2.6 Houghton’s Prehistory for the Proto-Polynesians
33
Houghton argues that the ancestors of the Polynesian peoples evolved from
Melanesian maritime peoples in Island Melanesia:
In the archaeological record of Island Melanesia the Lapita culture, with its evidence of
extensive voyaging, is considered to relate to the emergence of pre-Polynesians (Green,
1982). Human skeletal material from secure Lapita contexts is still sparse, but all materials
so far examined is from tall and robust people (Houghton, 1989), supporting the idea of
the evolution within Island Melanesia of a large-bodied people adapting to the maritime
environment. Such a large-bodied form is inappropriate to the tropical environment further
west, and has not been recorded there. . .Initial settlement of Polynesia and Micronesia must
have been by Melanesian people already adapted, physically and technologically, to the
oceanic environment, and the genetic data suggest that the original settlers of these two
regions were quite closely related (pp. 57–58).
Houghton comments that there are large maritime people who live on small
islands in Island Melanesia and small non-maritime bush people who also live on
small islands in Island Melanesia. He correlates the non-cold-adapted Melanesian
peoples with non-maritime ways of life. He points out that in conditions “verging
on severe hypothermia. . .the Melanesian bush people would simply not survive”
(p. 54). Houghton sees the job descriptions of these large maritime and small bush
people as determining genetic outcomes. But the argument can be set the other way
around. If people are not cold-adapted, they will not take up a maritime way of life
if they can avoid it, because it is too unpleasant and risky.
Houghton saw Island Melanesia as representing the geographical and historical
transition between Near Oceania and the Pacific. His argument for selective adaptation, therefore, focuses on Island Melanesia as the logical place for the robust
cold-adapted body form of the Polynesians to have evolved. The distribution and
dating of Lapita pottery, however, imposes what we see as an impossibly tight time
frame on such evolution.
Developments in genetics since Houghton published his research give us two
advantages in interpreting the genetic history of the Lapita peoples and of their
Polynesian descendants. First, we have a geographical advantage in knowing that
the Lapita homeland was in Wallacea and more specifically in Halmahera. As a
counter to Houghton’s claim that there are no cold-adapted people to the west of
Island Melanesia, we can quote the description of the people of Halmahera (Gilolo)
by Alfred Russel Wallace in The Malay Archipelago (1869) [37]:
In the evening we stayed at a settlement of Galela men. These are natives of a district in the
extreme north of Gilolo, and are great wanderers over this part of the Archipelago. They
build large and roomy praus with outriggers, and settle on any coast or island they take
a fancy for. They hunt deer and wild pig, drying the meat; they catch turtle and tripang;
they cut down the forest and plant rice or maize, and are altogether remarkably energetic
and industrious. They are very fine people, of light complexion, tall, and with Papuan features, coming nearer to the drawings and descriptions of the true Polynesians of Tahiti and
Owyhee than any I have seen.
Second, we have awareness of differential rates for mutation in sex-linked genes
and non-sex-linked genes. It is unlikely, as we have argued above, given the complex
morphological changes involved in the genetic selection for cold resistance, that the
33
Houghton argues that the ancestors of the Polynesian peoples evolved from
Melanesian maritime peoples in Island Melanesia:
In the archaeological record of Island Melanesia the Lapita culture, with its evidence of
extensive voyaging, is considered to relate to the emergence of pre-Polynesians (Green,
1982). Human skeletal material from secure Lapita contexts is still sparse, but all materials
so far examined is from tall and robust people (Houghton, 1989), supporting the idea of
the evolution within Island Melanesia of a large-bodied people adapting to the maritime
environment. Such a large-bodied form is inappropriate to the tropical environment further
west, and has not been recorded there. . .Initial settlement of Polynesia and Micronesia must
have been by Melanesian people already adapted, physically and technologically, to the
oceanic environment, and the genetic data suggest that the original settlers of these two
regions were quite closely related (pp. 57–58).
Houghton comments that there are large maritime people who live on small
islands in Island Melanesia and small non-maritime bush people who also live on
small islands in Island Melanesia. He correlates the non-cold-adapted Melanesian
peoples with non-maritime ways of life. He points out that in conditions “verging
on severe hypothermia. . .the Melanesian bush people would simply not survive”
(p. 54). Houghton sees the job descriptions of these large maritime and small bush
people as determining genetic outcomes. But the argument can be set the other way
around. If people are not cold-adapted, they will not take up a maritime way of life
if they can avoid it, because it is too unpleasant and risky.
Houghton saw Island Melanesia as representing the geographical and historical
transition between Near Oceania and the Pacific. His argument for selective adaptation, therefore, focuses on Island Melanesia as the logical place for the robust
cold-adapted body form of the Polynesians to have evolved. The distribution and
dating of Lapita pottery, however, imposes what we see as an impossibly tight time
frame on such evolution.
Developments in genetics since Houghton published his research give us two
advantages in interpreting the genetic history of the Lapita peoples and of their
Polynesian descendants. First, we have a geographical advantage in knowing that
the Lapita homeland was in Wallacea and more specifically in Halmahera. As a
counter to Houghton’s claim that there are no cold-adapted people to the west of
Island Melanesia, we can quote the description of the people of Halmahera (Gilolo)
by Alfred Russel Wallace in The Malay Archipelago (1869) [37]:
In the evening we stayed at a settlement of Galela men. These are natives of a district in the
extreme north of Gilolo, and are great wanderers over this part of the Archipelago. They
build large and roomy praus with outriggers, and settle on any coast or island they take
a fancy for. They hunt deer and wild pig, drying the meat; they catch turtle and tripang;
they cut down the forest and plant rice or maize, and are altogether remarkably energetic
and industrious. They are very fine people, of light complexion, tall, and with Papuan features, coming nearer to the drawings and descriptions of the true Polynesians of Tahiti and
Owyhee than any I have seen.
Second, we have awareness of differential rates for mutation in sex-linked genes
and non-sex-linked genes. It is unlikely, as we have argued above, given the complex
morphological changes involved in the genetic selection for cold resistance, that the