The Austronesians: an agricultural revolution that failed

presented by Dr Roger Blench (Cambridge UK)

1-2pm Monday 1st Sep 2014

Oorala Lecture Theatre, UNE


Although the Austronesian expansion was one of the most rapid and widespread in history, a convincing analysis of the forces that underlie it remains elusive.

The most persuasive narrative, promoted energetically by Peter Bellwood, has highlighted the role of agriculture in driving demographic growth and linguistic diversification.

The model proposes that it was the Austronesian adoption of an agricultural package, including rice, pigs and chickens, which allowed them to colonise Island SE Asia at the expense of resident hunter-gatherers. However, archaeology has signally failed to confirm this model.

Early sites show very similar dates across a wide geographical area, suggesting that the first phase of post-Taiwan Austronesian expansion took place extremely rapidly. Pigs, dogs and chickens have been shown to arrive in ISEA via other routes and rice is conspicuously absent in most places.

This paper argues that the model has effectively inverted the actual situation, and that the Austronesian expansion was the consequence of a failed agricultural revolution.