List of Maps / List of Figures / List of Tables / Preface / INTRODUCTION / Defining Oceania / * Linguistic, Human Biological, and Cultural Variation in Oceania / * About This Book / * A Note on Dates and Time / 1 * DISCOVERING THE OCEANIC PAST / Enlightenment Voyagers / * Outposts of Empire: Missionaries, Colonists, and Academic Beginnings / * "The Problem of Polynesian Origins" / * Te Rangi Hiroa and the "Micronesian Route" to Polynesia / * The Discovery of Time Depth and Culture Change / * The Search for Polynesian Sequences / * Broadening Research Horizons / * Moving beyond Polynesia: Archaeology in Melanesia and New Guinea / * Francophone Archaeology in the Pacific / * Not an Ivory Tower: Public Archaeology in the Pacific / * Recent Advances in Pacific Archaeology / 2 * THE PACIFIC ISLANDS AS A HUMAN ENVIRONMENT / Origins and Development of the Pacific Islands / * Types of Islands / * Climatic Factors in the Pacific / * Island Life and Biogeography / * The Microbiotic World and Human Populations / * Island Ecosystems / * Humans and Island Socioecosystems / 3 * SAHUL AND THE PREHISTORY OF "OLD" MELANESIA / The Pleistocene Geography of Sahul and Near Oceania / * Initial Human Arrival in Sahul and Near Oceania / * Pleistocene Voyaging in Near Oceania / * Near Oceania during the Pleistocene / * Cultural Innovations of the Early Holocene / * A Paradox and a Hypothesis / 4 * LAPITA AND THE AUSTRONESIAN EXPANSION / The Human Landscape of Near Oceania at 2000-1300 b.c. / * The Advent of Lapita / * Lapita Origins: The Austronesian Expansion / * Lapita across Time and Space / * Lapita in Linguistic and Biological Perspective / * The Lapita Ceramic Series / * Lapita Sites and Settlements / * Lapita Subsistence Economies / * Exchange between Lapita Communities / * Ancestral Oceanic Societies / 5 * THE PREHISTORY OF "NEW" MELANESIA / Trading Societies of Papua and the Massim / * The Late Holocene in Highland New Guinea / * The Bismarck Archipelago after Lapita / * The Solomon Islands / * Vanuatu / * The Polynesian Outliers in Melanesia / * Ethnogenesis in La Grande Terre / * Fiji: An Archipelago "in Between" / * Larger Themes in Melanesian Prehistory / 6 * MICRONESIA: IN THE "SEA OF LITTLE LANDS" / Colonization and Early Settlement in Micronesia / * Cultural Sequences in Micronesia / * Tuvalu and the Polynesian Outliers in Micronesia / * Atoll Adaptations / * Later Prehistory in Western Micronesia / * Development of Sociopolitical Complexity in the Caroline High Islands / 7 * POLYNESIA: ORIGINS AND DISPERSALS / Polynesian Origins / * Polynesia as a Phyletic Unit / * Ancestral Polynesia / * Cultural Sequences in Western Polynesia / * The Settlement of Eastern Polynesia / * Early Settlement Sites in Eastern Polynesia / * Polynesian Voyaging / * Summary / 8 * POLYNESIAN CHIEFDOMS AND ARCHAIC STATES / Polynesian Chiefdoms: Ethnographic Background and Anthropological Significance / * The "Traditional" Societies / * Sociopolitical Transformation in the Open Societies / * The Emergence of Stratified Chiefdoms / * From Chiefdom to Archaic State: Tonga and Hawai''i / * Polynesian History: A Concluding Note / 9 * BIG STRUCTURES AND LARGE PROCESSES IN OCEANIC PREHISTORY / Voyaging and the Human "Conquest" of the Pacific / * History Written in the Present: Correlations between Language, Biology, and Culture / * The Role of Demographic Transitions in Oceanic History / * Oceanic Populations on the Eve of European Contact / * The Political Economy of Dynamic Landscapes / * Intensification and Specialization in Island Economies / * Transformations of Status and Power / * On Comparison: A Closing Comment / Notes / References / Index /.