Melanesian Tribes vs. Polynesian Chiefdoms: Recent Archaeological Assessment of a Classic Model of Sociopolitical Types in Oceania

Asian Perspectives 41(2). The late prehistoric period is crucial to the study of anthropology, as the Island Melanesia has provided the world with the "Big Man" archtype of society. It has led to an ethnographic oversimplification of Melanesia as having only Big Man societies, whereas Polynesia having chiefly societies. Chiefs in Melanesia have often been interpreted as a cultural borrowing under Polynesian influence.