1. HISTORY AND ITS MEANING Social Scientific Theories of the Ancient Pacific Islands
Archaeology, Anthropology and Linguistic Evidence
Edited by Dr. Sakul Kundra

2. Human Evolution
Humans first evolved in Africa several million years ago; just over years ago some individuals finally reached the most isolated islands in the mid of the world largest ocean- Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand.
Southeast Asia: The ancient homeland for Pacific Island population was in Southeast Asia. Early people, Homo erectus, reached there 2 million years ago. This partly submerged continent is known as the Sunda Shelf and the remains of Homo erectus have been found in present day Java.

3. Very little is known about Paleolithic culture
Very little is known about Paleolithic culture. Homo Sapiens arrived in the region years ago. They used flaked tools which were found throughout Sunda.

4. Australia
Due to their proximity to Southeast Asia, both New Guinea and Australia which as recently as 8000 years ago were still physically joined. On these large land masses one can follow the fortunes of those hunter-gatherers who left their Southeast Asian homelands to cross the seas to the south and east.
It is uncertain that Australia was populated by single migration or a series of them. The hunter-gatherers who entered the Australian continent sustained a way of life that was relatively unchanging for some years.

5. New Guinea
New Guinea and Australia were separated by wide sea and had basic different cultural pattern. Austonesians advance through New Guinea coastal region around 6000 years ago. The Austronesians appear to represent a second wave of migrants from the Southeast Asian region and they were in many respects very different from the neolithic hunter-gatherers who preceded them to New Guinea-Australia by at least years.

6. Austronesians expanded because due to adoption of the sail and outtrigger canoes made journeys across the board water as safe and more certain. Another reason was the use of root crops and pig farming, which had recently evolved and rapidly became widespread encouraged settlements of other lands, some of which would have been unable to support a hunter-gather existence.

7. New Guinea
Between years ago, many related events such as pigs, pottery, post holes and polished adzes- all point to Austronesian settlement in coastal and riverine New Guinea and subsequently influenced on existing New Guinea societies.
By 2000 years ago the presence of a sophisticated agriculture throughout both highlands and lowland regions is evidenced by wooden implements, wide spread drainage of swamps, irrigation ditches and permanent village settlement typical of an agricultural existence. Along with first sign of agriculture are other cultural remnants generally associated with Austronesian presence, such as quadrangular adzes and pottery.

8. Division based on Language
Linguistic analysis provides very strong evidence of the advance of this new culture out of southeast Asia and eastward into Pacific islands from about 6000 years ago.
The very numerous languages of Australian Aborigines and most New Guineans are generally classified as Non-Austronesian. Such languages are based on those of the first settler populations of 10 of 1000s of years ago and are not to be found elsewhere.
Second and much recent family of languages referred to as Austronesian, encompasses all the surrounding regions mostly of island Southeast Asia, the Philippines and all the remaining islands of the Pacific.

9. Division based on Language
Austronesian languages were mostly represent a much more recent movement of population out from Southeast Asia. All languages of Austria and New Guinea are Non-Austronesian except some pockets of Austronesian languages in far west, in northern coast and some in eastern end. But in Melanesian island Austronesian languages predominates

10. Three periods of voyaging and settlement of the Pacific Islands
First period began more than 50,000 to 60,000 years ago when voyagers moved into the many islands of South East Asia and the first Aboriginal people moved to the continent of Australia and New Guinea. Because the sea level was low, Australia and New Guinea were then joined as one continent known as Sahul.
“Sahul” is the name of the ancient continent which gave rise to present day Australia, New Guinea, and the surrounding islands.

11. These lands were fairly close to each other so a canoe voyage could always return home to islands just out of sight over the horizon.
These voyagers became to be known as Sumatrans, Javanese, Moluccans, Australian Aborigines, Papuans and New Guineans.

12. Second Phase
Second Phase began from 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, when people continued to settle in South East Asia, Australia and mainland New Guinea and others moved out of the New Guinea Islands and the nearby Solomon Islands.
This movement of people was slow and later arrivals forced earlier settlers to migrate or to new areas.

