D GOAL 4  EXAMINE HUMAN MIGRATION
Word Focus
a modern Hawaiian voyaging canoe built
on ancient designs
Reading
A. Find answers to these questions in the
reading.
1. When did the Lapita migration occur?
__________
2. Where did the Lapita voyages begin?
__________
3. How far into the Pacific did the Lapita
people travel? __________
4. What aspect of Lapita culture came
from the Philippines? __________
5. In which direction do the trade winds
usually blow? __________
6. How does El Niño affect the trade
winds? __________
B. After you read, talk to a partner about
possible answers to these questions.
1. Do you think the Lapita people came
from one place in Asia or from several
different places? Why?
2. Why do you think the Lapita left their
homes and sailed to Pacific Islands?
3. What might archaeologists find in a
cemetery that would help them to
understand an ancient culture?
4. How might the Lapita have sailed so far
and located so many islands without
modern equipment?
10  People and Places
South Pacific
Pioneers of
the Pacific
No one is sure how they did it or even why they did it, but
over 3,000 years ago people sailed into the enormous emptiness
of the Pacific Ocean in simple canoes. Within a few centuries,
these people—now known as the Lapita—had migrated from
the volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the island of Tonga, at
least 2,000 miles to the east. They explored millions of square
miles of the Pacific, and they discovered and then inhabited
dozens of tropical islands never before seen by human eyes:
Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa.
There is much we do not know about the Lapita. Although
their voyages began in the northern islands of Papua New
Guinea, their language came from Taiwan, and their style
of pottery decoration probably had its roots in the northern
Philippines. So who were the Lapita? Did they come from a
single point in Asia or from several different places?
Now, archaeologists Matthew Spriggs and Stuart Bedford
of the Australian National University are working to answer
these questions. A Lapita cemetery on the island of Éfaté in
the Pacific nation of Vanuatu has revealed information about
Lapita customs, and DNA from the ancient bones may help to
canoe
voyage = a long journey on a ship
cemetery = a place where dead people’s
answer questions about the Lapita people. “This represents the
bodies are buried
best opportunity we’ve had yet,” says Spriggs, “to find out who
sediment = soil that has settled to the
the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their
bottom of a body of water
closest descendants are today.”
But even if the archaeologists can answer those questions,
we still won’t know how the Lapita sailed so far east against
Communication
the trade winds, which normally blow from east to west. People move or migrate for many different
Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian reasons. Pull reasons are things that attract
National University, suggests that El Niño, the same warming people to a new place. Push reasons make
of ocean water that affects the Pacific today, may have helped. people want to leave their homes. Fill in the
Climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the chart with several possible reasons for the
Pacific and from lake-bed sediments in the Andes of South Lapita migration.
America indicate a series of unusually frequent El Niños
around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the Factors that pulled Factors that pushed
regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a the Lapita to the the Lapita from
time, these super El Niños might have carried the Lapita sailors Pacific their original homes
on long, unplanned voyages far over the horizon.
However they arrived on the islands, the Lapita came
to stay. Their descendants have inhabited the region for
thousands of years, and why not? They’re living in an island
paradise that many of us only dream about.
Writing
What was life like for the Lapita people? Use
your imagination. Write one page from the
journal of a Lapita explorer.
Goal 4 Examine
human
migration
Imagine moving with your family to
another country. Tell a partner why
you would ever do this. Where would
you go? What would it be like?
Lesson D  11