Overview

The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the earth's surface and encompasses many thousands of islands, the home to equally numerous human societies and cultures. Among these indigenous Oceanic cultures are the intrepid Polynesian double-hulled canoe navigators, the atoll dwellers of Micronesia, the statue carvers of remote Easter Island, and the famed traders of Melanesia. Recent archaelogical excavations, combined with allied research in historical linguistics, biological anthropology, and comparative ethnography, have begun to reveal information about the long-term history of these Pacific Island societies and cultures. This text synthesizes the grand sweep of human history in the Pacific Islands, beginning with the movement of early people out from Asia more than 40,000 years ago, and tracing the development of myriad indigenous cultures up to the time of European contact in the 16th to 18th centuries.

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9780520234611

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Reviews

"""Riveting."" - Washington Post ""Excellent."" - Times Literary Supplement ""A grand synthesis. Kirch has done Pacific archaeology proud with this book."" - Peter Bellwood, Antiquity ""Kirch writes for specialists (he merrily switches, for example, between BC/AD and calibrated and uncalibrated radiocarbon BP dates), but for such a broad range of specialists that the informed lay reader won't miss much - and unwanted detail about excavations and artifacts is easily glanced over. With an effective selection of halftones, figures, and maps complementing clear and incisive prose, in elegant and attractive physical packaging, On the Road of the Winds is an all-round outstanding volume."" - dannyreviews.com"

Riveting. - Washington Post Excellent. - Times Literary Supplement A grand synthesis. Kirch has done Pacific archaeology proud with this book. - Peter Bellwood, Antiquity Kirch writes for specialists (he merrily switches, for example, between BC/AD and calibrated and uncalibrated radiocarbon BP dates), but for such a broad range of specialists that the informed lay reader won't miss much - and unwanted detail about excavations and artifacts is easily glanced over. With an effective selection of halftones, figures, and maps complementing clear and incisive prose, in elegant and attractive physical packaging, On the Road of the Winds is an all-round outstanding volume. - dannyreviews.com

Author Information

Patrick Vinton Kirch is Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of seven books including The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms and Anahulu: The Anthropology of History in the Kingdom of Hawaii (with Marshall Sahlins, 1992).

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