BARK CLOTH IN POLYNESIA 



The so-called "Polynesian triangle"extends from the Hawaiian 

 Islands on the north to Easter Island on the east, to New Zealand 

 on the south, to the Ellice Islands on the west (with a jog around 

 the Fiji Islands). 



The definition of the triangle is more or less arbitrary, because 

 there are islands outside of its periphery that are considered 

 "Polynesian" in material culture or in other respects (Goldman 

 1970). The islands of the South Pacific are of four types: continen- 

 tal islands, volcanic islands, coral islands (atolls), and raised coral 

 islands (lacking reefs). Their variation in quality of soil and plant 

 life influenced the pattern of South Pacific settlement by early 

 voyagers. Some of these voyages are believed to have reached 

 Polynesia between 1000 B.C. ( or earlier) and 1000 A.D., accord- 

 ing to evidence from tradition, archaeology and linguistics 

 (Goldman 1970). By a slow rate of diffusion, peoples from areas 

 west of Polynesia, probably from South-East Asia or East Africa, 

 taking advantage of winds and currents, may have journeyed by 

 way of Indonesia (Barrau 1963; Goldman 1970; Kooijman, 1972; 

 Dodge 1976). By raft, canoe, double canoe — all equipped with 

 matting sails and using primitive navigational devices — these 

 voyagers emigrated from societies characterized by chieftanship, 

 craft specialization, and rank and status orientation (Degener 

 1975; Goldman 1970). 



They embarked their families and carried stores of food and 

 water (some as water-coconuts) and they wrapped plants from 

 their food-plots in damp earth or bark to preserve them for arrival 

 at some landfall. Among these plants, in all probability, they 

 valued especially the moraceous paper mulberry (Broussonetia 

 papyri/era) and breadfruit (Artocarpus alt His), both indigenous 

 to the lands from which they had come. These plants had fur- 

 nished them with material for cloth and a basic food. Another 

 moraceous tree, Ficus spp., they found growing wild on many 

 islands in Polynesia, and they made bark cloth of it as well 

 (Degener 1975). 



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