Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia
Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia
Looking for an examination copy?
This title is not currently available for examination. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact collegesales@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching.
$47.00
USDThe power of an anthropological approach to long-term history lies in its unique ability to combine diverse evidence, from archaeological artifacts to ethnographic texts and comparative word lists. In this innovative book, Kirch and Green explicitly develop the theoretical underpinnings, as well as the particular methods, for such a historical anthropology. Drawing upon and integrating the approaches of archaeology, comparative ethnography, and historical linguistics, they advance a phylogenetic model for cultural diversification, and apply a triangulation method for historical reconstruction. They illustrate their approach through meticulous application to the history of the Polynesian cultures, and for the first time reconstruct in extensive detail the Ancestral Polynesian culture that flourished in the Polynesian homeland - Hawaiki - some 2,500 years ago. Of great significance for Oceanic studies, Kirch and Green's book will be essential reading for any anthropologist, prehistorian, linguist, or cultural historian concerned with the theory and method of long-term history.
- Explicitly develops the theory and method of long-term anthropological history
- Cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries, integrating archaeology, comparative ethnography, and historical linguistics
- Offers a richly-textured reconstruction of the world of the ancient Polynesians
Reviews & endorsements
"In all, this is a wonderful book for anyone interested in the origins of Polynesian societies. It is also an example of good, solid, culture history methodology at its best, with a nice admixture of ecology and theoretical issues." Journal Canadien D'Archéologie
Product details
April 2001Paperback
9780521788793
394 pages
246 × 189 × 21 mm
0.7kg
24 b/w illus. 11 maps
Available
Table of Contents
- Prologue: on historical anthropology
- Part I. The Phylogenetic Model: Theory and Method:
- 1. The phylogenetic model in historical anthropology
- 2. Methodologies: implementing the phylogenetic model
- 3. Polynesia as a phylogenetic unit
- Part II. Rediscovering 'Hawaiki':
- 4. The ancestral Polynesian world
- 5. Subsistence
- 6. Food preparation and cuisine
- 7. Material culture
- 8. Social and political organization
- 9. Gods, rituals, and seasons
- Epilogue: on history, phylogeny, and evolution.
