In Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, why did the different areas of Austronesia develop so differently?

andrewhays0287

Austronesia is a term for the area including the islands off the Pacific coast of China
and Southeast Asia: Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Pacific Islands. Six thousand
years ago, this area exploded in population as peoples from China and Southeast Asia migrated
from the mainland to the islands. This migration can be traced with both archaeological and
linguistic evidence.

Despite their similar origins, not all Austronesian
cultures developed the same way. Those who left mainland Asia via Taiwan came to overrun the
indigenous cultures in the Philippines and Indonesia, but in about 1500 BCE, they reached New
Guinea and came to very different results. These results persist to this day. Physically, the
people of New Guinea are distinct from those of Indonesia, and their languages aren't clearly
related to other Austronesian languages.

According to Diamond's theory, the
indigenous people of New Guinea had developed a more sophisticated level of agriculture than the
Indonesians,...

]]>