page_title: Polynesian culture
section_title: Development in isolation:  (c. 700 to 1595)
hierarchical_section_title: Polynesian culture / Development in isolation:  (c. 700 to 1595)
caption_attribution_description: English: UploadWizard photos (general description of the landmarkds, angle by angle photography of the city, town, rivers, bridges and interesting points) - Museum of the Filipino People [1] located in the Agrifina Circle, Rizal Park, Manila [2] adjacent to the main National Museum building which houses the National Art Gallery, the building formerly housed the Department of Finance[3], it also houses the wreck of the San Diego, ancient artifacts, and zoology divisions including the Ifugao house in the ground floor - part of the List of museums in Metro Manila[4] and part of the National Museum of the Philippines[5].
context_page_description: Polynesian culture is the culture of the indigenous peoples of Polynesia who share common traits in language, customs and society. Sequentially, the development of Polynesian culture can be divided into four different historical eras:
  Exploration and settlement
  Development in isolation
  European encounter and colonization until World War II
  Modern times/After World War II
context_section_description: While the early Polynesians were skilled navigators, most evidence indicates that their primary exploratory motivation was to ease the demands of burgeoning populations. Polynesian mythology does not speak of explorers bent on conquest of new territories, but rather of heroic discoverers of new lands for the benefit of those who voyaged with them.
  While further influxes of immigrants from other Polynesian islands sometimes augmented the growth and development of the local population, for the most part, each island or island group's culture developed in isolation.  There was no widespread inter-island group communication, nor is there much indication during this period of any interest in such communications, at least not for economic reasons. However, almost all these isolated colonies originating from Maritime Southeast Asia still retained the strong influence of their ancestral culture. These are very obvious in social hierarchies, language, and technology which point to a common source with the Dayaks, Tao, Ifugao, and Bajau.
  During the period following complete settlement of Polynesia, each local population developed politically in diverse ways, from fully developed kingdoms in some islands and island groups, to constantly warring tribes or extended family groups between various sections of islands, or in some cases, even within the same valleys on various islands.
  While it is likely that population pressures caused tensions between various groups, the primary force that seems to have driven unity or division among tribes and family groups is geophysical:  on low islands, where communications are essentially unimpeded, there does not appear to have developed any widely observable incidence of conflict.
  Meanwhile, on most high islands, there were, historically, warring groups inhabiting various districts, usually delimited primarily by mountain ridges, with carefully drawn lowland boundaries.  Early on, however, many such islands developed a united social and political structure, usually under the leadership of a strong monarch. An example is the Marquesas Islands, which, unlike other high-island groups in Polynesia, are not surrounded by fringing coral reefs, and consequently have no low coastal plains.  Every valley in the Marquesas is accessible to other valleys only via boat, or by traveling over steep mountain ridges.
caption: "Bird King" (Sarimanok) wood carving from Maranao, Mindanao.
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