Christina ThompsonSea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia

Book delivered fairly quickly. I knew it was only recently published, but I was surprised the book was shipped from New Zealand.I really enjoyed reading the information in this book. I lived for four years in Hawaii, spanning the time of the Hokulea voyage to Tahiti, in 1976, and was also amazed at the innovative construction of old canoes in the Bishop museum. I've had an interest in the migrations, canoes, and ancient navigation methods of the Pacific ever since then, and have read many books on those topics over the years.Sea People, I think, is a nice condensed collection of the information I've read in many other books. But it also contains some of the latest theories of where, when, how and why people found their way across the Pacific islands. And of the impact from contact with people from Europe and other information I had not read about before.Names and times of first finding of different islands by different explorers from Europe: Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, British, American, Russian, etc. Environmental and cultural changes caused by contact is written about.The Europeans brought diseases that people had no immunity to to the Caribbean islands. The native peoples there had traded with the people of Central and South America for centuries before the Europeans arrived, they brought the European diseases with them to Central and South America during their trade journeys. The result being that in many areas 80% of the native people died before the Europeans ever arrived there. The farther result was ancient and large cities were overgrown by the jungles, and the very existence of those cities became myths. Much of their ancient culture died with them. Westerners did not believe the rumored large cities ever existed. After-all the people they found living there when the Europeans finally arrived were living a stone age existence. And the nature of the land didn't make it possible. Therefore, they reasoned, they must be an inferior people.That attitude lead the Europeans to believe the native people couldn't have created great cities that were larger and more densely populated than London, Madrid or Paris. But they had. Those cities have only in recent years been found by LIDAR searches, as recounted in books such as: "Jungleland", by Christopher Stewart. Or "Lost City of Z", by David Grann.The same prejudice was held about the Pacific Islanders. That they were a stone age people, and culture. They couldn't have had the ingenuity, technology, or abilities greater than their own ocean exploration methods. But they did.Captain Cook was the first to recognize the same culture existed from New Zealand, to Easter Island, to Hawaii. A single culture that covered more of the earth than any other culture known about at the time. Somewhat similar canoe-form watercraft, and navigation methods also existed in Melanesia, and Micronesia.Cook was greatly aided by a Tahitian priest/ navigator named Tupaia, who showed him the way many islands and helped him receive a friendly reception on many islands in the western Pacific. Tupaia drew Cook a now famous map. Only there was some confusion about the location of the islands. Because they had different concepts about navigation. Western maps were a bird's eye view looking down. The Polynesians had never thought about locations in that way. Tupaia's view was a horizontal view. Looking outward from the deck of a voyaging canoe. More like driving directions than a western map on a grid.How they did it has been a mystery for hundreds of years. Methods to determine from where, how, when, and why have changed with available archeology techniques over the years. DNA being one method now added to language, material culture, religious beliefs. One interesting twist is, that naturally native peoples object to the bones of their ancestors being exhumed and studied.But no one objects to the bones of the Pacific rat being studied. The Pacific rat will not interbreed with rats brought to the islands on European ships. Tracking the changes in the rat DNA (or other animals taken to colonize new islands, such as hogs, and chickens) can reveal if only one voyage was made (an accident due being blown away by a storm) to an island group or if multiple voyages were made over hundreds of years. Evidence of repeated voyages, done on purpose. Another part of the mystery is why were sweat potatoes found cultivated on so many islands that had not yet had contact with Europeans. I think the Polynesians must have found and visited S. America. An easy find if they could find Easter Island and Hawaii. Migrations are also trying to be documented by tracing the DNA of sweat potatoes. But that method is complicated by other varieties of sweat potatoes brought to the islands by the Spanish from their base ports in S. America.Some European ships came looking for riches, other expeditions' goals were only for exploration to find new lands and people. Certainly the whaling industry had a huge impact. I knew that whaling was big business in the 19th century. I had no idea that in the 1840s / 50s, at any one time 600 ~ 700 whaling ships were in the Pacific.It seems many Polynesians today blame Captain Cook or other Europeans for ending their trans-Pacific voyaging. But I think the evidence indicates that no voyages by the Polynesians had been made between Hawaii, Tahiti or New Zealand for 200 ~ 500 years before Capt Cook. But if you're living in Hawaii, why risk your life on a long ocean voyage? You may only need retain the ability to navigate to the other Hawaiian islands. Chiefs wanting to consolidate power may also have prohibited voyages to other Polynesian islands. To prevent an enemy recruiting assistance from distant islands.Fortunately the old ancient Pacific methods of navigation via star compass, the interaction of ocean ground swells, wind directions prevailing in different seasons, or Etak, have been preserved, still continuously practiced actually, in the more remote islands of the western Pacific. Places or islands that did not attract much attention from the rest of the world. Too small to support a large population, not much to be exploited to increase wealth.The why of their motivation to find new islands may have been due to war, prestige, just curiosity or other reasons.I think two westerners sum up the greatest motivation for long ocean voyages. Joshua Slocum, stated, "To a young man contemplating a voyage. I say go." And French aviator and author, Antoine de Saint Exupery, wrote, "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood, and don't assign them task, and work. But rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."And that's what the Polynesians did, and, I think, Christian Thompson has presented an interesting collection of information, the latest theories, about the mystery of who they were, where they were from, when, why, and how they spread across the Pacific.

