Polynesian Voyaging Canoe
Need to fulfill your Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Issues (HAP) or Writing Intensive (WI) requirements? Take Anthropology 350 or Anthropology 447 online.
Anthropology 350 – Pacific Islands Cultures (HAP, WI offered Summer Session II 2016)
When Magellan sailed across the Pacific Ocean in search of a shorter route to the East Indies, he unknowingly bypassed peoples belonging to thousands of cultures settled among the Pacific Islands. Once charted, the Pacific’s natural bounty, its strategic location, and the intrigue of Islanders and their lifestyles assured a wide variety of foreign interests in the area for centuries to come. This course explores both the fantasy and reality of the cultures of the Pacific Islands.
Anthropology 447 – Polynesia Cultures (WI offered fall 2016)
While Polynesia accounts for only a tiny portion of the world’s total population, the region should be of special interest to residents of Hawaiʻi. The Islands demonstrate the importance of the environment in shaping human ways of life. Their pre-histories are fascinating examples of cultural continuity and change over time. This course covers the region’s diverse, chiefly cultures as important case studies of colonialism, development, indigenous political movements, and the process of nation building.