Oceanic Archaeology And Voyaging Flashcards
1
Q
The Missionaries (AD 1800)
A
- English missionary societies (Collective of several churches and fundraise for some to go over and spread their mission)
- American missionary societies
2
Q
The Missionaries: American missionary societies
A
- Conversion (Trying to convert chiefs and family because had most power)
- Translation of languages, Bibles (Read Latin script of Hawaiian language (?))
- Radical change of power structure (Goal of conversion trying to get rid of old gods/tradition) (Societies changed forever)
- American Protestant preacher, Hawaii 1820s (Hold sermons and natives go even though didn’t know what they were saying)
3
Q
Dumont d’Urville’s Classification (1832)
A
- Polynesia (Nesia = island; poly = many)
- Micronesia (Micro = tiny; Many atolls so they were tiny islands)
- Melanesia (Based upon conceptions of race that were common in 19th century) (People who are dark)
- All manufactured by English speaking people to describe the places they saw (Categories made up and problematic)
- French naval officer Jules Dumont d’Urville (Wanted to make words for places he saw based on people he saw (Melanesia = dark people) and shape of island (poly for many and micro being tiny)
- Question referring to culture, language, what they look like
4
Q
Modern Political Boundaries
A
- What we see on geography map
- Boundaries are from political events
- Laws showing where end of a nation is
- Geographic boundary like bubble around island (Ocean belonging to them; Fiji has 100 miles in all directions)
- Blank spaces in ocean where everyone thinks they can use (Europeans going there to fish and take boats back to Europe)
5
Q
Archaeology in Oceania
A
- 1870-1920s
- Von Haast (New Zealand)
2.1 Von Haast’s first description of New Zealand’s prehistory (Diagram of what he thought ancient hunter hunting birds)
2.2 Found bones of extinct birds (1870s didn’t know how old, just knew from bird that wasn’t modern, cut marks, suggested ancient time where people lived)
6
Q
Vikings of the Sunrise?
A
- 1930s
- Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) (First to write about prehistory times) (1/2 Māori) (Had to put out where people came from)
- Where did the Polynesians come from?
- Proposed Micronesian route to avoid “Melanesian Contamination” (Went around West to East around Melanesia cause looked more like Micronesians)
- Book was very fictitious
7
Q
Heyerdahl: Popular but Wrong!
A
- Proposed that Pacific Islanders came from South America
- 1960s article in National Geographic
- Excavation of Moai on Easter Island (Funded to do this) (Found from South America (Wrong))
- Rafted from South America to East Polynesia 1947 (Funded by National Geographic to go on expedition) (Sunk before getting to island)
8
Q
Modern Archaeology
A
- “Real archaeology” (Controlled excavation with tracking, notes, carbon dating)
- Gifford, 1947, Fiji, New Caledonia (Professor Cal Berkeley funded to go there)
- Green 1960 Samoa (Student of Gifford) (Excavations) (Pottery analysis (Had designs on it)) (Radiocarbon dates) (Defined “Lapita” (1st archaeological culture)) (2800 BP)
9
Q
How Archaeologists Divide the Pacific: NEAR OCEANIA
A
- Intervisible islands (See other islands from island you’re on) (Sail a little and see another island) (If resources not on one island can get from another) (Easier to go to island if can see it (Less technologically difficult))
- Greater biological diversity (Plants, animals and people) (Product of islands being intervisible) (Swim or fly or float to next island)
- Austronesian and Papuan languages (Papuan difficult to describe because so diverse)
- Examples: Island SE Asia, New Guinea, Bismarck’s, Solomons
- End is Santa Cruz group of islands and northern group of New Guinea
10
Q
How Archaeologists Divide the Pacific: REMOTE OCEANIA
A
- Not intervisible (Harder to get to) (Sail couple weeks with only ocean around you for several weeks)
- Biologically depauperate
- All Austronesian languages
- Examples: All islands including and beyond Santa Cruz and north east of Papua New Guinea
11
Q
Austronesian Language Family
A
- 1000 languages (Once get grammar and vocabulary of one, easier to learn others)
- Taiwan to Hawaii, New Zealand
- Madagascar
12
Q
Austronesian Words: Canoe
A
- Anutan = Vaka
- Fijian = Waqa
- Niuan = Vaka
- Rapan = Vaka
- Samoan = Haka
- Tahitian = Va’a (‘ = glotal stop (stop sound))
- Tongan = Vaka
- Hawaiian = Wa’a (Tahitian and Hawaiian related cause of glotal stop)
13
Q
Papuan (Non-Austronesian)
A
- 750 languages
- Too diverse to be classified as a family (Migration means that languages came from somewhere else) (Languages change over time (Lots in small place, potential explanation is been around long time so evolved over long time)) (Antiquity to New Guinea (Mainly Papuan but some parts Austronesian (Because some people come and leave; See history in language geography)))
14
Q
Voyaging: Boats in Moana scene going back in time
A
- Outrigger canoe
- Boats traveling together in group (Different sizes; Larger ones more supplies and smaller with more people; All ages working together)
- Use wind and sea during day
- Use stars and constellations at night
- Sails have fish on them
- Bird to signal that land was nearby (Fairy turn bird and roost on tree branches at night so follow it at dusk cause heading home)
- When at island they build large buildings and some smaller groups leave to voyage and eventually come back (To go find another island)
- Know where going because someone already went and saw it and came back to take whole family there because great island (Looking and going event) (Wouldn’t have whole community go on boat unless know where they are going)
15
Q
When/where did ocean voyaging develop?
A
- Know had to have boats to get to Australia (From Africa and SE Asia)
- +65,000 years ago- to reach Australia, New Guinea
- 35,000 years ago to reach Bismarck’s, Solomons
