Long‐distance exchange and Island colonization: The Lapita case

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Abstract
The Lapita cultural complex (3600–2500 BP), spanning the area from the Bismarck Archipelago to Samoa, is now widely regarded as representing the initial dispersal of Austronesian language speakers in the Pacific. Substantial archaeological evidence indicates that Lapita communities were linked in a complex network of long‐distance exchange. In addition to obsidian, chert, metavolcanic adzes, ceramics and other exotic artefacts, it is argued here that Lapita exchange also included prestige‐good shell valuables, similar to exchange valuables documented ethnographically throughout Melanesia. It is also proposed that the extremely rapid dispersal and colonization of the southwestern Pacific by Lapita peoples was closely related to this system of long‐distance exchange.