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Well, you don't start out making trans-oceanic voyages. That's the culmination of thousands of years of accumulated knowledge. People start off sailing to the nearest island, then to the one visible beyond that, then cruising around on open ocean for a few days fishing, etc.
Also, it's a little misleading to call them "Stone Age". Metalworking arrived in the Philippines around 1000 BC, while the proto-Polynesian Lapita culture was in Fiji and Samoa. But even if they had obtained the technique, there's no real deposits of metal ores on oceanic islands. Just like how they abandoned pottery once they moved beyond Fiji, because there are no sources of clay.
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Midnight, that’s the definition of Stone Age, not misleading at all.
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"Whenever I think about how the Polynesians spread throughout the pacific I am very disturbed/awed that anyone thought they should travel in an outrigger canoe. "
The Vikings crossed the Atlantic in larger ships because they were looking for conquest. Maybe the Polynesians simply understood the nature of their voyage. The Titanic sank in waters that tiny wooden boats had made centuries before. Maybe longer.
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quote:
Originally posted by rainyjim
I’ve always thought the praise heaped on the Hokulea and other canoers be they current or ancient to be curious. It’s like cheering someone for cutting their lawn with scissors instead of using a lawn mower *scratches head*
This statement tells me that in this circumstance you don't understand much about love and pride for ones past culture and curiosity about one's forefathers and ancestors methods.
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I've always wondered how or why the Hawaiians lost the ability to make long distance ocean voyages a few centuries before Western contact. Some accounts of the current revival voyages mention the modern sailors having to learn the navigation techniques from Micronesians, and other don't.
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Ran out of places to go? How many outriggers were sent east of Hawaii before they gave up?
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Well, eastward colonization doesn't seem to have worked out if they tried it. It's the lack of return voyages to the mother islands that I wonder most about. Was there a war? So happy here they didn't feel a need to go anywhere else? Some other reason? It just seems amazing that a truly legendary and culture defining skill like long distance ocean navigation would be lost or forgotten and then have to be revived with outside help several hundred years later.
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How many outriggers were sent east of Hawaii before they gave up?
That’s a good research paper for a grad student.
Just as Neanderthal DNA was only recently discovered in Homo sapiens, perhaps a small percentage of Pacific Islander DNA may someday be detected in the indigenous tribes along the California or Mexican coast?
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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Perhaps they didn't return to the mother islands because such a small percentage survived and they were not willing to risk those odds again.
Does the book say how much evidence we have of their navigation methods or success rates?
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Perhaps they didn’t return because they didn’t know how to get back? Maybe some did return and it was never noted historically and/or just not viewed as significant at the time.
