dresden about
2500

59. Captain James Cook, died in 1779, on his third voyage in conflict with
Endeavor ( )
Captain James Cook, died in 1779,
on his third voyage in conflict with
Hawaiians

61. The Fleet of Otaheite, Tahiti, 1774

62. New Zealand, colonized AD 1250
Maori pa (fortified
earthwork enclosures)

63. Abel Tasman encounters Maori in 1642

64. New Zealand is often contrasted with Hawaii, in terms of
social developments toward large, populous chiefdoms,
and aggressive warfare, without marked social
stratification
Maori warrior