Did they come from space, from Egypt, from the Americas? From other ancient civilizations? These are some of today's most fanciful claims about the first settlers of the islands of the Pacific. But none of them correctly answer the question: Where did the Polynesians come from? This book is a thoughtful and devastating critique of such "new" learning, and a careful and accessible survey of modern archaeological, anthropological, genetic, and linguistics findings about the origins of Pacific Islanders. Professor Howe also examines the two-hundred-year-old history of Western ideas about Polynesian origins in the context of ever-changing fads and intellectual fashions.

Since Europeans first set foot in New Zealand they have speculated about where the M&āori people came from, how they made their way to New Zealand and how they lived when they arrived here. Theories have abounded: some of them have hardened into accepted truth. The result has been an accumulation of Pakeha myths about M&āori origins. The process of this mythmaking is the subject of Sorrenson's book: 'It is not an attempt to find an original or even a Pacific homeland for the M&āori. I leave that task to the many others who are happily engaged on it.' But as a study of the development of ideas, this book is both fascinating and salutary.

During the summers of 1792-94, George Vancouver and the crew of the British naval ships Discovery and Chatham mapped the northwest coast of North America from Baja California to Alaska. Taking the art and technique of distant voyaging to a new level, Vancouver eliminated the possibility of a northwest passage and his remarkably precise surveys completed the outline of the Pacific. But to map an area is to appropriate it � to begin to bring it under control � and Vancouver's charts of the northwest coast were part of a process of economic exploitation and cultural disruption. The chapters in this illuminating book are written from a variety of perspectives and provide new insights on many aspects of Vancouver's voyages, from the technology employed to the complex political and power relationships among European explorers and the Native leadership.

"... An official collection of Māori historical traditions"--BIM.

Vols. for 1892-1941 contain the transactions and proceedings of the society.