Isolating the Global in the Prehistory of the Ryūkyū Islands

Hudson argues that the prehistoric Ryūkyū Islands were marked by a dynamic form of ‘global’ history despite their late adoption of farming, metallurgy, and state structures. Tracing early seafaring from Taiwan and Kyushu, the shell-bracelet trade with Kyushu elites, and contacts with Korea and Han China, the chapter situates the Ryūkyūs within wider Bronze Age processes of globalisation and ‘bronzisation’. At the same time, Hudson highlights patterns of cultural refusal and episodes of extreme isolation, particularly in the southern islands, positioning the Ryūkyūs within global networks while underscoring their distinctive, often resistant, historical trajectory.