Chapter 21
A Consilience of Evidence
Abstract Evidence of many kinds has been assembled in the course of the book
in support of the central paradigm that the Spice Island ancestors of the Polynesian
peoples followed three major currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool to
their limits in two oceans and that they did so before 1000 BC when a global cold
period halted transoceanic voyaging for 600 years. We show that their descendants
after 400 BC, adopting the same sailing and exploration strategies, re-established
the remarkable range and scale of their ancestors’ transoceanic exploration, trading
and migration. In this final chapter we offer an overview of the evidence gathered
in support of this paradigm. And we reflect on the methodology employed to create
a synthesis of insights from diverse sources. As the title of the book proclaims,
empowering this synthesis is a recognition of the fundamental roles of oceanography
and of global climate change in determining the paths, sequence, timing and range
of prehistoric migration in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Keywords Overview · Polynesian prehistory · Oceanographic base · Climatedriven demography/migration · Climate change · Consilience of evidence
Maori and Moriori traditions offer tantalizing glimpses of ancient forgotten
events, fragments from a past now lost beyond recall. Mention of the loss of
fire, possibly evidence of an ancient near-extinction event, is tied to the name of
an ancestor who lived 17 generations after the first settlement of New Zealand.
Surprising details from accounts of Maui’s meeting with the chieftainess of
Orokoroko hint of a long isolated past in New Zealand for the people that
Maui met there and dismissed as stupid and backward. Awareness of the ancient
form of Creation myths preserved in the Chatham Islands offers subtle and indirect evidence of Lapita-age Spice Island descent for the Moriori. Two Moriori
genealogies, by their very length and interpretative detail, appear to substantiate
this claim.
Cumulatively such subtle and indirect evidence fleshes out more solid demographic evidence that belongs to the contexts of modern statistics, mathematics
and demography and that as insistently proclaims that Maori had a history in New
Zealand long enough to reach back to Lapita times.
371
C.E.M. Pearce, F.M. Pearce, Oceanic Migration,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3826-5_21, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
A Consilience of Evidence
Abstract Evidence of many kinds has been assembled in the course of the book
in support of the central paradigm that the Spice Island ancestors of the Polynesian
peoples followed three major currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool to
their limits in two oceans and that they did so before 1000 BC when a global cold
period halted transoceanic voyaging for 600 years. We show that their descendants
after 400 BC, adopting the same sailing and exploration strategies, re-established
the remarkable range and scale of their ancestors’ transoceanic exploration, trading
and migration. In this final chapter we offer an overview of the evidence gathered
in support of this paradigm. And we reflect on the methodology employed to create
a synthesis of insights from diverse sources. As the title of the book proclaims,
empowering this synthesis is a recognition of the fundamental roles of oceanography
and of global climate change in determining the paths, sequence, timing and range
of prehistoric migration in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Keywords Overview · Polynesian prehistory · Oceanographic base · Climatedriven demography/migration · Climate change · Consilience of evidence
Maori and Moriori traditions offer tantalizing glimpses of ancient forgotten
events, fragments from a past now lost beyond recall. Mention of the loss of
fire, possibly evidence of an ancient near-extinction event, is tied to the name of
an ancestor who lived 17 generations after the first settlement of New Zealand.
Surprising details from accounts of Maui’s meeting with the chieftainess of
Orokoroko hint of a long isolated past in New Zealand for the people that
Maui met there and dismissed as stupid and backward. Awareness of the ancient
form of Creation myths preserved in the Chatham Islands offers subtle and indirect evidence of Lapita-age Spice Island descent for the Moriori. Two Moriori
genealogies, by their very length and interpretative detail, appear to substantiate
this claim.
Cumulatively such subtle and indirect evidence fleshes out more solid demographic evidence that belongs to the contexts of modern statistics, mathematics
and demography and that as insistently proclaims that Maori had a history in New
Zealand long enough to reach back to Lapita times.
371
C.E.M. Pearce, F.M. Pearce, Oceanic Migration,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3826-5_21, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010