I recollect as well today as if it were yesterday, the beautiful, glossy black hair of the few Polynesian girls who were enrolled in my high school during the 1960s. I remember my daydream adventures touring the islands and of reading, with fascination, of Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki. Then, too, I recollect my three trips to Hawaii – one by air, two by sea. My third trip was for three months, serving aboard USS Sperry, a sub tender. I was miserable and distraught during that time – married for only a year and my first born delivered while I was in Hawaii – too upset to enjoy my sojourn, my two trips off base were to a used bookstore in Pearl Harbor and one hike into the hills adjacent to the naval base. So, what about this book?Well, that little prelude may help you understand my profound disappointment that I failed to take full advantage of my three months or so in America’s 50th state. After reading the Kindle, and listening to the Audible editions of “Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia,” I realize one of my very few profound regrets. Had I then the insight provided by this exploration of the peopling of so vast a territory as that solely inhabited by the Polynesians, I would have visited every square mile of the Sandwich Islands comprising Hawaii.EXCERPT 1: ‘…This is what is meant by the Polynesian Triangle, an area of ten million square miles in the middle of the Pacific Ocean defined by the three points of Hawai‘i, New Zealand, and Easter Island. All the islands inside this triangle were originally settled by a clearly identifiable group of voyagers: a people with a single language and set of customs, a particular body of myths, a distinctive arsenal of tools and skills, and a “portmanteau biota” of plants and animals that they carried with them wherever they went. They had no knowledge of writing or metal tools—no maps or compasses—and yet they succeeded in colonizing the largest ocean on the planet, occupying every habitable rock between New Guinea and the Galápagos, and establishing what was, until the modern era, the largest single culture area in the world…’Thompson, Christina. Sea People (p. 9). Harper. Kindle Edition.Mull that point over for a bit. Allow it to ruminate. Then, consider the ramifications: A single ethnic group, the Polynesians, developed a culture and language that survived, intact, throughout the islands from, and including, New Zealand, Hawaii, and the islands just off the coast of South America and extending westward to Madagascar. With only minor permutations, words used at one extreme could be spoken and understood at the other.I also now understand why Heyerdahl’s theory of an American origin for Polynesians was not even remotely possible. As the author suggests, though, I am still puzzled by the presence of the sweet potato on many of those islands. If not transported by people of the America’s then how did it get to the islands?To fully understand the above enigma and why it might matter, and to fully grasp the significance posed by all of the above statements, you may find “Sea People” an enormously valuable aid. Possibly, you will be spurred, as was I, into purchasing a copy of James Michener’s debut novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “Tales of the South Pacific,” and his two later books, “Hawaii” and “Return To Paradise.” For sure, I will keep each of these four books together, either on my bookshelf or in my Kindle library.BLUSH FACTOR: Only the mildest of curses makes even a rare appearance in this nonfiction work. I believe this is the ideal book to share with anyone you wish, regardless of age, sex, religious persuasion or ethnicity. Only good can come from the experience.WRITING & EDITING: The early chapters were a little slow, but each page was necessary to keep the overall story in context. Editing is superb.EXCERPT:I have chosen only to include a single paragraph used to support the statement in the second paragraph of this review.BOTTOM LINE:I want to rate it five stars, but, honestly, due to a slow start and due to some redundancies, I just can’t. While it is certainly better than four stars, it just is not quite five stars. Perhaps what is missing is photographs? And a little deeper discussion of the peopling of Madagascar?Four stars out of five.

Very enjoyable read providing everything I needed to fill in what I needed to better understand the Polynesian story. Recommended reading.

