Oceania, 800-1800CE
A Millennium of Interactions in a Sea of Islands

From 800-1800CE, Oceania was a setting for epic voyages, political intrigue, and interactions between Pacific Islanders and outsiders.

James L. Flexner (Author)

9781108823289, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 December 2021

75 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.5 cm, 0.14 kg

Over a span of 1000 years beginning around 800CE, the people of the Pacific Islands undertook a remarkable period of voyaging, political evolution, and cross-cultural interactions. Polynesian navigators encountered previously uninhabited lands, as well as already inhabited islands and the coast of the Americas. Island societies saw epic sagas of political competition and intrigue, documented through oral traditions and the monuments and artefacts recovered through archaeology. European entry into the region added a new episode of interaction with strange people from over the horizon. These histories provide an important cross-cultural perspective for the concept of 'the Middle Ages' from outside of the usual Old World focus.

1. Oceania's Island World: Geographic and Conceptual Background
2. Timeless Backwater, or Written out of History?
3. Encountering New Environments: The Ends of Polynesia
4. Navigating Inhabited Lands: The Americas and the Polynesian Outliers
5. Political Epics in Island Societies
6. Oceania Encounters Europe
7. From a Millennium of Contacts to Islander Futures.

Subject Areas: Medieval history [HBLC1], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD], General & world history [HBG]