Polynesia in the Ancient World

Date: 8000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.

Locale: South Pacific area bordered by Hawaii in the north, Aotearoa (New Zealand) to the southwest, and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to the southeast

Polynesia in the Ancient World

After the last Ice Age (before c. 8000 b.c.e. until around 1600 b.c.e.), sea levels rose more than 325 feet (99 meters). What had been land masses of the Austronesian archipelago in the Pacific Ocean south of the equator were inundated by a glacial maximum that resulted in remaining lands becoming isolated islands reachable only by long sea journeys in finely crafted voyaging canoes.

Area inhabitants adapted the smaller, more ancient canoes that had been developed in such diverse places as India, Bali, and the Moluccas to follow the coastlines, carried by seasonal monsoon winds, and created massive outrigger canoes that were capable of navigating across vast distances. They were guided by ritual specialists called “wayfinders,” who were trained from childhood to read the movements of stars, ocean currents, wave echoes, prevailing winds, and the habits of sea life. These ancient navigators were said to be able to smell land before it could be seen and see the reflections of islands shining from the bottoms of distant clouds. Built to carry as many as one hundred people and weighing upward of ten tons, the canoes were used to bring various peoples and their goods to all corners of the Polynesian triangle by 800 c.e.

Some historians speculate that, around 2500-1500 b.c.e., nomadic southeast Asians, possibly from Taiwan, migrated into and across the South Pacific region. Over the subsequent three thousand years they crossed more than 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) of unknown, open ocean to colonize every habitable island they encountered. Other authorities think early cultures evolved on the north coast of Papua New Guinea and not in Southeast Asia. Further evidence from recent finds will help continue the process of clarification and classification of materials and help to resolve ongoing provocative issues.

Austronesian-speaking Neolithic peoples from either Southeast Asia or Papua New Guinea who colonized the area called Oceania, which included Polynesia (pah-luh-NEE-zheh), Micronesia, and Melanesia, beginning circa 1600-1500 b.c.e., were the likely ancestors of Melanesians who first set out to populate Polynesia. They were lighter skinned, had broad noses, and came via Indonesia or the Philippines. They produced the distinctive Lapita pottery, which archaeologists use to trace the migrations of the ancestors of the Polynesian peoples with some precision.

Recent deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sample comparisons confirm the projected migratory path as originating in Southeast Asia, crossing to Taiwan, then south and west to the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, New Zealand, to the north and farther west, and eventually to Hawaii and Rapa Nui.

Languages

The Austronesian languages shared by Polynesian peoples can be traced from Madagascar to halfway around the world on Easter Island. Proto-Austronesian originated on Taiwan around six thousand years ago. Motifs seen in contemporary tattooing and tape arts are very similar to the designs on ancient Lapita pottery. Most of the plants carried across the seas of Polynesia originated in Southeast Asia. The endemic diseases, leprosy and filaria parasite (the source of elephantiasis), never made it to the Americas. However, recent evidence hints at the possibility that some peoples now thought of as indigenous to coastal North America may have come into the North Pacific from eastern Polynesia using the same boat-building and navigating techniques as those seen in similar double-halted seagoing canoes of the Northwest Coast culture area.

“Polynesia” is a term invented by Charles de Broess in 1756 and was applied originally to all Pacific islands by Western peoples. The name comes from the Greek words poly (many) and nesos (islands). In 1831, in a famous lecture sponsored by the Geographical Society in Paris, a more restricted use of the term was proposed by Dumont d’Urville. At that time, Oceania was divided into three great cultural areas, with Micronesian (“small islands”) north of the equator and Melanesian (“black islands”) and Polynesian (“many islands”) mostly to the south. The term “Polynesia,” and the people known as Polynesians, share a vast triangle of open seas in the South Pacific.

The period of colonization

The Lapita peoples reached the Bismarck archipelago by 1500 b.c.e., Tonga (via Fiji) by 1300 b.c.e., and Samoa by 1000 b.c.e. By 100 c.e., they had left their ancient and mythic homeland, known as Havaiki, and moved onward to the Society Islands and the Marquesas (300 c.e.), Mangareva and Hawaii (500 c.e.), and Rapa Nui (700 c.e.).

