Prehistory in the Pacific Islands

Prehistory in the Pacific Islands
ISBN-10
0521369568
ISBN-13
9780521369565
Category
History
Pages
299
Language
English
Published
1988-05-27
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Author
John Terrell

Description

How, asks John Terrell in this richly illustrated and original book, can we best account for the remarkable diversity of the Pacific Islanders in biology, language, and custom? Traditionally scholars have recognized a simple racial division between Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, Australians, and South-east Asians: peoples allegedly differing in physical appearance, temperament, achievements, and perhaps even intelligence. Terrell shows that such simple divisions do not fit the known facts and provide little more than a crude, static picture of human diversity.

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