• Regional: Oceania: Society and Culture: History  (8)

• Ancient Seafarers - From Archaeology, Southeast Asia and Australia give archaeologists some of the best evidence for ancient sea crossings.
• Eastern Polynesia - Asian Perspectives 41(2). An introduction to the regions archaeology. [subscription required] [PDF]
• Melanesian Tribes vs. Polynesian Chiefdoms: Recent Archaeological Assessment of a Classic Model of Sociopolitical Types in Oceania - Asian Perspectives 41(2). The late prehistoric period is crucial to the study of anthropology, as the Island Melanesia has provided the world with the "Big Man" archetype of society. It has led to an ethnographic oversimplification of Melanesia as having only Big Man societies, whereas Polynesia having chiefly societies. Chiefs in Melanesia have often been interpreted as a cultural borrowing under Polynesian influence. [PDF]
• New Radiocarbon Ages of Colonization Sites in East Polynesia - Asian Perspectives 41(2). The archaeological chronology of initial human colonization in East Polynesia has relied substantially upon radiocarbon dating results from a small number of sites in the central region, notably Motu Paeao cemetery and Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia in the Society Islands, and Hane and Ha'atuatua in the Marquesas Islands. [PDF]
• The Peter AhChing Theory on Polynesian Origins - Genetics 2002 and PNAS 2000 Science article provide support for the Peter Ahching Theory based on Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium Law as studied at University of Hawaii-Manoa.
• Polynesian Archaeology - Polynesian archaeology page of archaeologist Donald P. Ryan, including work with Thor Heyerdahl.
• Voyaging and Interaction in Ancient East Polynesia - Asian Perespectives 41(2). The origins of East Polynesian culture are traced to a regional homeland that was centered on the Society Islands but which also included neighboring archipelagoes. [PDF]
  
  
• Rat DNA Helps Trace Pacific Migrations - From MSNBC, pattern of ancient colonization was slower and more complex than thought. (June 8, 2004)

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