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http://www.ck/people.htm Migrations of early Humans into Island SE Asia and Melanesia Slide 2 New Guinea transition to farming Slide 3 Kuk Swamp, New Guinea Evidence for transition to agriculture from early hunter-gatherer societies forest clearing and possible water management (diversion), ca. 7000 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. 5000 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) Slide 4 Slide 5 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 Slide 6 Slide 7 Peter Bellwood The Austronesians Slide 8 British-American English Slide 9 Slide 10 Taiwan Earliest Austronesians Dabenkeng culture (3000-2000 BC) Nanguanli site, waterlogged site dating to 3000-2500 BC, which yielded cord-marked, red-slipped ceramics, clay spindle whorls, shell knives, carbonized rice and foxtail millet From 3000-900 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 Slide 11 Settlement pauses relate to development of watercraft, notaby outrigger canoes (pause 1) by 2000 BC and double canoe in Polynesia (pause 2) 1500 BC 1350-900 BC 500 BC-AD 1 AD 700-1250 Slide 12 Outrigger canoe Slide 13 Double canoe Slide 14 Lapita Colonization in Melanesia, 1350-900 BC (Proto-Oceanic Austronesian) Tattooed pottery Pigs, chickens, yams, dog, taro carried on sailing vessels Slide 15 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; 18-20 acres). In malaria-free regions, beyond Vanuatu, populations grew rapidly. Slide 16 Groundstone Bone, and Shell Tools Tikis Slide 17 Slide 18 Slide 19 Tapa (bark cloth) Slide 20 Polynesian Colonization Eastern Polynesia colonized ca. AD 700-1250 AD 700-1250 500 BC AD 1 APS Slide 21 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. Slide 22 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 Slide 23 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; Slide 24 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 Slide 25 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 Slide 26 Over time this process results in long-distance migrations (island-hopping) that helps explain colonization of Polynesia by Austronesians Slide 27 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. Slide 28 Polynesian ocean map The Navigators Slide 29 Colonization: Western Polynesia (Lapita), 1350-900 BC, and eastern Polynesia, AD 700 to 1250 Slide 30 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) Slide 31 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 Slide 32 Slide 33 Slide 34 Bora Slide 35 Slide 36 Fish Weirs Marae (general term for shrine/temple in Polynesia) Stone Houses Slide 37 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