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Course: World History Project - Origins to the Present > Unit 4
Lesson 3: Systems Restructure | 4.2- READ: The Caliphate
- READ: Networks and Exchange in the Islamic World
- BEFORE YOU WATCH: The Emergence of Islam
- WATCH: The Emergence of Islam
- READ: Khanzada Begum (Graphic Biography)
- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa
- WATCH: Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa
- READ: States and Empires of West Africa
- READ: Between the Han and the Tang: A Period of Disunion in China
- READ: The Spread of Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Bantu Migration
- READ: Oceania, c. 1200-1450 CE
- READ: Kupe the Navigator (Graphic Biography)
- READ: Christendom
- READ: Long-Distance Trade in the Americas
- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Rebuilding the Silk Road
- WATCH: Rebuilding the Silk Road
- READ: The Silk Road
- Systems Restructure
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READ: Oceania, c. 1200-1450 CE
By 1200 CE, Oceania had become a web of far-flung communities. Despite long distances and great diversity, they used sophisticated maritime technology to stay connected.
The article below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here.
First read: preview and skimming for gist
Before you read the article, you should skim it first. The skim should be very quick and give you the gist (general idea) of what the article is about. You should be looking at the title, author, headings, pictures, and opening sentences of paragraphs for the gist.
Second read: key ideas and understanding content
Now that you’ve skimmed the article, you should preview the questions you will be answering. These questions will help you get a better understanding of the concepts and arguments that are presented in the article. Keep in mind that when you read the article, it is a good idea to write down any vocab you see in the article that is unfamiliar to you.
By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- How do historians believe that humans ended up settling the islands of Oceania? What debate surrounds this question?
- What were the most important innovations that allowed migrations across Oceania?
- In general, how did communities in this region organize themselves?
- How does the article describe gender relations in societies in Oceania?
- What evidence do the authors use to argue that Oceania was not separated from the rest of the world?
Third read: evaluating and corroborating
Finally, here are some questions that will help you focus on why this article matters and how it connects to other content you’ve studied.
At the end of the third read, you should be able to respond to these questions:
- The production and distribution frame narrative asserts that humans have grown more sophisticated in the way we make and use the things we need over time. Does the evidence presented in this article support, extend, or challenge this narrative? How?
Now that you know what to look for, it’s time to read! Remember to return to these questions once you’ve finished reading.
Oceania, c. 1200–1450 CE
By Trevor Getz and Bridgette Byrd O’Connor
By 1200 CE, the population of Oceania had become a web of far-flung communities. Despite long distances and great diversity, they used sophisticated maritime technology to stay connected.
Acknowledging Pacific history
The Pacific Ocean is a really big place. In this article, we’re only talking about one part of the Pacific. Oceania lies
within the vastness of the world’s greatest ocean, but it‘s a huge region in its own right! We’re not going to deal
much with the peoples on the Pacific Coast of East Asia or Siberia. Nor will we discuss the indigenous societies
that settled the Pacific coast of North and South America. We’ll focus on Oceania—which includes island groups
known as Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and some parts of Australasia, including New Zealand, New Guinea,
and the east coast of Australia. Much of this region was populated by humans as many as 40,000 years ago! You
may have seen a representation of this process in Disney’s Moana. The film depicts the historical movement of
Polynesian peoples through the song “Know the Way.” It also shows Moana herself navigating by the stars via
technologies Pacific peoples pioneered over thousands of years of seafaring.
But here’s a weird fact. Oceania, and the peoples of the Pacific, were often left out of world history textbooks (at
least those written in the US) until about 1999. That was when two historians, both teaching at the University of
Hawaii, wrote Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. They were, after all, living in Hawaii, the
long-standing Pacific society established by the Polynesian people. They knew that Hawaiians historically were part
of a Pacific community that played a significant role in the human past.
So, in their textbook, they made sure to acknowledge that history. It became a bestseller, changing the way this
region has been studied ever since.
