Linguistic complexity

----- Original Message -----

From: John Croft

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2000 7:46 AM

Subject: [tied] Re: IE & linguistic complexity

MArk, this used to be part of conventional wisdom but it has more
recently been thrown out of the water by latest Australian findings.

Firstly, Australia has not been that difficult to reach from
Sundaland.  The summer monsoons all blow from South East Asia to
Northern Australia, while the winter monsoons allow a safe reverse
trip (blowing out of Australia back to Sundaland).  This has enabled
groups of seafaring Austronesians to regularly travel to northern
Australia in search of beche la mer (sea cucumber), turtles, dugong,
trochus and conch shells and other delicacies of great delight in
China and South East Asia, and not locally available.  The age of
these trade routes must not be underestimated.  They have been open
at least since 3,500 BP if not much earlier.  The dingo travelled
down with these contacts and there is much evidence of to-and-fro
movements.  Aboriginal Australians have been living in Macassar for
hundreds of years, taken as servants and settling in Indonesia as a
result.

There is also new evidence that Eastern Australia was reached by
Polynesians, who seem to have an impact on some cultural features in
North Eastern Australia.  Certainly the Maori knew of the presence of
a big land to the west.  Trade routes also ciss-crossed from the Cape
York Peninsula, across the Torres Strait to Papua New Guinea.  There,
however, the PNG bow and arrow, was recognised as no match for the
Abroiginal hunking or killing "spear" and womera whose distance and
accuracy compared with the early firearms of the Dutch and
Portugese.  Indeed it has now deen confirmed that the Wik people of
Cape York drove out a Dutch settlement there, and it would seem that
the people north of Derby, Western Australia may have repulsed a
Portugese settlement from Timor pror to 1606.

Regards

John