Wangga: The Linguistic and Typological Evidence for the Sources of the Outrigger Canoes of Torres Strait and Cape York Peninsula

How an isolate distribution of the Austronesian outrigger canoe complex came into the possession of Pama‐Nyungan speakers of Cape York Peninsula and Torres Strait has long been obscured by the diverse typology and lexicons of these canoes. Here I pinpoint links between the typological variation and the distribution and ages of associated Austronesian loan words. These links implicate several Austronesian contact sequences, one in Torres Strait and another in southeast Cape York Peninsula, and point to speakers of Papuan Tip Oceanic languages as the main source. Some of these loan words reflect archaic forms of Papuan Tip words and are thus indicative of early contact dates. I suggest that the introduction of these canoes most likely involved past episodes of sustained trade engagement and/or small‐scale colonization by speakers of Austronesian languages.     

Palaeohabitat of first settlement sites 1500–1000 B.C. in Guam,Mariana islands,western Pacific

Based on computer-aided models and geoarchaeological excavations, palaeohabitat renderings can account for ancient site locations and contexts much different from today in terms of sea level, coastal dynamics, slope erosion, nearshore ecosystems, native forests, and other factors. A case study illustrates this research in Guam of the Mariana Islands of the western Pacific, with specific reference to the 1500–1000 B.C. time interval. This time interval includes the oldest known archaeological sites in the Mariana Islands, directly relevant for understanding the context of ancient Austronesian population dispersals in the larger western Pacific region. The results also help toward larger understanding of coastal adaptations in dynamic settings.     

The prehistory of Island Southeast Asia: A multidisciplinary review of recent research

Island Southeast Asia extends across both the equatorial and the intermediate tropical zones of world climate, and it also spans a region of complex and geologically unstable land and sea relationships. The Sundaland region in the west and the isolated islands of Wallacea in the east both witnessed complex trajectories of human movement and evolution during the Pleistocene. The record of human evolution in Sundaland is still affected by uncertainties over phylogeny, dates, and archaeological correlations. Initial human settlement across Huxley's Line into Wallacea cannot at present be proven to be older than the Late Pleistocene. Stone tool industries dating to within the past 40,000 years are described, including new discoveries which indicate a surprising level of technological virtuosity. Human populations of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene are also considered in terms of skeletal and genetic data, particularly with respect to the rather controversial antecedents of the present, mainly Mongoloid, population. The article terminates its coverage at about 2000 B.C., within the period characterized by the expansion of speakers of Austronesian languages and by the expansion of agriculture into a porous and often-resistant network of hunter-gatherer societies. The archaeological and ethnographic records of the region bear witness to a continuous but dwindling existence of hunting and gathering right through to the present day. While the results of archaeology occupy a central position in the reconstruction of Southeast Asian prehistory, a proper understanding can be achieved only if a multidisciplinary standpoint is adopted.     

A Research Note on Austronesian Relationship Terminologies With and Without Relative Age Categories

This research note examines the formal patterning of Austronesian relationship terminologies with or without relative age categories. Specifically, the article considers (1) the formal contrast between these patterns, (2) the key variant forms of these patterns, and (3) the distribution of these patterns and their associated variants throughout the Austronesian-speaking world. It offers a succinct examination of a key dimension of Austronesian terminologies and points to the position of eastern Indonesia as an innovative transition zone in the development of Austronesian terminologies.     

The prehistory of the Austronesian-speaking peoples: A view from language

Prior to the European colonial expansions of the past several centuries the Austronesian (AN) language family had the greatest geographical extent of any on earth, including in its territory areas that had never previously been settled. Although predominantly distributed in a tropical or subtropical environment, AN-speaking peoples exhibit a wide range of physical types, material cultures, and types of social and political organization. This paper addresses ways in which linguistic comparison can contribute toward answering such questions as the following: Where was the AN homeland? What was the nature of early AN material culture, social and political organization? What can we infer about early AN pathology? How did early AN speakers view the spirit world? It concludes with a discussion of culture loss, many examples of which can be inferred both from the Pacific and from insular Southeast Asia.