Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Maori and Polynesian: their origin, history and culture

New Migrations from the North began in Neolithic Times; — but these were only Masculine

New Migrations from the North began in Neolithic Times;
but these were only Masculine

(16) At last, when oceanic navigation began to extend its range beyond the narrower seas, and great canoes began to be hollowed out of gigantic trees, the solitude was broken. Down along the line of the coral islets that buoyed the piers of the submerged bridge neolithic man ventured; canoe followed canoe from island to island; but only the masculine heart had courage to break into those spaces of the unknown, and canoe after canoe failed to return with its men to their old homes. Like the sailors of Ulysses, they preferred to settle in some lotus-islet of the tropics. Had the land been continuous enough, or the islands large enough, to breed a strong united, warlike race, these immigrants would have been driven off or absorbed with ease; but the islets were small, and could support but a scanty and feeble population, and with their palaeolithic weapons the men would be no match for these neolithic sailors. The new-comers would be masters and aristocrats, enslaving the men and taking the women over with their households. The masculine arts would be reformed according to the ideas of the new-comers; but the women would be left to follow their old ways in the household.

(17) For thousands of years must this process of masculine infiltration into Polynesia have gone on in neolithic times till, all the islands being full, the new viking strain would venture away to the south and the east, some into New Zealand, some into Rapa the small, some into Easter Island, and some doubtless as far as the American coasts. We have to explain the extensive stratification that is manifest in the culture. We can see that it is not development: there are so many irreconcilable elements and stages in the strata.