On the road of the winds an archaeological history of the Pacific islands before European contact / Patrick Vinton Kirch.
| Author/creator | Kirch, Patrick Vinton |
| Format | Electronic |
| Edition | Revised and expanded edition. |
| Publication Info | Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017] |
| Description | 1 online resource. |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from Ebook Central - Academic Complete |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction : defining Oceania -- Discovering the Oceanic past -- The Pacific islands as a human environment -- Sahul and the prehistory of "old" Melanesia -- Lapita and the Austronesian expansion -- The prehistory of "new" Melanesia -- Micronesia : in the "sea of little islands" -- Polynesia : origins and dispersals -- Polynesian chiefdoms and archaic states -- Big structures and large processes in Oceanic prehistory. |
| Abstract | "The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the earth's surface and encompasses many thousands of islands, which are home to numerous human societies and cultures. Among these indigenous Oceanic cultures are the intrepid Polynesian double-hulled canoe navigators, the atoll dwellers of Micronesia, the statue carvers of remote Easter Island, and the famed traders of Melanesia. Decades of archaeological excavations, combined with allied research in historical linguistics, biological anthropology, and comparative ethnography, have revealed much new information about the long-term history of these Pacific Island societies and cultures. On the Road of the Winds synthesizes the grand sweep of human history in the Pacific Islands, beginning with the movement of early people out from Asia more than 40,000 years ago, and tracing the development of myriad indigenous cultures up to the time of European contact in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. This updated edition, enhanced with many new illustrations and an extensive bibliography, synthesizes the latest archaeological, linguistic, and biological discoveries that reveal the grand sweep of ancient history in the Pacific Islands"--Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Source of description | Description based on print version record. |
| Issued in other form | Print version: Kirch, Patrick Vinton, author. On the road of the winds Revised and expanded edition. Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017] 9780520292819 |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| LCCN | 2017015961 |
| ISBN | 9780520968899 (ebook) |