Pre-Historic Island Hopping ‘Hobbits’ in the South Pacific
Although New Zealand and the Philippines are separated by more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km), the stories of how people first migrated to them, and how those stories were treated by scholars, show clearly that, in the words of the poet Bob Dylan, "the times, they are a changin'." A new day has dawned in the field of human origins.
When Peter Jackson set up shop in New Zealand to spend 10 years filming his double trilogy-set of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, he created a new tourism industry and reminded people all over the world of the beauty New Zealanders see every day. The first trilogy, released to the public in 2001, took the film industry by storm. But by 2012, when the second set began to fill theaters all over again, historians were prepared with a new set of books that explored New Zealand's mysterious background as well as its impressive beauty.
Three of the major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean (Public Domain)
