Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T02:00:04.831Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Polynesian Seafaring and American Horizons: A Response to Jones and Klar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Atholl Anderson
Atholl Anderson*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia (aja@coombs.anu.edu.au)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The hypothesis presented by Jones and Klar (2005) that elements of prehistoric Chumash technology and language arrived from East Polynesia is considered. Trans-oceanic diffusion in general should not be rejected out of hand, but in this case it is improbable that it involved East Polynesia. There are substantial differences in the sewn-plank canoes at issue and the compound hooks are of a general form that is not confined to Polynesia. The chronology of East Polynesian colonization is probably too late for diffusion to southern California before A.D. 700. East Polynesian seafaring may have been inadequate to reach the Californian coast. If the explanation is diffusionary, then a source in East Asia is more plausible.

Résumé

Résumé

En este trabajo se considera la hipótesis presentado por Jones y Klar (2005) de que elementos prehistóricos tecnológicos y lingüísticos de los Chumash llegaron desde Polinesia. En general, la difusión cultural transoceánica no siempre debe ser rechazada, pero en este caso es poco probable que las influencias sobre la cultura Chumash incluyeran Polinesia del Este. Es importante reconocer las diferencias entre las canoas de tablón-cosido, y que los anzuelos compuestos de dos piezas son de una forma no exclusiva a Polinesia. La cronología de colonización de Polinesia probablemente es demasiado tardía para una difusión a California antes de 700 A.D. Además, la tradición marítima de Polinesia puede no haber sido adecuada para llegar a la costa de California meridional. Si la difusión explica la aparición de canoas de tablón-cosido y anzuelos de dos piezas en California, su origen en la zona del Este de Asia es más probable.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 4 , October 2006 , pp. 759 - 763
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Anderson, Atholl 1995 Current Approaches in East Polynesian Colonization Research. Journal of the Polynesian Society 104:110–132.Google Scholar
Anderson, Atholl 2000 Slow Boats from China: Issues in the prehistory of Indo-Pacific Seafaring. In East of Wallace’s Line: Studies of Past and Present Maritime Cultures of the Indo-Pacific Region, edited by S. O’Connor and P. Veth, pp. 13–50. Balkema, Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Anderson, Atholl 2001 Towards the sharp End: The Form and Performance of Prehistoric Polynesian Voyaging Canoes. In Pacific 2000: Proceedings of the Fifth International conference on Easter Island and the Pacific, edited by Christopher M. Stevenson, Georgia Lee, and F.J. Morin, pp. 29–37. The Easter Island Foundation, Los Osos.Google Scholar
Anderson, Atholl 2002 Faunal Collapse, Landscape Change and Settlement History in Remote Oceania. World Archaeology 33:375–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Atholl 2003a Initial Human Dispersal in Remote Oceania: Pattern and Explanation. In Pacific Archaeology: Assessments and Prospects, edited by Christophe Sand. Le Cahiers de l’Archaeologie en Nouvelle-Caledonie 15:71–84.Google Scholar
Anderson, Atholl 2003b Uncharted Waters: Colonization of Remote Oceania. In Colonization of Unfamiliar Landscape, edited by Marcy Rockman and James Steele, pp. 169–189. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Anderson, Atholl, and Sinoto, Yosihiko 2002 New Radiocarbon Ages of Colonization Sites in East Polynesia. Asian Perspectives 41:242–257.Google Scholar
Anderson, Atholl, and Akazawa, Takeru 1986 Catalogue of Jomon and Yayoi Fishing Gear in Japanese Collections. Unpublished manuscript, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Anderson, Atholl, Chappell, John, Gagan, Michael, and Grove, Richard 2005 Prehistoric Maritime Migration in the Pacific islands: An Hypothesis of ENSO Forcing. The Holocene 16:1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, Jeanne E., and Bernard, Julienne 2005 Negotiating the Coasts: Status and the Evolution of Boat Technology in California. World Archaeology 37:109–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burney, D. A. 2002 Late Quaternary Chronology and Stratigraphy of Twelve Sites on Kaua’i. Radiocarbon 44:13–14.Google Scholar
Burney, L. P., and Burney, D. A. 2003 Charcoal Stratigraphies for Kaua’i and the Timing of Human Arrival. Pacific Science 57:211–226.Google Scholar
De Queiroz, A. 2004 The Resurrection of Oceanic Dispersal In Historical Biogeography. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20:68–73.Google Scholar
Erlandson, Jon M., Rick, Torben C., and Vellanoweth, René 2004 Human Impacts on Ancient Environments: A Case Study from California’s Northern Channel Islands. In Voyages of Discovery: The Archaeology of Islands, edited by Scott M. Fitzpatrick, pp. 51–83. Praeger, Westport, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Fagan, Brian 2004 The House of the Sea: An Essay on the Antiquity of Plank Canoes in Southern California. American Antiquity 69:7–16.Google Scholar
Finney, Ben 1979 Hokule’a, the Way to Tahiti. Dodd, Mead, New York.Google Scholar
Finney, Ben 2003 Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors: Reviving Polynesian Voyaging. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Green, Roger C. 2000 Origins for the Rapanui of Easter Island before European contact: Solutions from Holistic Anthropology to an Issue No Longer Much of a Mystery. Rapa Nui Journal 14:71–76.Google Scholar
Heyerdahl, Thor 1952 American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition. Allen and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Holmes, Tommy 1993 The Hawaiian Canoe. Editions Limited, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Irwin, Geoffrey, J. 1992 The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonization of the Pacific. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Irwin, Geoffrey, J. 2000 No Man Is an Island: The Importance of Context in the Study of the Colonization and Settlement of the Pacific islands. In Australian Archaeologist: Collected Papers in Honour of Jim Allen, edited by Atholl Anderson and Tim Murray, pp. 393–111. Coombs Academic Press, Canberra.Google Scholar
Johnston, Paul 1988 The Sea-Craft of Prehistory. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Jones, Terry L., and Klar, Kathryn A. 2005 Diffusionism Reconsidered: Linguistic and Archaeological Evidence for Prehistoric Polynesian Contact with Southern California. American Antiquity 70:457–484.Google Scholar
Lewis, David 1994 We, the Navigators. The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Matisoo-Smith, Elisabeth, and Robins, J. H. 2004 Origins and Dispersals of Pacific Peoples: Evidence from mtDNA Phylogenies of the Pacific Rat. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences 101:9167–9172.Google Scholar
McGrail, Sean 2001 Boats of the World: from the Stone Age to Medieval-Times. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Pawley, Andrew, K. 1996 On the Polynesian Subgroup as a Problem for Irwin’s Continuous Settlement Hypothesis. In Oceanic Culture History: Essays in Honour of Roger Green, edited by Janet Davidson, Geoffrey Irwin, Foss Leach, Andrew Pawley, and Dorothy Brown, pp. 387–410. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Special Publication, Dunedin.Google Scholar
Ramírez-Aliaga, José Miguel 1992 Contactos Transpacíficos: Un Aceramiento al Problema de los Supuestos Rasgos Polinesicos en la Cultura Mapuche. Clava 5:41–74.Google Scholar