Human geography of the Pacific, c. 1200
Scholars also continue to debate whether this first wave of migrations from southeast Asia was intentional or
unintentional. Oceania was settled by humans over a long period beginning 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, though
scientists still argue about these numbers. Scholars also continue to debate whether this first wave of migrations
was intentional or unintentional. New studies have shown that unintentional crossings—journeys where ships went
off course or had no intended destination in the first place but still managed to settle somewhere—were unlikely.
Therefore, it’s possible that early humans intentionally island-hopped from southeast Asia to the coast of New
Guinea using early boat-building and sailing technologies. Once there, people developed sophisticated agricultural
techniques and built densely-populated communities.
Some of these people then also crossed the straits that separate New Guinea from Australia. Those who settled
in Australia encountered a difficult new set of environments, including widespread arid (dry) zones. Few plant or
animal species in Australia could be domesticated, but the continent did have some large animals that could be
hunted. That’s how most of the communities of Australia became expert foragers (hunters and gatherers).
Meanwhile, the societies of Southeast Asia and Taiwan, and the early settlers of the south Pacific, were together
developing a whole range of technological innovations that slowly— as in, over thousands of years—allowed them
to travel deeper and deeper into the Pacific Ocean. The most important of these innovations allowed them to read
wind and ocean currents to situate themselves, and to construct vast, sail-driven canoes that could go very long
distances. With these technologies, these peoples gradually populated the outermost islands of Oceania.
Eventually, these communities formed three large
groups. Each was made up of peoples who were
geographically spread out, but still related to each
other by culture and language. These three groups
each covered areas of the planet larger than most
continents. The first was the Melanesian group,
which made up the densely-populated region of New
Guinea and also a large number of pretty closelypacked islands from New Guinea to Fiji. North of
Melanesia were the Micronesian group, who were
more spread out, based on islands including the
Mariana and Majōl (Marshall) chains. Finally, to the
east, the long-voyaging Polynesian people gradually
populated very far-flung islands. At the geographic
center of Polynesian society were the islands of Kūki
‘Āirani (Cook Islands) and Tōtaiete mā (Society
Islands). Larger communities were formed in the
Hawaiian chain and in Aotearoa (New Zealand), where the Maori people spoke (and still speak) a Polynesian
language. The furthest extent of Polynesian society was Rapa Nui (Easter Island), settled about 700 CE.
Organizing communities and states
From 1200 to 1450 CE, Oceania was inhabited by a series of interconnected, culturally linked communities. The vast
distances between many Polynesian islands meant that numerous societies were somewhat isolated, but there is
evidence of ongoing trade between all of them. Other regions, like those in Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and
New Guinea, built up large communities that needed political and social organizations to manage a large population.
To make decisions, people in most communities in this region belonged to family groups, where a lot of the
decisions were made. But in a number of societies, families were organized into bigger units such as clans
and states. Australian Aboriginal peoples developed an elaborate system of kinship, which helped to determine
marriage and family relations but also to establish societal rules for behavior. For the most part, Aboriginal society
was egalitarian in terms of leadership potential, but only if you were male. There were few established political
hierarchies such as chiefs or kings. Hierarchies seemed to be mostly contained to religious or spiritual matters,
or those that related to the Dreaming. The Dreaming is the spiritual philosophy of the Aboriginal peoples, and
encompasses their history of the universe, the Earth, the present, and the future.
The Maori society of Aotearoa (New Zealand)
migrated from neighboring islands. By the mid- to
late-thirteenth century CE, they began dividing the
land amongst several states, also called iwis. These
were composed of a number of whanau, meaning
families. Each state had several important chiefs,
called rangatira and ariki, who came together in a
collective decision-making group. Each iwi had its
own power, but they all worked together. Still, as
everywhere in the world, there was conflict both
within and between the different Maori states.
