Oceanic Migration

Oceanic Migration studies the prehistoric peopling of the Pacific. It uses science and mathematics to expand the research base of Pacific prehistory and casts new light on this final human expansion. It explores the fundamental roles of oceanography and of global climate change in determining the paths, sequence, timing and range of Spice Island-based maritime migrations ranging across a quarter of the globe. The book is of interest to Pacific prehistorians, oceanographers and American anthropologists concerned with the diffusionist debate. For oceanographers it presents the new idea of the role of the West Pacific Warm Pool and of three of its four major currents in determining the evolution of voyaging in two oceans. For diffusionists it provides new chronological and technological contexts in which the issue of diffusionism needs to be reconsidered. For prehistorians it creates a paradigmatic shift by establishing a new time depth and mechanism for Polynesian exploration, offers a new view of voyaging and exploration strategies and of economic imperatives and adds a new dimension to the debate on Polynesian origins.

Charles Pearce holds the Thomas Elder Chair of Mathematics, University of Adelaide, Australia. He has been awarded the ANZIAM Medal and the Potts Medal for outstanding contributions to applied and industrial mathematics and to operations research. He is foundation Editor-in-Chief of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ANZIAM Journal) and a member of the editorial boards of a number of international mathematical journals. He has over 300 research publications in the fields of optimization, convex analysis and the probabilistic modelling of physical and biological processes.

Frances Pearce, a writer, plant hybridizer and former lecturer from the University of Adelaide, has interests in the areas of prehistory, oceanography, genetics and climate history, particularly in the use of science to illuminate prehistory.