372
21 A Consilience of Evidence
We have assembled evidence of many kinds in the course of the book in support
of our central paradigm that the Spice Island ancestors of the Polynesian peoples
followed major currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool to their continental 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 as their ancestors, 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 unusual
methodology employed to create a synthesis of insights from diverse sources. As
the title of our book proclaims, empowering this synthesis is the recognition of the
fundamental roles of oceanography and of global climate events in determining the
paths, sequence, timing and range of prehistoric migration in the Pacific and Indian
Oceans.
Remarkably a suggested Lapita-age first settlement for New Zealand follows
from the logical and pragmatic exploration and sailing strategies adopted by Spice
Island mariners in the earliest phase of the peopling of the Pacific. In hindsight we
can see that these choices were determined by their need to confront the greatest risk
facing them, first as long-distance maritime traders and then as explorers and colonizers of the Pacific: the risk of hypothermia. We argue in Part I that the maritime
and genetic background of the Spice Islanders was shaped by their need to avoid or
minimize hypothermia. For the first 30,000 years of their maritime history, sailing
on rafts, they would have been exposed to cumulative selective pressure to develop
genetic resistance to hypothermia. Studying the unique geography, history, horticulture and economics of their homeland reveals how it prepared Spice Islanders,
as horticulturalists and mariners, to become colonizers of the Pacific. Their genetic
evolution of cold resistance and famine resistance, through tens of thousands of
years of natural selection in the Spice Islands, and their exploiting of strong warm
currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool made it physiologically possible
for them to become explorers, horticultural traders and colonizers in two oceans.
Our focus on the historical implications of a Polynesian homeland located in
the Spice Islands reveals a 40,000-year prehistory for the Lapita and Polynesian
peoples that has not previously been explored. We present the maritime history of
the Polynesian peoples as, in a very real sense, a continuation of the maritime history
of their Spice Island ancestors. And we show that the exploration and settlement of
the Pacific, viewed as part of that far longer history, possesses a compelling logic
and coherence.
This is especially clear from the central paradigm we propose. This paradigm is
rooted both in the physiological need to avoid hypothermia and also in the oceanographic nature and function of the West Pacific Warm Pool which, by means of
four strong currents, drives warm water into the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is
rooted too in a cultural readiness to exploit new circumstances and new opportunities, a constant theme in traditional histories. We have shown how the remarkable
volcanic heating of the West Pacific Warm Pool after the last Ice Age flood created
new voyaging possibilities for Spice Island mariners. As we have seen, these new
21 A Consilience of Evidence
We have assembled evidence of many kinds in the course of the book in support
of our central paradigm that the Spice Island ancestors of the Polynesian peoples
followed major currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool to their continental 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 as their ancestors, 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 unusual
methodology employed to create a synthesis of insights from diverse sources. As
the title of our book proclaims, empowering this synthesis is the recognition of the
fundamental roles of oceanography and of global climate events in determining the
paths, sequence, timing and range of prehistoric migration in the Pacific and Indian
Oceans.
Remarkably a suggested Lapita-age first settlement for New Zealand follows
from the logical and pragmatic exploration and sailing strategies adopted by Spice
Island mariners in the earliest phase of the peopling of the Pacific. In hindsight we
can see that these choices were determined by their need to confront the greatest risk
facing them, first as long-distance maritime traders and then as explorers and colonizers of the Pacific: the risk of hypothermia. We argue in Part I that the maritime
and genetic background of the Spice Islanders was shaped by their need to avoid or
minimize hypothermia. For the first 30,000 years of their maritime history, sailing
on rafts, they would have been exposed to cumulative selective pressure to develop
genetic resistance to hypothermia. Studying the unique geography, history, horticulture and economics of their homeland reveals how it prepared Spice Islanders,
as horticulturalists and mariners, to become colonizers of the Pacific. Their genetic
evolution of cold resistance and famine resistance, through tens of thousands of
years of natural selection in the Spice Islands, and their exploiting of strong warm
currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool made it physiologically possible
for them to become explorers, horticultural traders and colonizers in two oceans.
Our focus on the historical implications of a Polynesian homeland located in
the Spice Islands reveals a 40,000-year prehistory for the Lapita and Polynesian
peoples that has not previously been explored. We present the maritime history of
the Polynesian peoples as, in a very real sense, a continuation of the maritime history
of their Spice Island ancestors. And we show that the exploration and settlement of
the Pacific, viewed as part of that far longer history, possesses a compelling logic
and coherence.
This is especially clear from the central paradigm we propose. This paradigm is
rooted both in the physiological need to avoid hypothermia and also in the oceanographic nature and function of the West Pacific Warm Pool which, by means of
four strong currents, drives warm water into the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is
rooted too in a cultural readiness to exploit new circumstances and new opportunities, a constant theme in traditional histories. We have shown how the remarkable
volcanic heating of the West Pacific Warm Pool after the last Ice Age flood created
new voyaging possibilities for Spice Island mariners. As we have seen, these new