- 1996 First Australian Edition. 240 pages
- Published by RD Press / Readers Digest (Australia) Pty Ltd.
- Hardcover with dust jacket. Burgandy Boards. Book is a bit larger than A4 size.
- Very good condition. As new. Minor shelf wear. Small owner stamp on title page.
Over 250 illustrations, 40 colour maps. Indexed.
The region covered by this Cultural Atlas is a vast and geographically diverse one. Its landscapes range from the arid, eroded expanses of Australia - once part of the ancient continent of Gondwanaland - to the rugged, forested mountains of New Guinea, the ice-carved fjords and volcanoes of New Zealand and the scattered coral atolls and volcanic peaks of the South Pacific Islands.
Taking migration as one of its themes, the Atlas traces the great movements of people into this region from earliest times. The ancestors of the Aborigines are believed to have arrived in Australia between 140,000 and 60,000 years ago, crossing by means of the land bridges and narrow sea passages that then connected it to Southeast Asia. Theirs may be the oldest uninterrupted culture on Earth, their languages, customs, rituals and beliefs reaching back to remotest times.
Human occupation of Melanesia is known to have begun at least 40,000 years ago, spreading through the islands of New Guinea into Vanatu and the other island groups. About 6,000 years ago a new population, the Austronesians, began to move into Melanesia. They were the ancestors of the Polynesians, seafarers who by about 1000 BC had settled the island triangle of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
Superb navigators, over the next 2,000 years they ventured in their canoes to the furthest corners of the eastern Pacific. Aotearoa (New Zealand) was settled only about 1,000 years ago.
This Atlas describes the complex societies and cultures that evolved in the Pacific in response to its diverse island environments, exploring the difference and similarities between its three major cultural areas, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
In Australia and New Zealand, the establishment of white settler societies uprooted the indigenous populations from their traditional lands and caused whole societies to break up. This Atlas examines the founding myths that shaped Australia and New Zealand's emergent national identities and looks at the great changes that have taken place since 1945, with former colonial ties and values giving way to an offical doctrine of multiculturalism, and to resurgent forms of indigenous culture.
The specially compiled maps and richly illustrated features on such diverse topics as Aboriginal art, body adornment in Papua New Guinea, Gauguin, the Maori meeting house and the forging of the Gallipoli legend make this an invaluable historical introduction to an endlessly fascinating and culturally complex region.
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