Eastern Polynesian cultures used stone food pounders, carved wooden figures of the gods, and tanged adzes not evident in Samoa and Tonga to the west, indicating these developed later and locally. They sailed great canoes steered by huge hardwood paddles and powered by pandanus sails, carrying their animals and plants with them. They sailed to and from every locale, even against prevailing winds and oppositional currents. They fished along the way, and once they had arrived in a new place, immediately set up coconut groves, taro terraces, and fish ponds and established their culture in pristine environments never before seen by human beings. These were deliberate voyages of colonization. Ritual surrounded every aspect of Polynesian life, and the making of a canoe and preparing for a voyage were major cultural events and social undertakings. Making the canoes was a highly specialized craft. The training of navigators, or “wayfinders,” likewise involved ritual specialization and took a lifetime to master.

The island ecosystems that Polynesian voyagers encountered had evolved in isolation and were populated by endemic life-forms that were very fragile and subject to decline caused by destructive competition from introduced species. Volcanic islands have varied altitudes, microclimates, and windward and leeward sides. Coral atolls are usually low and narrow, with little environmental range. Soil and water are usually poor on both types of islands, but atolls are the less desirable (unless underground freshwater sources can be tapped) and have less vegetation and a greater vulnerability to storms.

Polynesians did not just adapt to or change the biologically isolated environments they entered into as they colonized the South Pacific. They drastically altered each new ecosystem to reshape it to more closely match their distant memories of home. These were maritime people who settled to become agriculturalists like their ancestors. They introduced roots, trees, and vines for food and ornamentation, but they also dispersed pests such as Polynesian rats, geckos, snails, and insects. They cleared forests for farms, cut down trees to build houses and canoes, and hunted and gathered the defenseless endemic plants and animals, especially species such as wingless birds, driving them to near extinction, while cultivating wild plants and domesticating animals, which involved building fishponds, enclosures, irrigation projects, and often impressive monumental architecture. All of these resulted in vastly modified landscapes and environments.

Dogs, chickens, and pigs were carried along on the voyages. Sago, breadfruit, and banana replaced the Asian rice, millet, and grain crops carried across Polynesia as the migratory peoples moved south and east. They had an intricate and highly developed fishing technology that included finely crafted lines, various shapes of hooks, spear tips, nets, and other tools. These ancient maritime agriculturalists, coming into and going across Polynesia, developed into the many unique, discrete seagoing peoples with oceanic navigation skills, ground stone and shell adzes and other advanced Neolithic tools, and tame pigs and dogs who were collectively known as the Polynesians. In the process of adapting to each new island locale, the Polynesians developed into the dozens of distinctive cultures of the area.

Religion

Polynesian peoples had many gods representing such natural aspects as the oceans (Tangaroa), war (Tu), agriculture (Rono)—and many demanded human sacrifice. Such deities as Maui and Hina brought islands up from the bottom of the sea or fled to the Moon to avoid an incestuous brother. The polytheism of eastern Polynesia appears to have emanated from the Society Islands, carried from place to place by the myth speakers, or Arioi. Their beliefs led them to become enthusiastic temple builders. Known by the Polynesian term marae, these massive temple structures had platforms, terraces, and courtyards, with lava rock walls and internal structures made of large wooden slabs. They were used by religious groups for entertaining the gods and carrying out ceremonies and sacrifices as needed. Social ranking was determined by one’s ancestors, and genealogies and other oral records were religiously preserved to maintain the order of island life.

Settlements

A high degree of contact was maintained between related and unrelated populations. Cultures developed and spread as, throughout prehistoric Polynesia, islands were further developed into territorial divisions. Clans and families lived together in small settlements, mostly along the coastlines or in fertile valleys farther inland. Higher-altitude areas were usually reserved for ceremonial use or war. Polynesians practiced intercropping and pond agriculture. Large populations could be fed by rich networks of taro, fish, and other ponds from the back of the alluvial valleys to the rich offshore fisheries.

After initial settlement was completed more than one thousand years ago, Polynesia changed rapidly as human beings left their indelible imprint, transforming the ancient seas and their islands as they became the vibrant, diverse, and dynamic Polynesia of the historical period.

Bibliography

Irwin, G. The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonization of the Pacific. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Terrell, J. Prehistory in the Pacific Islands. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1989.