The Quest for Origins:
Who First Discovered and Settled the Pacific Islands
By K. R. Howe
Questions and Terms
Introduction:
- What is the Antipodean Question?
Chapter I:
Contexts of Inquiry
- What is knowledge-based cultural learning?
- What is competency-based, experimental learning?
- Why are learning and research never truly neutral or value-free?
- Post-modernism
- Post-colonialism
- What is the concept of “prehistory: and how did it develop?
- What are the ways that the Pacific region is perceived.
Chapter 2:
Some ‘Mainstream Ideas,’ 1760-1860
- What is the mainstream view of the origins of the Polynesians?
- How did the Cook voyages change the way Europeans looked at the Pacific and its peoples?
- What did missionaries add to the theory of how and when the Pacific islands were discovered and settled?
Chapter 3:
Some ‘Mainstream Ideas,’ 1860-1940
- What did comparative science and evolutionism add to the theories of Polynesian origins and settlement?
- William Jones
- Max Müller
- Edward Tregear
- Diffusionism
- Biological determism
- Anthropological functionalism
- Elliott Smith
Chapter 4:
Current Ideas: When and Where?
- What were the three bases for the modification of ideas about Pacific settlement that arose during the 1960s and 1970s?
- Near Oceania
- Remote Oceania
- What type of evidence is associated with the Artefact/Activity Trails?
- What type of evidence is associated with the Biological Trails?
- What type of evidence is associated with the Linguistic Trails?
- How well do the three trails support each others’ conclusions?
Chapter 5:
Current Ideas: How?
- What was Andrew Sharp’s view of ancient Polynesian voyaging?
- What did David Lewis add to our knowledge of ancient Polynesian navigational techniques?
- Describe Polynesian naval technology for high seas voyaging?
- Drift voyage
- Eric de Bisschop
- Thor Heyerdahl
Chapter 6:
Alternative Ideas
- Describe the American theory of Polynesian origins and who was advocating it.
- What are the problems with Thor Heyerdahl’s theory?
- Describe the theory of Spanish connections to the Polynesians?
- What are the various Lost Continent theories of Polynesian origins?
- Terra Australis
- Diluvialism
Chapter 7:
‘New’ Learning or Old Learning?
- What is the ‘new’ diffusionism?
- What is the New Age approach to Polynesian origins?
- What is the ‘new’ geology as it relates to Polynesian origins?
- Barry Fell
- David Hatcher Childress
- James Churchward
- What are the three reasons for confronting the “New” learning?
Chapter 8:
Maori Origins: Creating New Zealand Prehistory
- What are the various theories concerning the origins of the Maori on New Zealand and how are they related to modern New Zealand society?
