On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact (Hardcover)

by Patrick Vinton Kirch (Author) "Pacific islanders have always promulgated their own indigenous forms of history, encoded in oral traditions passed from generation to generation..." (more)
Key Phrases: landesque capital intensification, dune habitation, makatea islands, New Guinea, Near Oceania, New Caledonia (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From The Washington Post
"Riveting."

Review
"A grand synthesis. Kirch has done Pacific archaeology proud with this book." -- Peter Bellwood, Antiquity

"Excellent." -- Times Literary Supplement

"Excellent." -- Times Literary Supplement

"On the Road of the Winds is an all-round outstanding volume." -- dannyreviews.com

"Riveting." -- Washington Post

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 446 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (May 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520223470
• ISBN-13: 978-0520223479
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,101,171 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #20 in	Books > History > Ancient > Prehistory
  #42 in	Books > Science > Archaeology > Historical

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The People of the Pacific and Modern Exploration, July 4, 2000

By	John Dvorak (Hilo, HI USA) - See all my reviews

At last the Pacific islands are beginning to take their rightful place in the annals of world history. It is this book that takes a major step to establish that historical perspective.

The Pacific islands are dispersed across one-third of the Earth's surface. All the major island groups have been inhabited for the last two thousand years, some for more than six thousand years, yet a detailed prehistory of the region has been lacking until now. This book, written by a noted Pacific anthropologist and archaeologist who has studied the area for more than thirty years, takes a tour of the diverse islands of the Pacific, beginning in the west in Melanesia, then across the many small islands of Micronesia. The tour concludes in the sprawling area covered by the islands of Polynesia, which extend from New Zealand to Hawai'i and eastward as far as Easter Island. Along the way, the author conveys the personal drama that he experienced in uncovering artifacts that reach back into a deep time. At one place he unearthed a small piece of carved white bone. When he turned it over, he saw the two eyes and the subtle nose of a stylized human face. On another island, while enjoying a beach picnic with his host family, spearing octopus and gathering mollusks, the author took a walk along the beach and discovered, a short distance from where they were camped, a distinct rock layer filled with pottery fragments. Those fragments would prove to be a record of people who had lived on the island more than two thousand years earlier. This book is both a personal narrative of modern-day exploration of the Pacific and an account of the rich prehistory of the region.

The book draws generously from the detailed archaeological work conducted by the author and by others in the Pacific region--most of it done since the Second World War--as well as from studies of language and biology that answer such fundamental questions as where did the Pacific islanders come from and when and how did they settle the thousands of islands at least two millenia before any Europeans entered the Pacific? To most people, the Pacific islands are no more than a place of idyllic scenery and the people of the Pacific are the willing subjects of fanciful tales. Now, through the enlightening text of this book and the many striking photographs that it contains, the Pacific islands take on a fuller meaning. And the many cultures of the Pacific take their proper place in the remarkable story of the development of civilization.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Placing Pacific Islanders in world history, June 5, 2004

By	christa kadarusman (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

The pacific islands and people who inhabit them have long been viewed as seperate, isolated and somehow different from the rest of the world's civilizations. Patrick Kirch takes this view into contest in this revolutionizing book on the pre-history of Oceania.

He collects a myraid of information about life in the islands before European contact and strives to present it, not as isolated bits of evidence, but as pieces of a cohesive whole. These pieces can be fit together to give a greater understanding of the culture of Pacific Islanders and help place them as an intricate portion of humanities story, not as a group of people untouched and unrelated to the rest of the world.

Kirch shows that the culture and past of the people who came to inhabite the islands of the pacific are unique. But, he also contends that Pacific Islanders do have an important place in the story of humanities past as well as our future. By writing On the Road of the Winds, Kirch has helped make sure that this story gets told.

5.0 out of 5 stars Impeccable synthesis of Pacific Archeology and Prehistory, March 11, 2009

By	Jose Truda Palazzo Jr. "JTPalazzo" (Brazil) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact (Paperback)

I was looking for a comprtehensive review of Polynesian societies and archeology of that vital but often-neglected part of the world, and by buying this book got much more than what I assumed it would bring. It is extremely well-written and well-researched, and the author - bless him! - makes no concession to the idiotic assumptions of primeval 'goodness' and 'sustainable living' that plague much of recent writing about ancient societies. The Pacific societies were a cancer for island environments throughout the Pacific, and constituted of cruel, warring tribes for the most part; but also they were extremely inventive, superb navigators and readily adapted to unknown environments. All in all, a fascinating account of easily-underestimated peoples who were subdued and replaced after the 16th century by some others much worse than they were, by any count.