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Matt K. MATSUDA, Pacific Worlds: A History of Seas, Peoples, and Cultures . Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University press, 2012. xvi + 436 pp. ISBN: 978-0-521-2 (hbk.); 978-0-521-71566-9 (pbk.). ₤40.00; $90.00 (hbk.)/ ₤17.99; $25.99 (hbk.).

Matt K. MATSUDA, Pacific Worlds: A History of Seas, Peoples, and Cultures . Cambridge and New... Pacific Worlds is an impressive enterprise that shows how societies along the shores of the ocean have intertwined historical trajectories. Populations of the American and Asian continents and peoples of islands and archipelagos are shown participating in global dynamics. The common thread linking such disparate lands in terms of complexity and evolution is their dependence on the Pacific, which was linked to the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic world through Panama and the Magellan Strait. The relevance of the book resides in the construction of an original portrait made out of a ‘confluence of narratives’ from different locales at different historical times. Historiography to a large extent is still land-based and written within the limits of nation states. Oceans and seas are considered borders and obstacles rather than economic ways to communicate and gather resources. In the case of the Pacific, the late integration in a worldwide web of communications and economic relations explains a dichotomy between the Rim societies studied by national and regional historians and the world of the archipelagos—Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia—which despite scholars’ efforts, in general are neglected in current historical representations. Given the lack of written sources before the arrival of the Europeans, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient Brill

Matt K. MATSUDA, Pacific Worlds: A History of Seas, Peoples, and Cultures . Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University press, 2012. xvi + 436 pp. ISBN: 978-0-521-2 (hbk.); 978-0-521-71566-9 (pbk.). ₤40.00; $90.00 (hbk.)/ ₤17.99; $25.99 (hbk.).

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Book Reviews
ISSN
0022-4995
eISSN
1568-5209
DOI
10.1163/15685209-12341328
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Pacific Worlds is an impressive enterprise that shows how societies along the shores of the ocean have intertwined historical trajectories. Populations of the American and Asian continents and peoples of islands and archipelagos are shown participating in global dynamics. The common thread linking such disparate lands in terms of complexity and evolution is their dependence on the Pacific, which was linked to the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic world through Panama and the Magellan Strait. The relevance of the book resides in the construction of an original portrait made out of a ‘confluence of narratives’ from different locales at different historical times. Historiography to a large extent is still land-based and written within the limits of nation states. Oceans and seas are considered borders and obstacles rather than economic ways to communicate and gather resources. In the case of the Pacific, the late integration in a worldwide web of communications and economic relations explains a dichotomy between the Rim societies studied by national and regional historians and the world of the archipelagos—Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia—which despite scholars’ efforts, in general are neglected in current historical representations. Given the lack of written sources before the arrival of the Europeans,

Journal

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the OrientBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2013

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