13. Second Phase
These early settlers occupied land between the islands of South-East Asia and Solomon Islands which was called Voyaging corridor because voyagers could move easily back forth sighting known and neighbouring islands. These people settled, became mixed with later arrivals and followed a particular lifestyle. They were called as Melanesians.

14. Second Phase
But there are many differences among them, but the earliest European visitors to the Pacific used this term because it made it easy for them to differentiate the people with darker skin and fuzzy hair often found in the western Pacific from the people with lighter coloured skin and straight hair found in eastern Pacific which European called as Polynesians.
Polynesia (many islands); Melanesia (dark islands) and Micronesia (small islands). But anthropologists and historians prefer to use clan, local, community or national names to the people of the Pacific.

15. Third Phase
The period from 3500 to 3000 years ago when people move quickly from the voyaging corridor out into the islands and atolls across the vast open Pacific Ocean. The Voyaging and settlement in this period is associated with the making of Lapita pottery. Only fragments (called sherds) of this pottery remain.
By studying the spread of these sherds and the remains of baking ovens, camp sites, cooking stones, adzes, tools and ornaments, it is possible to guess a date of first settlement.
The original homeland of the Lapita pottery makers was somewhere in the voyaging corridor.

16. Third Phase There are two theories on the location of Lapita homeland.
Some Argue that it was in the islands of South-East Asia- perhaps Molucca Island.
Others argue that it was in the western Pacific- perhaps the island Archipelago near New Guinea.

17. Lapita culture spreads into the eastern Pacific
In the third phase years ago, an series of new settlements occurred. From the eastern end of the voyaging corridor in the Solomon Islands, Voyagers suddenly spread across the open ocean.
Within next 500 years these voyaging settlers occupied Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Society Islands, Marquesas and other remote islands of the eastern Pacific. This settlement happended in short period of 500 years and carried with them Lapita Culture.
This was based on Community lifestyle based on maritime food resources, trade, agriculture and animal Farming. In the far pacific this culture gradually changed. Different work techniques, ceremonies and institutions appeared. The settlers splintered into separate Tongan, Samoan, Fijian and Tahitian cultures.

18. Lapita culture spreads into the eastern Pacific
Historians believe that there were waves of settlers to New Guinea around 15000, 10000, 8000 and 3000 years ago.
In the central, south and eastern Pacific, settlers may have leap frogged from one island group to the next. Over 500 years these voyaging peoples migrated then settled, expanded, traded and mixed with later arrivals.
Later their descendants moved further out to unoccupied islands. As each new group occupied remote parts of the Pacific.

19. Lapita culture spreads into the eastern Pacific
At end of 500 years of voyaging, the islands of the remote eastern Pacific were settled and occupants were called Polynesians.
Those who had settled in the voyaging corridor and the nearby island groups of western Pacific followed different lifestyles were called Melanesians.
Some small groups of settlers moved out of Polynesia back towards the west. They carried the new culture of the islands with them and occupied islands passed over by others which were called Polynesian outliers.
The first Rotuma people probably came from Micronesia. Some of the language, customs and physical features of Rotumans indicate the early connection with North Pacific people. Although these Micronesians later intermarried with Polynesians and Micronesians, the people of Rotuma are usually referred to as Polynesians.

20. Into the north Pacific
Around 3000 to 3500 years ago, a new wave of settlers voyaged north to settle the high islands of the Marianas, Yap and Palau. The settlers came from the Philippines and areas west of the New Guinea. Other settlers had voyaged and settled further to the east on the low islands of the Caroline and Marshall islands about 2000 years ago.

21. Some Debates
Language experts link word fro one island with those of another islands so they can trace a migration journey from the present population right back to South-East Asia.
Samoa has pottery which is not found in Tonga, but which is found extensively in Fiji in an older form. Stone adzes found in Taveuni are very similar to those used in Samoa. The suggestion can be made that Samoa could have been settled from Fiji.

22. Some Debates
It seems probable that the first Polynesians grouped themselves around Tonga and Samoa, before continuing eastwards towards the Marquesas. Archaeological evidence suggests these to be the oldest of the east Polynesia settlements, with the settlement of Tahiti and the society islands following soon after.
From there, many remarkable voyages saw the spread of the Polynesian people north to Hawaii, south-east as far as Easter Island and south-west to New Zealand, peopling many of the island groups along their path.

