Page 52 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

monotonous. There were some determining factors of changes: firstly, the availability of
environmental resources that encourages the development of local cultures by making
use of resources available to create the diversities of cultures and life-styles.
Secondly, the ability to respond to challenges concerning the connections across
islands by developing marine technology made room for interactions across populations
and cultures. The development of marine technology was probably initiated by a try-out
cruise using a wooden beam or a simple raft. A success of he first cruise had motivated
further development and then later, a simple sailing boat was made. The remains of sailing
gears of this Era are not easy to find. Nevertheless, it is presumably that the sailing boats
were made of wooden beams, knotted barks or reeds, perforated timber, or rafts made
of mangrove or bamboo (Birdsell, 1977). The latest should be noted well because of their
availability in tropical environments. Mangrove and bamboo are durable and easily afloat.
Besides that, Mangrove and bamboo are not easily decaying and they are easily knotted.
Population increases themselves can be considered as a third cause. Climatic
amelioration, diversification of animals and plants, and improvements in the cognitive
capacities of EMH can be seen as conditions that supported the demographic growth.
The increase population brought with it greater needs and along with efforts to survive,
drove a diversification of the behaviors and the tools for making better use of the available
natural resources. Population increases drove cultural development by responding to the
challenge to fulfill the increased needs for survival.

The Australomelanesid People Inhabiting the Indonesian Archipelago and
Melanesia
Changes in the map of the early inhabitants of the region around the end of Ice Age
created the question of who continued to inhabit the Indonesian Archipelago. The short
answer was that it was the descendants of the previous EMH inhabitants. Indeed, the
population increase would have been behind the dispersals to new corners of the available
land. However, the archipelago had not been totally submerged. The transformation
of Sunda Land and Sahul Land into an archipelago did not discount the possibility that
those migrating people would have been able to cross to other islands and beyond. If the
EMH did have that capability, then it was they who were the ancestors of the resulting
populations. But this in itself does not rule out the possibility of newcomers from outside
the archipelago (Birdsell, 1977). Through earlier evolutionary processes, the inhabitants
in the early Holocene showed physical characteristics that were typically found in the

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