Root Cultures in the Americas and Oceania

Themes

• unraveling mysteries
• -centrism
• migrations

The Americas

• Stories
  • encounters:
  • "civilized" versus "primitive"
  • Popol Vuh
• Mayan Archaeology
  • Maize god; aesthetic values [Alt Mayan maize god]
  • Mayan Ball Courts; ball court acoustics
  • Mayan Sacrifice
  • Mayan Calendar and Mayan Astronomy
  • Maya Archaeology (Palenque, Uxmal, Labna, Sayil)
  • Mayan Glyphs; Mayan Codices
• Environment:
• Development
  • migration: 40,000-10,000 B.C.E.
  • adaptation to environment 8000-7,000 B.C.E.
  • Mesoamerica
    • agriculture 8000-7000 B.C.E.,
    • Olmec 1200 - 100 B.C.E.
    • Maya 300-1100 C.E.
  • S. America: Andean societies
    • agriculture 2500-2000 B.C.E.
    • Mochica society 300-700 C.E.
• Cultures
  • Olmec:
    • Olmec ruler
  • Maya:
    • Central American arts: music
    • pyramids
  • religion

Oceania

• Stories
  • chant; Hawaiian voyaging proverbs; stories
  • European theories: Abraham Fornander; S. Percy Smith; Thor Heyerdahl (1947)
• Navigation experiments:
  • canoe building
  • wayfinding
  • Hokule`a; 1976 voyage map
  • 1985-1986 voyages
  • 1999-2000 voyage to Rapa Nui
• Archaeology and language
• Environment and Development
  • migration to Australia and New Guinea 120,000-60,000 B.C.E.
  • Austronesian migrants circa 3000 B.C.E.
  • Austronesian migrations to Pacific islands 2000 B.C.E. - 700 C.E.
  • Marquesas to Hawaii (1st cen B.C.E., Society Islands (400 C.E.), New Zealand (700 C.E.): map of Polynesia
• Cultures
  • migration: seafaring `ohana; plants
  • identity:
  • political and social:

Conclusions

• assumptions versus discoveries
• how we know what we know
• Popol Vuh and maize; ohana and wayfinding
• migrations and cultural identity

Explore!

• Global Consortium: Olmec
• Global Consortium: Maya
• Global Consortium: Moche
• Polynesian Voyaging Society

• Return to Syllabus
• kjolly@hawaii.edu 5/8/00