23. OBJECTIVES
Identify some techniques and evidence of modern science that seek to explain the past.
Analyse how social scientific history is written using methods from other disciplines.

24. Describe differences between Austronesian and non-Austronesian peoples based on features discovered through archaeological excavations
Analyse the Asian connection through evidence from outrigger canoes and navigation, domesticated root crops and animals, Lapita pottery and language.

25. Austronesian-speaking peoples
Austronesian peoples or Austronesian-speaking peoples are various populations in Asia, Oceania and Africa that speak languages of the Austronesian family. They include Taiwanese aborigines; the majority ethnic groups of Malaysia, East Timor, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Madagascar, Micronesia, and Polynesia, as well as the Polynesian peoples of New Zealand and Hawaii, and the non-Papuan people of Melanesia. They are also found in the minorities of the Pattani region of Thailand, and the Cham areas in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Hainan. The territories populated by Austronesian-speaking peoples are known collectively as Austronesia.

26. Non- Austronesian or Papuan.
The Papuan languages are those languages of the western Pacific island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands, that are neither Austronesian nor Australian. The term does not presuppose a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.

27. SCIENTIFIC TRADITIONS
Archaeological evidence – Lapita pottery
Linguistic techniques
Anthropological findings

28. ARCHAEOLOGY: TWO WAVES OF MIGRATION
The first wave: (Non-Austronesian) the first settlers did not go beyond Australia and Melanesia. Evidence by archaeologists – Australia inhabited 30,000 BCE and Papua New Guinea 25,000 BCE

29. The rapid spread of the Asian people who colonised Pis after ab
The rapid spread of the Asian people who colonised Pis after ab BC is sth of an enigma. Their motivation can’t have been soely on expanding population’s need to find new territories to settle, since only small founding pops remained – well below the nos. that the islands could have supported. They carried with them all the plants and animals they requried to est horticultural communities but marine rss also played an NB role in their economies.

30. The second wave: (Austronesian) Other Pacific islands settled only 3,000 to 5,000 year ago. They travelled far east to Rapanui (Easter Island), north to Hawaii and south to Aotearoa (New Zealand).

32. AUSTRONESIAN PEOPLES Had distinctive language.
Linguists (Scientists of language) say that Austronesian peoples were the original ancestors of modern Polynesian peoples.
Polynesian colonisation began about 3000 years ago.

33. Polynesians were great mariners and developed advanced skills in boat-building and the art of navigation.
Relied on sky and ocean. No maps or written records. There are many evidences to show that on some voyages they carried plants and live animals, which suggests that they intended to migrate.
The voyagers possessed the skill and knowledge not only to traverse great distances bet also to steer themselves back to their homeland.

34. They developed methods of navigation using the sun, moon and starts
They developed methods of navigation using the sun, moon and starts. They steered by certain starts that rose in succession over the horizon or by stars known to follow paths over certain island groups. Besides knowing navigational skill, the Polynesian Voyagers also knew the ocean currents and swells, flight paths of birds, the patterns of sea movements in the proximity of land and the physical signs of land, such as cloud formations, birds and floating debies.
Their ships were large, double canoes linked by a platform containing a shelter and storehouse and rigged with sails of woven fibre and ropes of plaited bark and coconut fibre.
Reasons for the voyages were many like deliberate exploration, overpopulation, conquest by other people and storms blowing the canoes off course.
Over 2,500 years later, Captain James Cook found that every island he visited was already inhabited.

35. Another theory of Polynesian migration
Some anthropologists believe that the Polynesians came to the Pacific from American continent by way of Easter Island. The Polynesians share some similar features of religion and culture with the South American Indians.

36. NON-AUSTRONESIAN
Came to the Pacific before the Austronesian peoples did –
30,000 BCE
We know less about them
They were hunters and gatherers and different from Austronesian people

37. Comparison between Austronesian and Non-Austronesian Peoples
Many thousands of years lay between the two waves of migration. The two groups were totally different people in appearance, culture, diet and technology.

