Studying the History of Spice Island Migration Through Cultural Diffusion

Abstract

One way of studying ancient migration paths and migration sequence is by considering the diffusion and evolution of technologies (material culture) and of cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices (non-material culture). The study of both can be difficult because of the cumulative effects of later migrations overlaying and so distorting or destroying earlier cultural practices. Yet, as this chapter demonstrates, even though throughout the Pacific earlier cultures were often overlaid by the cultures of later migrants, vestiges of earlier cultures or fragments of earlier traditions often survive to cast light on earlier migration history and to reflect the different origins and culture of earlier migrants. The persistence of a Lapita matrilineal social structure in New Zealand, with land ownership by matrilineal descent, is a good example. The preservation in Hawaii of place names derived from the Spice Islands and Spice Island region similarly harks back to a Spice Island origin for the earliest settlers in Hawaii.