Terrell .:. Prehistory in the Pacifc Islands

Terrell, John,
Prehistory in the Pacifc Islands. A study of variation in language, customs, and human biology. Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press, 1986. xiv, 299 Seiten mit Abbildungen, Literaturverzeichnis und Register. Broschiert. Grossoktav. 565 g

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Bestell-Nr.159932

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Terrell | Vorgeschichte | Fruehgeschichte | Ozeanien | Pazifik | Ethnologie | Voelkerkunde

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How, asks John Terrell in this richly-illustrated and original book, can we best account for the remarkable diversity of the Pacific Islanders in biology, language and custom? Traditionally scholars have recognised a simple racial division between Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, Australians and South-east Asians: peoples allegedly differing in physical appearance, temperament, achievements, and perhaps even intelligence. However, Dr Terrell shows that such simple divisions do not fit the known facts and are indeed little better than a crude, static snapshot of human diversity. In a fresh and stimulating study that brings to bear a wide range of data drawn from anthropology, archaeology, geography, biogeography, human ecology and linguistics, he poses a whole series of unfolding and interlinked questions about prehistoric life in the Pacific that effectively unite the human imagination with logical and empirical methods of evaluation.

"… a very useful and enlightening book. Its scope extends far beyond the limits of Polynesian and prehistoric research." Anthropologica

" ... a stimulating and critical assessment of the history of the Pacific slands." New Scientist

"... a welcome new addition to the large and often controversial literature on the origins and prehistory of the peoples of the Pacific" Pacific Studies

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Contents
List of illustrations ix
List of tables xi
Preface Xlii

1 Portraits of the past
2 Peopling the islands
3 Language origins 42
4 By accident or design? 65
5 Life and death 90
6 Isolation 122
7 Change and adaptation 152
8 Living together 186
9 Structure and function 213
10 Science and prehistory 241

References 271
Author Index 289
Subject Index 293

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