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2 The Genetic Context
Spice Islands made them a natural place for the evolution of maritime trading
and associated skills and technologies. For in this ancient archipelago maritime trading, which had always been necessary for survival, expanded with a
growing regional and international demand for spices that were unique to the
Spice Islands. We suggest that an evolution in maritime skills and technologies
marched with the evolution in maritime spice trading from a local to a regional
to an international level. We argue that a very long history of maritime trading provided the selective pressures for the Spice Islanders’ development of a
cold-adapted, famine-resistant body type.
Central to our theory about the origins and prehistory of the Lapita peoples is
evidence from Philip Houghton’s studies of cold adaptation[1]. Houghton’s research
makes it clear that, without very high levels of genetic cold resistance and famine
resistance, it would have been physiologically impossible for Spice Island mariners
and their Polynesian descendants to have explored and settled every significant
island in the Pacific Ocean or sailed across the width of the Indian Ocean to colonize
Madagascar.
That the ancestors of the Lapita and Polynesian peoples inhabited the Spice
Islands suggests a coherent relationship in their prehistory between economics,
geography, history and genetics. It is this relationship that we propose to explore
in this chapter.
2.2 Speculative Prehistories for the Lapita Peoples
First it seems appropriate to set the prehistory we propose for the Lapita peoples, as
descendants of maritime Spice Islanders, in context with the prehistories that have
gained most acceptance in the last 50 years.
Little more than 50 years have passed since the most exciting event in 20th century Polynesian archaeology took place. Though pottery had been found at Lapita in
New Caledonia in 1917 [2], excavations in July 1952 yielded further ceramic pots.
The subsequent discovery of “Lapita” pots in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, in the Bismarcks
and Solomons and numerous coastal settlements in Island Melanesia, an early dating for these pots of about 3,500–3,000 BP, and recognition of the significance of
their distribution opened a new window on the colonization of the Pacific. Various
versions of the first prehistory proposed for the Lapita peoples, as newly discovered
ancestors for the Polynesians, have dominated Polynesian prehistory since.
This first prehistory, proposed by Diamond, Bellwood and Kirch [3], has been
dubbed the “Out of Taiwan” model. The first variant, the “Express Train to
Polynesia”, using Green’s terminology from a recent review of prehistories for the
Lapita peoples [4], suggests a rapid migration from Taiwan to Polynesia, with little
or no contact with indigenous populations in Island Southeast Asia. The second variant, the “Slow Boat to the Bismarcks” developed by Terell and Welsch [5], draws
on Irwin’s concept of a “voyaging corridor” [6] stretching from eastern Indonesia
2 The Genetic Context
Spice Islands made them a natural place for the evolution of maritime trading
and associated skills and technologies. For in this ancient archipelago maritime trading, which had always been necessary for survival, expanded with a
growing regional and international demand for spices that were unique to the
Spice Islands. We suggest that an evolution in maritime skills and technologies
marched with the evolution in maritime spice trading from a local to a regional
to an international level. We argue that a very long history of maritime trading provided the selective pressures for the Spice Islanders’ development of a
cold-adapted, famine-resistant body type.
Central to our theory about the origins and prehistory of the Lapita peoples is
evidence from Philip Houghton’s studies of cold adaptation[1]. Houghton’s research
makes it clear that, without very high levels of genetic cold resistance and famine
resistance, it would have been physiologically impossible for Spice Island mariners
and their Polynesian descendants to have explored and settled every significant
island in the Pacific Ocean or sailed across the width of the Indian Ocean to colonize
Madagascar.
That the ancestors of the Lapita and Polynesian peoples inhabited the Spice
Islands suggests a coherent relationship in their prehistory between economics,
geography, history and genetics. It is this relationship that we propose to explore
in this chapter.
2.2 Speculative Prehistories for the Lapita Peoples
First it seems appropriate to set the prehistory we propose for the Lapita peoples, as
descendants of maritime Spice Islanders, in context with the prehistories that have
gained most acceptance in the last 50 years.
Little more than 50 years have passed since the most exciting event in 20th century Polynesian archaeology took place. Though pottery had been found at Lapita in
New Caledonia in 1917 [2], excavations in July 1952 yielded further ceramic pots.
The subsequent discovery of “Lapita” pots in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, in the Bismarcks
and Solomons and numerous coastal settlements in Island Melanesia, an early dating for these pots of about 3,500–3,000 BP, and recognition of the significance of
their distribution opened a new window on the colonization of the Pacific. Various
versions of the first prehistory proposed for the Lapita peoples, as newly discovered
ancestors for the Polynesians, have dominated Polynesian prehistory since.
This first prehistory, proposed by Diamond, Bellwood and Kirch [3], has been
dubbed the “Out of Taiwan” model. The first variant, the “Express Train to
Polynesia”, using Green’s terminology from a recent review of prehistories for the
Lapita peoples [4], suggests a rapid migration from Taiwan to Polynesia, with little
or no contact with indigenous populations in Island Southeast Asia. The second variant, the “Slow Boat to the Bismarcks” developed by Terell and Welsch [5], draws
on Irwin’s concept of a “voyaging corridor” [6] stretching from eastern Indonesia