The Quest for Origins: Who First Discovered and Settled the Pacific Islands?

by K.R. Howe

Did they come from space, from Egypt, from the Americas? From other ancient civilizations? These are some of today's most fanciful claims about the first settlers of the islands of the Pacific. But none of them correctly answer the Where did the Polynesians come from?

This book is a thoughtful and devastating critique of such "new" learning, and a careful and accessible survey of modern archaeological, anthropological, genetic, and linguistics findings about the origins of Pacific Islanders. Professor Howe also examines the two-hundred-year-old history of Western ideas about Polynesian origins in the context of ever-changing fads and intellectual fashions.

Genres: History, Anthropology

235 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Benedict Reid]

A quick summary of why so many people believe falsehoods about where polynesians came from. Interesting, but a wee bit academic.

[Stuart]

An interesting short read. Confirmed what I thought. The alternative ideas are indeed interesting. A nice summary of some existing (not necessarily correct) views.

[Chris]

A good overview of current scholarship on the origins and spread of people through the Pacific. Also combined with the debunking of much of the crap currently floating around and pretending to be scholarship.