ANTH 351 - People, Cultures, and the Environment of Polynesia

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 200
Domain (Anchored): CSI
Domain (Reaching Out): NQR

This course provides an introduction to the environments and cultures of Oceania and the Polynesian Islands, from the earliest peopling to the post-colonial era. We will consider culture histories throughout the region, starting with the earliest Pleistocene settlement of Near Oceania, voyaging and settlement of Remote Oceania, the development of Ancestral Polynesian society, and the eventual settlement of the remote Eastern Polynesian triangle. We will focus on how all Eastern Polynesian societies descended from a common ancestral culture, but how through time, with isolation and adaptation to differing island environments, each Eastern Polynesian society developed their own unique localized identity. Utilizing comparative analyses, we will compare and contrast Eastern Polynesian cultures with respect to degree of socio-political complexity, intensification of production, settlement patterns, demographic change, ritual functions of the polity, material symbols of rank, and methods of political control. Throughout the course we will consider colonial encounters and the consequences for indigenous Polynesian populations, and subsequent adaptations of these societies through time, due to colonial contexts, globalization, and climate change. Weekly lectures and readings will touch upon human induced landscape change, adaptations to marginal island environments, the effects of climate change in the region, as well as modern conservation efforts and their articulation with indigenous land rights and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK).
Cross-listed with: APIA 351