References
191
settlement we propose 2,000 years before that. Grant gives evidence of six major
erosion periods in the last 1,600 years alone. Some of this evidence is considered in
the next chapter.
11.5 The Impact of Climate on Demography
Our evidence for a Lapita-age first settlement of New Zealand is not as simple as discovering Lapita pots in the South Island (which according to tradition was settled
before the North). It lies in prehistoric demography, in the calculation of population patterns from archaeological evidence, most notably from evidence implicit
in the most visible archaeological evidence in New Zealand, Maori pa. Of special
importance, as we show in Chapters 14 and 15, is evidence for the huge population
capacity of pa and evidence from a power law approach based on pa rank size distribution curves, which allows estimates to be made for a founder population, for
the total population of the North Island in 1445 and for a time depth for Maori in
New Zealand stretching back nearly 3,400 years from the present to a Lapita-age
first settlement of New Zealand. As we show in Chapter 14, evidence for a Lapitaage first settlement relies too on demographic evidence that can be derived from
skeletal analysis. And it rests too on recognition of the powerful driving force of
global climate change in shaping demographic history, not only in New Zealand
and Polynesia but globally.
Before we develop the demographic arguments on which evidence for a very
early first settlement of New Zealand depends, we need to digress to consider global
climate change and its manifestations in New Zealand. Presenting New Zealand
patterns of population growth and collapse in a global context with numerous comparable examples for the same periods from other parts of the world will enable
us to demonstrate that the prehistoric demography of New Zealand both during the
Medieval Climatic Optimum and in the Little Ice Age is far from idiosyncratic or
unique. The context of global climate change is our focus in the next chapter.
References
1. Irwin G (1992) The prehistoric exploration and colonisation of the Pacific. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, p. 169
2. Anderson A, Chappell J, Gagan M, Grove R (2006) Prehistoric maritime migration in the
Pacific islands: An hypothesis of ENSO forcing. The Holocene 16: 1–63
3. Walters R, Goff J (2003) Seismic driving of nationwide changes in geomorphology and prehistoric settlement – a 15th century New Zealand example. Sci Tsunami Hazard 21(3): 137–153,
145–146
4. Dye T, Komori E (1992) A pre-censal population history of Hawaii. NZ J Archaeol 14:
1113–128
5. Sutton D (1986) Maori demographic change, 1769–1840: the inner workings of “a picturesque
but illogical simile.” J Polyn Soc 95: 291–339
6. Houghton P (1978) Prehistoric New Zealanders. NZ Med J 87: 213–216
191
settlement we propose 2,000 years before that. Grant gives evidence of six major
erosion periods in the last 1,600 years alone. Some of this evidence is considered in
the next chapter.
11.5 The Impact of Climate on Demography
Our evidence for a Lapita-age first settlement of New Zealand is not as simple as discovering Lapita pots in the South Island (which according to tradition was settled
before the North). It lies in prehistoric demography, in the calculation of population patterns from archaeological evidence, most notably from evidence implicit
in the most visible archaeological evidence in New Zealand, Maori pa. Of special
importance, as we show in Chapters 14 and 15, is evidence for the huge population
capacity of pa and evidence from a power law approach based on pa rank size distribution curves, which allows estimates to be made for a founder population, for
the total population of the North Island in 1445 and for a time depth for Maori in
New Zealand stretching back nearly 3,400 years from the present to a Lapita-age
first settlement of New Zealand. As we show in Chapter 14, evidence for a Lapitaage first settlement relies too on demographic evidence that can be derived from
skeletal analysis. And it rests too on recognition of the powerful driving force of
global climate change in shaping demographic history, not only in New Zealand
and Polynesia but globally.
Before we develop the demographic arguments on which evidence for a very
early first settlement of New Zealand depends, we need to digress to consider global
climate change and its manifestations in New Zealand. Presenting New Zealand
patterns of population growth and collapse in a global context with numerous comparable examples for the same periods from other parts of the world will enable
us to demonstrate that the prehistoric demography of New Zealand both during the
Medieval Climatic Optimum and in the Little Ice Age is far from idiosyncratic or
unique. The context of global climate change is our focus in the next chapter.
References
1. Irwin G (1992) The prehistoric exploration and colonisation of the Pacific. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, p. 169
2. Anderson A, Chappell J, Gagan M, Grove R (2006) Prehistoric maritime migration in the
Pacific islands: An hypothesis of ENSO forcing. The Holocene 16: 1–63
3. Walters R, Goff J (2003) Seismic driving of nationwide changes in geomorphology and prehistoric settlement – a 15th century New Zealand example. Sci Tsunami Hazard 21(3): 137–153,
145–146
4. Dye T, Komori E (1992) A pre-censal population history of Hawaii. NZ J Archaeol 14:
1113–128
5. Sutton D (1986) Maori demographic change, 1769–1840: the inner workings of “a picturesque
but illogical simile.” J Polyn Soc 95: 291–339
6. Houghton P (1978) Prehistoric New Zealanders. NZ Med J 87: 213–216