4.3 The Cinnamon Route
71
It is interesting that the New Zealand traditions of Tama-rereti’s migration to
Hawaii are matched in Hawaii by similar accounts of the early discovery and settlement of Hawaii by Hawaii-loa, after whom it is said Hawaii was named. Whether
the same man appears under two names or whether there were indeed two early
separate founding settlements is unclear.
The pattern of enforced migration for a people defeated by invaders may be
very ancient, possibly predating the first wave of exploration and colonization in
the Pacific. Developing the sailing strategy of following fast warm currents flowing
out of the West Pacific Warm Pool would have given Spice Island tribes, in the event
of defeat, the option of migrating beyond the region and so beyond the reach of their
enemies
A second motivation for oceanic migration appears in traditional histories: determination on the part of the explorer’s family or descendants to claim land rights by
virtue of relationship to or descent from the discoverer.
A third motivation for the founding of a distant colony was an economic one: the
establishment of a supply base for a trading route or establishing a trading station
at the terminus of a route. Given the absence of traditional histories in Madagascar,
it is unclear whether defeated Spice Island tribes chose Madagascar as a refuge.
What is obvious is that Madagascar was needed as a rest and supply station for
the Cinnamon Route. Given its land area, multiple, differently motivated migrations
to Madagascar are conceivable. Prehistorians tend to think in terms of a singular
founding migration. Traditional histories record multiple migrations to a given destination over time, both by tribes, descended from the discoverer, who inherited his
sailing instructions and used them to take up land rights by virtue of descent or by
tribal descendants remembering ancient sailing instructions when faced with defeat.
4.3 The Cinnamon Route
By virtue of its geography, the colonization of Madagascar clearly stands outside the
simplistic Lapita paradigm in which the settlement of the Pacific is seen as following directly and sequentially from the Lapita colonizations of Near Oceania, Island
Melanesia and Western Polynesia. Instead, the colonization of Madagascar fits the
more complicated migration paradigm we have suggested of a long and continuing
migration history for descendants of indigenous Spice Islanders.
The dating of the first settlement of Madagascar is, however, far from easy
to determine. It almost certainly followed from – indeed arguably would have
been necessary for – the establishment of the Cinnamon Route. Madagascar would
have been a vital rest stop en route to Rhapta which lay about 2,000 km beyond
Madagascar.
We have suggested that the Spice Islanders’ skills in handling fast currents, and
possibly their development of the double-outrigger able to exploit these currents,
evolved in the Kuro Shio voyaging nursery some time between 7,000 and 5,000
years ago. Archaeological evidence for an extension of voyaging range and for
71
It is interesting that the New Zealand traditions of Tama-rereti’s migration to
Hawaii are matched in Hawaii by similar accounts of the early discovery and settlement of Hawaii by Hawaii-loa, after whom it is said Hawaii was named. Whether
the same man appears under two names or whether there were indeed two early
separate founding settlements is unclear.
The pattern of enforced migration for a people defeated by invaders may be
very ancient, possibly predating the first wave of exploration and colonization in
the Pacific. Developing the sailing strategy of following fast warm currents flowing
out of the West Pacific Warm Pool would have given Spice Island tribes, in the event
of defeat, the option of migrating beyond the region and so beyond the reach of their
enemies
A second motivation for oceanic migration appears in traditional histories: determination on the part of the explorer’s family or descendants to claim land rights by
virtue of relationship to or descent from the discoverer.
A third motivation for the founding of a distant colony was an economic one: the
establishment of a supply base for a trading route or establishing a trading station
at the terminus of a route. Given the absence of traditional histories in Madagascar,
it is unclear whether defeated Spice Island tribes chose Madagascar as a refuge.
What is obvious is that Madagascar was needed as a rest and supply station for
the Cinnamon Route. Given its land area, multiple, differently motivated migrations
to Madagascar are conceivable. Prehistorians tend to think in terms of a singular
founding migration. Traditional histories record multiple migrations to a given destination over time, both by tribes, descended from the discoverer, who inherited his
sailing instructions and used them to take up land rights by virtue of descent or by
tribal descendants remembering ancient sailing instructions when faced with defeat.
4.3 The Cinnamon Route
By virtue of its geography, the colonization of Madagascar clearly stands outside the
simplistic Lapita paradigm in which the settlement of the Pacific is seen as following directly and sequentially from the Lapita colonizations of Near Oceania, Island
Melanesia and Western Polynesia. Instead, the colonization of Madagascar fits the
more complicated migration paradigm we have suggested of a long and continuing
migration history for descendants of indigenous Spice Islanders.
The dating of the first settlement of Madagascar is, however, far from easy
to determine. It almost certainly followed from – indeed arguably would have
been necessary for – the establishment of the Cinnamon Route. Madagascar would
have been a vital rest stop en route to Rhapta which lay about 2,000 km beyond
Madagascar.
We have suggested that the Spice Islanders’ skills in handling fast currents, and
possibly their development of the double-outrigger able to exploit these currents,
evolved in the Kuro Shio voyaging nursery some time between 7,000 and 5,000
years ago. Archaeological evidence for an extension of voyaging range and for