Class Assignment
- How do the populations of the three cultural areas of today compare to the 15th century? What accounts for the differences?
- What was the effect of malaria on the different populations of New Guinea? How does malaria factor into the European perceptions of Melanesia?
- How can the outsiders view of a "healthy" island population be supported by a "sinister" interpretation? Did the indigenous therapies contribute to islander well-being?
- How did womens health contrast to mens health in Melanesia? What accounts for these differences?
- What conditions were needed in the Pacific to sustain dense populations? What areas were able to achieve this?
- What factored into the population decline of the Chamorros? What could have been done to easily remedy the situation?
- When looking at depopulation in Polynesia, why did certain areas suffer more than other areas?
- How did the islanders view infections in relation to Europeans? How did the Christian missionaries try to connect death to beliefs?
- How is political context important to our understanding of population decline? What happened in Samoa (Western & American) when influenza arrived in 1918-19?
- Why did the Melanesians suffer less from depopulation than the Polynesians and Micronesians?
Extra Credit: Why did the population of Chuuk experience the least decline while other islands in Micronesia were experiencing extensive depopulation?