Similarity and Diversity in the Prehistoric Colonization of Islands and Coasts by Food-Producing Communities

Abstract

The colonization of the Pacific, Caribbean, and Mediterranean by food-producing communities in prehistory has rarely been considered in an explicitly comparative perspective. This article suggests that, despite evident human and environmental diversity, these insular colonization episodes have certain formal and processual similarities, especially in terms of the rate and dynamics of the colonization episodes. Specifically, in all three cases, colonizing populations seem to have rapidly crossed very great distances to find new niches, only for these events to be followed by generations of colonizing inactivity. It is proposed that such patterning may be a feature which is somehow common to episodes of coastal and insular colonization by food-producing, pre-state communities. Reasons as to why this might be—including ecological and demographic factors—are considered. This study indicates the utility of a comparative approach, and contributes to the ongoing debate centered on the extent to which insularity conditions human behavior.

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