Prehistory: Pacific Seafarers and Maritime Cultures

The reading about seafarers was very interesting to me and kept me hooked, no pun intended.  Boating and fishing goes back a long way and it was engaging to read and learn about different societies in the Pacific and around the world whom colonized coastlines and explored the ocean.  To learn more about the ocean and its artifacts is to know more about the world and land that surrounds that water.  Oceanography was a main concern and focus point in this reading.  I learned about the sea change of sea levels and how many of the ancient coastlines have been "deeply submerged and far offshore." (Erlandson, Ph.D,, 9) Having read that sentence made me give thought about all the land that no longer exists that either had or had never been explored.  I think about the size of the ocean and water around us and what lays beneath it, will man ever be able to discover what's underneath it all? Maybe, and if so it will take many years from now to be able to explore it all.  There are still so many species of animals and plants that we don't know about.  This reading has made me excited to think about what else could be out there.

"...inset shows mussel, abalone, and sea urchin shells from a shell midden on San Miguel Island." (Erlandson Ph.D, 10)
The study of fish and its migration is revelant to the study of seafarers and can lead us to believe that people from the past may have known their location or found new areas of water and species through the migration of fish.

"These longer oceanic voyages may have posed technological and logistical challenges that could not be overcome until more sophisticated boats were developed, along with the agricultural products needed to survive on more remote and biologically depauperate islands." (Erlandson Ph.D, 12)
This sentence showed me that trial and error has always been an important step in civilization since before our time.  Boats have been around since people had to build them from flat pieces of wood, then finally realize the structure that would best float and get them around in water.  In this specific reading the seafarers had faces difficulties because their boats were still not designed correctly and reliable enough to get them to where they needed to be and explore.

Lastly, in the section called Polynesians in the Pacific, not only was the above revelant to me but also reading about the expansion of languages throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans, the colonization of more ilsand groups in Melanesia, and the transporting of Polynesian chicken to America in return of American sweet potatoes (bartering), were entertaining for me to read about.