5.7 A Summary
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conflict in Hawaiki (the Polynesian homeland). Continuing migrations over centuries by Maui’s descendants, by his grandson Wi-Wi, and Wi-Wi’s great-grandson
Tutumaiao and considerably later by their descendant Rakaihautu, suggest the possibility of continuing enforced migrations to New Zealand from the Spice Island
region.
The question of when Madagascar was first settled, and how many migrations
may have followed, may never be answered. But the factors triggering its settlement
belong both to global climate history and to the history of conflict, to which the
Spice Islands were exposed as soon as warmer SSTs gave foreign traders access to
the Spice Islands. The arrival in the area of Indian, Malay, Chinese and Arab traders
in the 1st century AD can only have magnified the risks of conflict in the region
and magnified the risks of spice-growing islands being seized from their indigenous
owners, risks that tribes in the region may already have confronted for millennia.
The establishment of the Cinnamon Route and the colonization or colonizations of
Madagascar are part of the maritime history of the region, which was subject not
only to climate constraints but also to the local, regional and international pressures
that shaped the history of the Spice Islands and the history of spice trading for
millennia and that drove migrations both within and from the region.
Considering the migration history of Madagascar establishes the pattern for some
of the early and perhaps most of the later long-distance migrations from the Spice
Islands and the Spice Island region – notably for migrations to Japan, Hawaii and
New Zealand. All these migrations exploited fast warm currents flowing out of the
WPWP and all were subject to the same climate constraints. The need for high
SSTs to avoid hypothermia limited these migrations to warm global climate periods.
Though spice trading was a driving motive for earlier migrations, tradition suggests
that many of those who later migrated were subject to conflict and the risk of defeat
in their spice-trading homeland.
That there is evidence, from several contexts, for the establishment of an
Indonesian colony in Japan in the Yayoi period is important to an understanding of
the colonizing background to which the Lapita migrations belong. Instead of viewing the Lapita expansion into Remote Oceania as an isolated phenomenon, we can
see it rather as part of a continuing wave of trading and colonizing expansions from
the Spice Islands. Supported by the Kuro Shio Current, this expansion extended eastwards from Japan with several migrations from the Spice Island region to Hawaii
in the northern Pacific. There is traditional evidence for at least the discovery of
Hawaii before 1000 BC and, as we shall see in the next chapter, there is also evidence that first-wave Spice Island mariners reached southern California in this early
period. There is clear evidence from tradition for several second-wave migrations to
Hawaii after 300 BC and again archaeological evidence that Spice Island mariners,
following the Kuro Shio Current to its terminus beyond Hawaii in this later period,
again reached southern California
The distance from the Spice Islands to southern California via Japan might be
thought of as being far too great to have been sailed by prehistoric mariners. It
might be thought especially unlikely that Spice Island mariners could have reached
America before 1000 BC. In fact the distance is little different from the distance
101
conflict in Hawaiki (the Polynesian homeland). Continuing migrations over centuries by Maui’s descendants, by his grandson Wi-Wi, and Wi-Wi’s great-grandson
Tutumaiao and considerably later by their descendant Rakaihautu, suggest the possibility of continuing enforced migrations to New Zealand from the Spice Island
region.
The question of when Madagascar was first settled, and how many migrations
may have followed, may never be answered. But the factors triggering its settlement
belong both to global climate history and to the history of conflict, to which the
Spice Islands were exposed as soon as warmer SSTs gave foreign traders access to
the Spice Islands. The arrival in the area of Indian, Malay, Chinese and Arab traders
in the 1st century AD can only have magnified the risks of conflict in the region
and magnified the risks of spice-growing islands being seized from their indigenous
owners, risks that tribes in the region may already have confronted for millennia.
The establishment of the Cinnamon Route and the colonization or colonizations of
Madagascar are part of the maritime history of the region, which was subject not
only to climate constraints but also to the local, regional and international pressures
that shaped the history of the Spice Islands and the history of spice trading for
millennia and that drove migrations both within and from the region.
Considering the migration history of Madagascar establishes the pattern for some
of the early and perhaps most of the later long-distance migrations from the Spice
Islands and the Spice Island region – notably for migrations to Japan, Hawaii and
New Zealand. All these migrations exploited fast warm currents flowing out of the
WPWP and all were subject to the same climate constraints. The need for high
SSTs to avoid hypothermia limited these migrations to warm global climate periods.
Though spice trading was a driving motive for earlier migrations, tradition suggests
that many of those who later migrated were subject to conflict and the risk of defeat
in their spice-trading homeland.
That there is evidence, from several contexts, for the establishment of an
Indonesian colony in Japan in the Yayoi period is important to an understanding of
the colonizing background to which the Lapita migrations belong. Instead of viewing the Lapita expansion into Remote Oceania as an isolated phenomenon, we can
see it rather as part of a continuing wave of trading and colonizing expansions from
the Spice Islands. Supported by the Kuro Shio Current, this expansion extended eastwards from Japan with several migrations from the Spice Island region to Hawaii
in the northern Pacific. There is traditional evidence for at least the discovery of
Hawaii before 1000 BC and, as we shall see in the next chapter, there is also evidence that first-wave Spice Island mariners reached southern California in this early
period. There is clear evidence from tradition for several second-wave migrations to
Hawaii after 300 BC and again archaeological evidence that Spice Island mariners,
following the Kuro Shio Current to its terminus beyond Hawaii in this later period,
again reached southern California
The distance from the Spice Islands to southern California via Japan might be
thought of as being far too great to have been sailed by prehistoric mariners. It
might be thought especially unlikely that Spice Island mariners could have reached
America before 1000 BC. In fact the distance is little different from the distance