This paper reexamines M. Mead's suggestion that Oceania is peculiarly suitable for natural experiments in cultural evolution. It is concluded that Oceania, especially Polynesia, provides a paradigmatic case for several factors in social evolution. The conditions that make the region suitable for experiments are discussed, and a number of hypotheses are suggested that are apt for examination in this context.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abernethy, Virginia1979Adaptation and Cultural Adjustment. New York, London: Human Sciences Press
2.
Alkire, William A.1965Lamotrek Atoll and Inter-Island Socioeconomic Ties. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
3.
Allen, Michael1984Elders, Chiefs and Big Men. Authority Legitimation and Political Evolution in Melanesia . American Ethnologist11: 20-41.
4.
Argyris, Chris et al. (Eds.) 1985Action Science. San Francisco, London: Jossey-Brass.
5.
Bayliss-Smith, Timothy1977Human Ecology and Island Populations: The Problems of Change. In: Bayliss-Smith, T. & R.G. Feachem (Eds.), Substatence and Survival: Rural Ecology in the Pacific: 11-20, London : Academic Press
6.
Cameiro, Robert Leonhard1970A Theory of the Origins of the State. Science169: 733-738.
7.
Cherry, John F.1981Pattern and Process in the Earliest Colonization of the Mediterranean Islands. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society47: 41-68.
8.
Connor, Edward F. & Daniel Simberloff1986Competition, Scientific Methods and null Models in Ecology. American Scientist74: 155-163.
9.
Cook, Thomas D. & Donald T. Campbell1979Quasi-Experimentation. Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings. Chicago: Rand McNally.
10.
Davidson, Janet R.1978Polynesian Outliers and the Problem of Cultural Replacement in Small populations. In: Green, R.C. & M. Kelly (Eds.), Studies in Oceanic Culture History. (Pacific Anthropological Records 11, 12Honolulu, Hawai: Bernice P. Bishop Museum.
11.
Durham, William1990Evolutionary Cultural Anthropology. Annual Reviews of Anthropology, Vol. 19: 187-210. Palo Alto, California: Annual Review, Inc.
12.
Evans, J.P.1973Islands as Laboratories for the Study of Culture Process. In: C. Renfrew (Ed.), The Explanation of Culture Change. Models in Prehistory: 517-520. London: Duckworth .
13.
Finney, Ben R.1977Voyaging Canoes and the Settlement of Polynesia. Science1961: 277-285.
14.
Fosberg, F.R. (Ed.) 1963Man's Place in the Island Ecosystem. A Symposium. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press.
15.
Friedman, Jonathan1981Notes on Structure and History in Oceania. Folk23: 275-295.
16.
Goodenough, Ward H.1955A Problem in Malayo-Polynesian Social Organization. American Anthropologist57: 71-83.
17.
1957Oceania and the Problem of Controls in the Study of Cultural and Human Evolution. The Journal of the Polynesian Society66: 146-155.
18.
Green, Roger C.1967The Immediate Origins of Polynesians. In: G. Highland et al. (Eds.), Polynesian Culture History. Essays in Honor of Kenneth P. Emory: 215-240. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press.
19.
Hanson, F. Allan1973Political Change in Tahiti and Samoa: An Exercise in Experimental Anthropology. Ethnology12: 1-13.
20.
Irwin, Geoffrey R.1989Against, Across, and Down the Wind: A Case for the Systematic Colonization of the remote Pacific. The Journal of the Polynesian Society98: 167-206.
21.
1990Human Colonisation and Change in the Remote Pacific. Current Anthropology11: 90-94. Its, R.F.
22.
1975Ethnocultural Development of External and Internal Isolates . In: S. Polgar (Ed.), Population, Ecology, and Social Evolution: 227-234, The Hague, Paris: Mouton.
23.
Kirch, Patrick Vinton1980Polynesian Prehistory: Cultural Adaptation in Island Ecosystems. American Scientist68: 39-48.
24.
Koch, Gerd1965Der Gilbert-Archipel als ein Sonderfall humaner Oekologie. Naturwissenschaft und Medizin2: 27-46.
25.
Kottak, Conrad Phillip1980The Past in the Present. History, Ecology, and Cultural Variation in Highland Madagaskar. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
26.
Laughlin, William T.1975Aleuts: Ecosystem, Holocene History and Siberian Origin. Science189: 507-515.
27.
Levinson, Michael, R.Gerard Ward & John R. Webb1973The Settlement of Polynesia: A Computer Simulation. Minneapolis, Minnesota : University of Minnesota Press
28.
Mead, Margaret1957Introduction to Polynesia as a Laboratory for the Development of Models in the Study of Cultural Evolution. The Journal of the Polynesian Society66: 145.
29.
Pawley, Andrew1981Melanesian Diversity and Polynesian Homogeneity. A Unified Explanation for Language . In: Hollyman & A. Pawley (Eds.), Studies in Pacific Languages and Cultures: in Honour of Bruce Biggs. Auckland: Linguistic Society of New Zealand.
30.
Rouse, Irving1986Migrations in Prehistory: Inferring Population Movement from Cultural remains. New Haven: Yale University Press.
31.
Sahlins, Marshall1958Social Stratification in Polynesia. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
32.
Servive, Elman Rogers1957Differentiation by Adaptation in Polynesian Societies. The Journal of the Polynesian Society66: 291-300.
33.
Terrell, John E.1981Linguistics and the Peopling of the Pacific Islands. The Journal of the Polynesian Society90: 225-258.
34.
1986Prehistory of the Pacific Islands: A Study in Language, Customs and Human Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
35.
Thomas, Nicholas1989a The Force of Ethnology. Origins and Significance of the Melanesia/Polynesia Division . Current Anthropology30: 27-41.
36.
1989b On the Melanesia/Polynesia Division: Reply to Comments . Current Anthropology30: 211-213.
37.
Vayda, Andrew P.1959Polynesian Cultural Distribution in new Perspective. American Anthropologist61: 817-828.
38.
Vayda, Andrew P. (Ed.) 1968Peoples and Cultures of the Pacific. An Anthropological Reader. Garden City, N.Y.: The Natural History Press.