The Hawaiian islands were also settled by Polynesian
migrants, with the first arrivals often dated to about
300 CE. Continued migrations from the Tahitian
islands took place from the ninth century CE.
Hawaiian society resembled that of Aotearoa in
many ways. Organized into a series of small, rival
kingdoms, the extended family, the village, and the clan were usually the most important political institutions. Both
Hawaiian and Maori societies lacked written languages. Still, each had rich oral histories that were similar in nature
given that both were settled by Polynesians migrating from Tahiti. Their oral tradition told of the legendary founding
of the islands. These histories were passed down through many generations. Polynesians also brought with them
farming knowledge as well as their shipbuilding and navigation techniques.
Gender relations also varied widely among these communities. Women in Polynesian societies may have been
closer to full equality with men than any other part of the world. They could certainly be very independent, and
women whose families held royal or chiefly positions could often inherit authority. This was less true in other
societies of the Pacific. But the most important aspect of gender roles in this region was the complementary
relationship of men and women. In general, people in this part of the world believed that men and women each
had their own spheres of influence and their own roles, and that both were needed for a family or community to
be successful. This meant that men and women both exercised power, but in different ways, and they weren’t
really supposed to step outside of their roles. Also, as in many parts of the world, some Pacific societies had (and
continue to have) their own fundamental conceptions of gender. For example, Samoan society saw more than two
genders. The third gender, known as fa’afafine, are biologically male but fulfill roles that are historically seen as
being more feminine, such as caring for elders and children.
Ideas about culture and politics were broadly shared, despite the diversity of these many societies, because the
impressive technology developed by the people of Oceania allowed them to continue to trade with each other
across vast distances. An archaeological study set in the Cook Islands, for example, uncovered trade goods such as stone tools that came from islands as far as Samoa, 1,000 miles away, and the Marquesas, 1,500 miles away.
Trading connections like these helped communities on various islands to keep up to date with new technology.
They could also disperse rare goods like obsidian, a useful type of stone just as desired in the Oceanic sphere as it
was in the Americas.
A world apart?
Generally, Oceania is treated as an area that was entirely separated from other parts of the world before the
modern era. Not true. After all, many of the people who settled Pacific regions remained in contact with the
societies of South and Southeast Asia from which many of them originated. But there is also intriguing evidence of
links to further regions.
For example, the language of the people of the large island of Madagascar, off the coast of East Africa, is about half
African in origin, and half Southeast Asian with strong relationships to Polynesian languages. This may not be proof
of sustained interaction, however, but rather a common origin in Southeast Asia.
In another example, DNA evidence from the Marquesas and other islands suggests that migrants from South
America may have joined Polynesians to create mixed communities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries CE. This
evidence, which emerged only very recently, is forcing us to re-imagine a lot of what we thought we knew about the
history of this region.
Instead of a vast area of ocean dotted with isolated islands, should we now think of the Pacific—even as early as
1200—as a great zone of interaction and exchange? It’s probably still too early for a final analysis, but it’s clear we
can no longer rest on our older narratives that dismissed, or worse, ignored, this global zone.
Author bios
Trevor Getz is Professor of African History at San Francisco State University. He has written eleven books on African and
world history, including Abina and the Important Men. He is also the author of A Primer for Teaching African History, which
explores questions about how we should teach the history of Africa in high school and university classes.
Bridgette Byrd O’Connor holds a DPhil in history from the University of Oxford and has taught the Big History Project and World
History Project courses and AP US government and politics for the past 10 years at the high school level. She currently writes
articles and activities for WHP and BHP. In addition, she has been a freelance writer and editor for the Crash Course World
History and US History curricula.
Want to join the conversation?
- it makes me happy to know this stuff is being covered :D(9 votes)
- I am actually born and raised in Hawaii and most of the facts the are giving in hear speak truth.(3 votes)
- i have ancestry in fiji (if you met me you wouldnt be able to tell tho)(3 votes)