Prehistory in the Pacific Islands
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, Dr. Terrell 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.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 recognized 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. Terrell shows that such simple divisions do not fit the known facts and provide little more than a crude, static picture 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, Dr. Terrell 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.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 recognized a simple racial division between Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, Australians, and South-east Asians: peoples allegedly... Read More
Categories: Action & Adventure
