Orthodox Theory - Who are Polynesians and where did they come from

MAOR217 - The peopling of polynesia

When did the first settlers walk from Java, Indonesia?

65,000 years ago during the Pleistocene.

Who are the ancestors of the Aboriginals?

Australoids, which is a physical type.

What is significant about Australoids?

They are considered the world’s longest and continuous culture.

What languages did the early settlers speak?

Papuan languages and Aboriginal languages.

What line did early settlers cross from Sunda to Sahul?

The Wallace Line.

How did the early settlers of Australia and Papua New Guinea travel to new lands?

They crossed on logs, rafts, and possibly dugouts.

When did Austronesians arrive in the Pacific?

5,000 to 7,000 years ago.

What type of canoes did Austronesians use?

Outrigger canoes.

What was the basis of the Austronesians' economy?

Gardening and fishing.

What were some items brought by Austronesians?

Marine technology, pigs, chickens, dogs, taro, breadfruit, yam, and sugarcane.

What is the oldest evidence of gardening found in PNG?

About 26,000 years ago.

What happened to Lapita culture around 1500 BC?

They showed up and quickly populated from Melanesia to Fiji/Tonga/Samoa.

What happened to Lapita pottery over time?

It died out after over 1,000 years.

What material did they make vessels from instead of clay?

Wood.

Where did the Austronesians possibly originate from?

Southeast Asia or they may represent a hybrid culture.

In which direction did the SEA move in the pacific?

West to East

What is the Polynesian Triangle?

Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia

What is the line that seperates geologically new versus the geologically old in Oceania.

The Andesite line.

What unique thing do we associate the Lapita people with?

Pottery

Where did the Austronesians orignate from?

Southeast Asia or they may be a result of a hybrid culture.

What happened to the Lapita pottery over time?

Over 1,000 years it died out.

When do the Lapita people show up?

1500BC

Where do we first see the Lapita people pop up?

Bismark’s and then into Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

Once the Lapita people settled in Polynesia, what did they do?

They isolated themselves from each other across islands because the sea gap was too far.

Why did the Lapita people cross the sea gap before the South East Asians?

They were better at sailing.

What are ‘Polynesians’ doing in 1000AD?

Island hopping east into remote Oceania.

What are ‘Polynesians’ doing between 1000AD-1300AD?

They discover Hawaii, Easter Island and eventually Aotearoa in 1300AD.

Where and why did Lapita people settle on islands?

They settled on the coast so they have better acess to the ocean, to trade their pottery.

What is Thor Heyerdahl’s theory?

That polynesians came from Peru and drifted into Polynesia.

Why were missionaries floating around the pacific?

To spread the bible and save savages.

Why did Thor Hyerdahl think Polynesians came from South America?

Because Hue and Kumara are native to South America.

What is linguistics?

The study of languages.

What is comparative historical linguistics?

It looks at the relationship between multiple languages.

Who was Tupaea?

He was the first to realize that there was a connection between languages, as he could communicate with Māori through Tahitian.

What did Cook claim about communication between Tahitians and Māori?

He claimed there was a ‘mutual understanding’, although this may not have been true.

What are some principles of language?

All languages are in a constant state of change due to culture, modernization, colonization, and social movements.

What does it mean that a language is the property of a community?

It indicates that despite changes, everyone within the community can understand each other.

What is an innovation in language?

A change in a language.

What is a language block?

It occurs if a speech community divides into two and they do not communicate, blocking the spread of innovation.

What can happen if communities are isolated from each other?

An innovation can occur in one language community but not in another if they are isolated.

Who was the first person to notice the connection between languages in the Pacific?

Tupaea when he went to Aotearoa and could speak Tāhisian with Māori.

When did europeans start exploring the Pacific?

1500s

Why did the europeans start exploring the Pacific?

They were looking for commercial reasons.

When did Tasman arrive in Aotearoa?

1642

Who do Polynesians decend from? (Physical Type)

Mongoloids

When was the last ice age?

100,000 years ago

How much lower were the sea levels during the Pleistocene?

60 metres lower.

What happened when the sea levels rose after the Pleistocene?

South East Asians starting island hopping of the coast.

What language family do South East Asians speak?

Austronesian.

Is Sunda or Suhul the chunk of land the first settlers of PNG and Australia walked to?

Suhul

What does it mean when we say Polynesians are described as very ‘homogenous’?

They are very similar despite being long distances apart.

Where did Lapita move from before they settled Fiji, Tonga and Samoa?

Melanesia

What happened at the end of the 1,000 year Lapita isolation?

They transformed into Polynesians

After the Polynesians become Polynesians, where do they go?

The Marquesas Islands.

Where do Polynesians settle after the Marquesas islands between 1000AD - 1300AD?

Hawaii

Once Polynesians reach Hawai then where do they go?

Easter Island

Since Fiji is on the border of Melanesia, are they culturally melanesian?

No, culturally they are Polynesian.

What is the other name for the ‘Wallace Line’

Huxley’s line.

Where do we have evidence of the eldest date of settlement?

The Marquesas islands.

Regarding the Andesite Line, what sort of rock lies east.

Basalt Rock.

What is the most likely theory about how Kumara and Hue got into Polynesia?

Polynesians sailed to South America and brought it back with them.