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The paper discusses different models to explain the changes observed at the end of the Lapita culture in Melanesia. One model suggests that the changes may be due to the migration of better-adapted populations, leading to major social consequences. Another model proposes that trading systems in the Lapita and post-Lapita periods experienced periods of intensity, instability, and eventual breakdown, with overall growth in complexity but a ceiling to institutional growth. Friedman's model combines trade system contraction, specialization, and local adaptation with the sociopolitical consequences of changes in a prestige-goods system, suggesting a more hierarchical social system and different possibilities of social transformation. The breakdown of the prestige-goods system can lead to a theocratic feudalism, characterized by endogamy, warfare, and the combination of religious and political status. The paper also discusses the absorption model, which suggests that Lapita initially represented an intrusive group that established itself on the edges of already occupied islands, establishing peaceful relations with the existing groups over time.