Atholl Anderson

"Thousands of years ago migrants from South China began the journey that took their descendants through the Pacific to the southernmost islands of Polynesia. Atholl Anderson's ... synthesis of research and tradition charts this epic journey of New Zealand's first human inhabitants. Taken from ... Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History this Text weaves together evidence from numerous sources: oral traditions, archaeology, genetics, linguistics, ethnography, historical observations, paleoecology, climate change and more"--Publisher information.

Māori Origins 3000BC - AD1450

The First Migration

Judith Binney

Aroha Harris

Tangata Whenua: A History presents a rich narrative of the Māori past from ancient origins in South China to the twenty-first century, in a handy paperback format. The authoritative text is drawn directly from the award-winning Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History; the full text of the big hardback is available in a reader-friendly edition, ideal for students and for bedtime reading, and a perfect gift for those whose budgets do not stretch to the illustrated edition. Maps and diagrams complement the text, along with a full set of references and the important statistical appendix. Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History was published to widespread acclaim in late 2014. This magnificent history has featured regularly in the award lists: winner of the 2015 Royal Society Science Book Prize, shortlisted for the international Ernest Scott Prize, winner of the Te Kōrero o Mua (History) Award at the Ngā Kupu ora Aotearoa Māori Book Awards, and Gold in the Pride in Print Awards. The importance of this history to New Zealand cannot be overstated. Māori leaders emphatically endorsed the book, as have reviewers and younger commentators. They speak of the way Tangata Whenua draws together different strands of knowledge – from historical research through archaeology and science to oral tradition. They remark on the contribution this book makes to evolving knowledge, describing it as ‘a canvas to paint the future on’. And many comment on the contribution it makes to the growth of understanding between the people of this country.

A History

Tangata Whenua

Thousands of years ago migrants from South China began the journey that took their descendants through the Pacific to the southernmost islands of Polynesia. Atholl Anderson’s ground-breaking synthesis of research and tradition charts this epic journey of New Zealand’s first human inhabitants. Taken from the multi-award-winning Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History this Text weaves together evidence from numerous sources: oral traditions, archaeology, genetics, linguistics, ethnography, historical observations, palaeoecology, climate change and more. The result is to people the ancient past: to offer readers a sense of the lives of Māori ancestors as they voyaged through centuries toward the South Pacific.

Māori Origins 3000BC – AD1450

Geoffrey Richard Clark

I enjoyed reading this volume. It is rare to see such a comprehensive report on hard data published these days, especially one so insightfully contextualised by the editors' introductory and concluding chapters. These scholars and the others involved in the work really know their stuff, and it shows. The editors connect the preoccupations of Pacific archaeologists with those of their colleagues working in other island regions and on "big questions" of colonisation, migration, interaction and patterns and processes of cultural change in hitherto-uninhabited environments. These sorts of outward-looking, big-picture contextual studies are invaluable, but all too often are missing from locally- and regionally-oriented writing, very much to its detriment. In sum, the work strongly advances our understanding of the early prehistory of Fiji through its well-integrated combination of original research and the reinterpretation of existing knowledge in the context of wider theoretical and historical concerns. In doing so The Early Prehistory of Fiji makes a truly substantial contribution to Pacific and archaeological scholarship. Professor Ian Lilley, The University of Queensland

The Early Prehistory of Fiji

Helene Martinsson-Wallin

Paul Wallin

Excavations and Analyses

The Prehistory of Kiritimati (Christmas) Island, Republic of Kiribati

Te Ao Tawhito : The Old World contemplates Maori origins in the blue continent, the vast Pacific Ocean across which the earliest ancestors travelled to settle these southernmost Pacific islands. Here they organised into hapu and iwi, adapting tropical ways to life in a huge but temperate land, building communities and developing cultures. Early European visitors observed Maori society and changed it too, as more and more Europeans arrived, then stayed. Drawn from the landmark publication, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History (2014), Te Ao Tawhito tells the great origin narrative of Maori history from 3000 BC-AD 1830.

The Old World 3000 BC- AD 1830

Te Ao Tawhito

Te Maire Tau

Arthur Hugh Carrington

This remarkable account presents oral tradition alongside archaeological evidence and narrative history. The editors both have extensive experience in researching the past of southern New Zealand, particularly Ngai Tahu. Te Maire Tau lectures in history at Canterbury University; Atholl Anderson is Professor of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.

Kāi Tahu

Douglas J. Kennett

This volume brings the remote and little known island of Rapa firmly to the forefront of Polynesian archaeology. Thirteen authors contribute 14 chapters, covering not only the basic archaeology of coastal sites, rock shelters, and fortifications, but faunal remains, agricultural development, and marine exploitation. The results, presented within a chronology framed by Bayesian analysis, are set against a background of ethnohistory and ethnology. Highly unusual in tropical Polynesian archaeology are descriptions of artefacts of perishable material. Taking the High Ground provides important insights into how a group of Polynesian settlers adapted to an isolated and in some ways restrictive environment.

The Archaeology of Rapa, a Fortified Island in Remote East Polynesia

Taking the High Ground

Prodigious Birds brings together the entire field of moa-related research, some 150 years of enquiry. The moa was a large flightless bird, hunted into extinction by the Maori tribes of New Zealand before the arrival of Europeans. Atholl Anderson brings an historical perspective to the development of moa research and its formative debates, analytical methods and results, reviewing evidence from palaeontology, biology, archaeology, ethnography and history.

Atholl Anderson

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