38. Non-Austronesian
Hunters and gatherers: moved from one place to another in search of food and shelter

39. AUSTRONESIAN
Farmers: settled in one area. Root crops (yam, cassava and taro), animal husbandry (pigs, fowls and rats) and pottery manufacturing.
Seafaring skills – outrigger canoe (they traveled further and settled in distant lands)

40. THE EVIDENCE: POTTERY THE LAPITA POTTERY PEOPLE
Scientists say: 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, a people with an identifiable cultural tradition extended human resettlement from northeastern Melanesia to New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

41. They had a tradition that was different from earlier resettlers apparent from their distinctive type of outrigger canoe and sail technology, cultivation and animal farming. They also manufactured pottery with a particular design.

42. This design of pottery has been found throughout the Pacific, indicating that all of these people originated from a common source. It was first discovered in Lapita, New Caledonia in 1954 so it was named “Lapita”.
Evidence shows that they were the first re-settlers of the islands east of Melanesia.

43. Lapita pot shard found in Motoriki in a 2002 archeological excavation

44. Lapita pot shard found in Motoriki, Ovalau, by Roslyn Kumar in a 2007-2008 archeological excavation

45. Archeological find on Motoriki, Ovalau: skeleton dated 800BCE

46. “Mana” reconstruction of a Lapita woman (800 BCE) – from a skeleton found on Motoriki Island in 2008

47. CARBON DATING
Carbon dating enables us to determine the age of pottery.
The confirmed approximate age of pottery, indicates the approximate time of re-settlement of particular place where the pottery was found.

48. LOCATION: LAPITA POTTERY
Lapita pottery is widespread, found in:
Watom Island off New Britain in Papua New Guinea
Many parts of Melanesia
Fiji
Samoa
Tonga
Lapita pottery sherds have been found in above three places, proved by radiocarbon dating instruments, have been dated as originating as early 1500 Bc or 3500 year ago. All living or organic material contains carbon. It gradually disappears over thousands of years. By measuring the amount of carbon in an object, an approximate age can be given to a seed, a piece of wood or a sherd.

49. This proves that Lapita pottery people with ocean-going skills re-settled on the western and central Pacific islands and were ancestors of the people who we call Polynesians.

50. FIJI: DEBATEABLE Fiji as hub of the Pacific
Fiji as the crossroads for those travelers who moved further eastward.
There is much debate about whether Fiji falls within Melanesia or Polynesia.

51. Fijian people are Melanesian in phenotype, but are Polynesian in language and culture
Because of this mix, people often say that Fiji straddles both Melanesia and Polynesia
Social scientists claim that, from Fiji, Lapita seafarers travelled to Tonga and Samoa (cradle of Polynesia)

52. LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE
Niko Besnier says: the Austronesian language family has about 1000 languages including most languages of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Madagascar.

53. One-fifth of the languages in this family are spoken in New Guinea and neighbouring islands. Pacific languages are grouped into: M P

54. Melanesia – Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji
Micronesia – Marianas, Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands and Kiribati
Polynesia – Tonga, Niue, Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Cook Islands, Hawaii, French Polynesia, Easter Island and Aotearoa.

55. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL LANGUAGES
Besnier: seafaring people spoke proto-Austronesian.
Oceanic group includes languages spoken in coastal areas of Papua New Guinea and the islands of the Pacific.
More research is being conducted in this area.

56. Polynesian Languages
Some similarities across the Polynesian languages suggest shared ancestry.
Tongan
Samoan
Tahitian
Maori
Hawaiian
motu
Motu
fonua
fanua
fenua
whenua
Honua
E’iki
Ali’i
Ari’i
ariki
Fale
fale
whare
hale

57. SUMMARY Modern science can… Help fill the gaps in historic knowledge.
Be utilized in support of oral traditions.
Social scientists claim that two distinct groups, Austronesian and Non-Austronesian, colonised the Pacific initially.

58. Archaeological, botanical and linguistic evidence suggests that the early re-settlers may have come from the west, possibly from eastern Asia.
Austronesian mariners were able to migrate farther than earlier re-settlers facilitating the transfer of technology, farming techniques and human ingenuity.
They re-settled the Pacific region.