04/26/2021
Cambridge University anthropologist Thomas (Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire) delivers a brisk and intriguing account of how the islands of Oceania came to be inhabited by humans. He begins by documenting the first contacts between Pacific islanders and European explorers including James Cook, who documented linguistic and cultural affinities between the inhabitants of islands thousands of miles apart. Contending that 19th-century maps dividing the Pacific Ocean into regions including Polynesia and Micronesia were based on “invidious and overtly racist contrasts” between natives, Thomas draws on the latest findings in archaeology, genetics, climatology, and linguistics to chronicle the settlement of present-day Australia and New Guinea by people from southeast Asia 45,000 to 50,000 years ago, and tracks the subsequent migration of their descendants across vast stretches of ocean to colonize Hawaii, the Marianas, Tahiti, and other islands and archipelagos. Throughout, Thomas highlights the work of Indigenous scholars, including Tongan anthropologist Epeli Hau‛ofa, and makes the case that the region has been more central to world affairs than is widely known. With lucid explanations of modern advances in historical anthropology and evocative reflections on the author’s own fascination with Oceania, this is an accessible introduction to an astounding chapter in human history. (June)
Mr. Thomas began to study Pacific prehistory in the 1980s, a great period for archaeological research, and his account of this intellectual revolution is clear and compelling.”—Wall Street Journal
“The author highlights a dizzying burst of new research that draws on advanced genetics, linguistics and, not least, a revival of voyaging itself by indigenous navigators.”—Economist
“Thomas should be commended for his engaging writing style, which regularly had me looking forward to turning the page. I would not be surprised if, after reading this masterpiece, many readers are compelled to take up voyaging themselves.”—Science
“A brisk and intriguing account of how the islands of Oceania came to be inhabited by humans… With lucid explanations of modern advances in historical anthropology and evocative reflections on the author’s own fascination with Oceania, this is an accessible introduction to an astounding chapter in human history.”—Publishers Weekly
“A scholarly survey of the current state of knowledge on the ancient peopling of Oceania. Blending ethnohistory, archaeology, and linguistics, anthropologist Thomas asks the big questions about 'a civilization that has seldom been recognized as such.'...[Thomas's] view that the Polynesians have long been 'archipelago dwellers' well aware of their distant relatives on other atolls and high islands brings a welcome world-systems approach to Oceania, an understudied region.”—Kirkus
"Thomas successfully draws readers into this fascinating, often-overlooked history and offers plenty of resources for those looking to read more.”—Library Journal
"The peopling of the Pacific is one of humanity's greatest feats of imagination, ingenuity, and courage. Voyagers authoritatively recounts that achievement with both sympathy and wonder."
—David Armitage, Harvard University
“Voyagers will deeply engage and delight new readers of Pacific histories, while scholars will marvel at the author’s elegant, concise chronicle. From Thomas’s own traveler’s tales, to masterful evocations of peoples, climes, Spanish guns, Tongan monarchs, coconut fiber, mythic stories, megafauna, island aristocracies, star compasses, and ancestral village homes, the reader bears witness to the creation of a complex and interconnected Oceanian world, framed by scholarly debates and the everyday lives of epic migration and master navigation.”—Matt Matsuda, Rutgers University
“Written in an engaging style, the author points to indigenous technologies and the reactivation of navigational knowledge which perfectly captures the vital and energetic relationship Pacific peoples enjoy today with the ocean that defines their lives. Voyagers will leave readers with a nuanced understanding of the fundamental connectivity of this remarkable region and the deep affinities amongst the people who call it home. A compelling read.”—Maia Nuku, Curator for Oceanic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art
04/30/2021
The Pacific Ocean covers nearly one-third of the Earth's surface. Within that seemingly endless body of water lie thousands of islands. When European colonizers first came upon these far-flung islands, they were often surprised to find that they were already inhabited. What is more, over the years they discovered that Pacific Islanders and Europeans, though separated by extraordinary distances, shared many cultural traits, not the least of which were an intimate knowledge of celestial navigation and skilled boat building. In this latest work, Thomas (historical anthropology, Cambridge Univ.; director, Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire) provides a sweeping investigation of the archaeology, genetics, and linguistics that scholars have used to understand how Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia were populated and grew into successful societies. Maps of the islands and photographs of the animals native to them help to guide readers and provide additional context. VERDICT It could be said that this work is cursory in handling its biggest themes, but Thomas successfully draws readers into this fascinating, often-overlooked history and offers plenty of resources for those looking to read more.—Brian Renvall, New Mexico State Univ. Carlsbad
Oi, mate. Narrator Mark Robertson’s musical Australian intonation is wildly appropriate for this anthropological history of early migrations in the Pacific islands between the Americas and western Asia. It is the voice of underestimated colonies raised in defense of undervalued peoples. Author Thomas provides evidence of the sophisticated boat building and navigation that took place eons before the first Europeans arrived to conquer, and condescend. The English so underestimated Australia that they stocked the penal colony at Botany Bay with pickpockets and prostitutes. Similarly, European explorers denied the seamanship of the natives of the surrounding islands of Oceania. Robertson’s voice is a versatile instrument that delivers intricate detail where needed and deep feeling when appropriate. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Oi, mate. Narrator Mark Robertson’s musical Australian intonation is wildly appropriate for this anthropological history of early migrations in the Pacific islands between the Americas and western Asia. It is the voice of underestimated colonies raised in defense of undervalued peoples. Author Thomas provides evidence of the sophisticated boat building and navigation that took place eons before the first Europeans arrived to conquer, and condescend. The English so underestimated Australia that they stocked the penal colony at Botany Bay with pickpockets and prostitutes. Similarly, European explorers denied the seamanship of the natives of the surrounding islands of Oceania. Robertson’s voice is a versatile instrument that delivers intricate detail where needed and deep feeling when appropriate. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
2021-03-30
A scholarly survey of the current state of knowledge on the ancient peopling of Oceania.
Blending ethnohistory, archaeology, and linguistics, anthropologist Thomas asks the big questions about “a civilization that has seldom been recognized as such.” Who were its progenitors? Where did they come from? How did they accomplish such daring acts of navigation and exploration? To the first two questions, the author reaches far back into the past to study the dispersal of humans out of Africa and into Southeast Asia, from which protohominids such as Homo floresiensis, dubbed the “hobbit” for their short stature, fanned out into the islands of the South China Sea and what is now Indonesia. From Papua New Guinea, modern humans of the sapiens variety began to sail to nearby islands, usually keeping sight of land. The ancestors of the modern Polynesians, an Indigenous people who settled in what is now Taiwan, did them and the people of the Lapita culture one better. Using a sophisticated knowledge of the stars and the movement of ocean currents, they sailed all the way across the Pacific over generations. Thomas notes that in early encounters with Polynesians, European explorers theorized about their origins while marveling at the accomplishments of these sailors, concluding that “a single ‘great nation’ had dispersed itself across the vast ocean” because of the pronounced cultural continuities among the peoples who settled places as remote as Rapa Nui and New Zealand. Even so, as Thomas astutely observes, there were also profound differences. The Hawaiians developed a near-feudal royal system, for instance, “very different from the comparatively decentralized political forms that emerged in the Marquesas and among New Zealand Maori.” The author’s academic tone makes the book largely of interest to specialists, though his view that the Polynesians have long been “archipelago dwellers” well aware of their distant relatives on other atolls and high islands brings a welcome world-systems approach to Oceania, an understudied region.
Students of exploration and world cultures will find value here.