I purchased and read this book before I took a trip to Oahu this past summer. This book was meticulously researched. In addition the author and her family traveled to the destinations mentioned in the book. All of this preparation undoubtedly helped the author in writing this book.For the reader as well as the voyagers long ago, this book is about the process as much as it is about the destination. The author has organized this book in a chronological sequence with regard to the theories about how the Polynesians got out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, I learned so much about sailing and “wayfaring.”For me the most enjoyable part of the book was the way in which it was written. Christina Thompson is a brilliant writer whose prose it was my pleasure to read. I would read anything written by this author!

The Pacific Ocean is immense; viewing Earth from space it accounts for a good share of the blue in the Blue Planet. Perhaps it isn't a huge surprise that its islands were the last places on Earth to be settled by self-sustaining human societies. The Island systems of Polynesia, from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island were (and still very much are) inhabited by people with common languages and closely related cultures, spread out over massive distances. But where did they come from, and when did they settle their current homelands?This isn't something that appears to have bothered the Polynesian peoples themselves before Europeans turned up in the vast Ocean. Nevertheless it has become a subject of academic and popular fascination in the past couple of centuries or so. Christina Thompson's fascinating account tells the various tales which emerged from this process- and considers the tellers too.The first section is a relatively conventional account of how the Polynesian islands came to swim into European consciousness from the late 16th century onwards, with the decisive push coming in the late 18th via figures like Captain Cook- assisted in key ways by the somewhat enigmatic Tahitian navigator/priest/chief Tupaia, whose chart of the ocean continues to intrigue scholars. She enters rather less well known waters in her account of subsequent attempts to make sense of the Polynesian past. Nineteenth century ethnographers collected origin stories and studied languages- though through Romantic lenses which caused serious distortions at times (for many years there was a broad consensus that Polynesian languages were related to Indo-European ones). Early twentieth century archaeologists and anthropologists dug ancient sites and measured skulls; their later heirs used Carbon-14 dating and DNA analysis to arrive at more refined conclusions. Meanwhile, in a parallel story, arguments over how Polynesian seafarers had navigated the oceans (spurred by Thor Heyerdahl's somewhat cranky theories and by academic claims that they had barely navigated at all) finally led to what amounted to the reinvention of traditional techniques by Hawaiian enthusiasts.It's a complex tale, with its fair share of larger than life characters (one might include the massive fourteen foot tall Moa bird of New Zealand in that category.....). Unlike anthropology in some colonial contexts, Polynesian-descended individuals have been involved in creating the story (the fascinating figure of Sir Peter Buck/Te Rangi Hiroa bulks large- a man with his own prejudices, it emerges). Perhaps the most intriguing thought is that the latest analysis of C-14 dating suggests very late settlement dates for the Polynesian islands- very much in line with chronologies suggested a hundred years ago on the basis of analysis of Polynesian oral accounts which were comprehensively discredited as sources by almost all serious academics a generation ago. Thompson is clearly a bit uneasy about this latest twist- the late datings don't allow much time for the development of Maori society and culture in New Zealand, for instance- and one wouldn't be surprised to find that in a decade or so the revisions will be revised (either because some site with a very secure early date turns up or because someone will re-analyse the analysis of the C-14 and conclude that there was a systemic bias against old dates in the methodology). Polynesian history, like all history, is fluid and rarely definitive. Thompson tells the story in a generous spirit, free from finger wagging and hand wringing and willing to see the best even in what now appear to be hopelessly misguided past scholarly endeavours. This is a book well worth reading both for its specific content and as a meditation on how history- especially the history of non-literate cultures- gets created and written.

I was enthralled learning about Captain Cook in my school days, and later on by reading about Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki expedition - but this book is a further revelation.Minutely researched, it covers the origins, learnings, languages and skills of a people whose lands are divided yet connected by vast tracts of open ocean - which in fact make up a more meaningful part of their world.The author manages to create a highly readable and fascinating story, from both a personal and an historic perspective, and I was transported around the world by her lyrical writing style.This was an unplanned read for me having seen it in a bookshop new titles display and I am thrilled to have read and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Good read. Kind of a summary of things I'd read before for me tbh but it was good to read it again with context and I will never tire of reading about Cook and Banks or Polynesian navigation techniques.Personally I would have liked a chapter on modern Polynesian history: how did French Polynesia become french? How did Hawaii become a US state? (forcibly). Why were there still traditional navigators to be found in Melanesia in the 80s but none in Polynesia?All in all a good read though.

This is a readable - indeed unputdownable - attempt to explain the history of the greatest sailors and navigators in human history. I can’t express the excitement I felt as I found it and then, turning page after page, immersed myself in this highly readable and immensely interesting and fascinating exploration of Polynesia and its people. I cannot recommend it highly enough; nor can I wait to re-read it after the first download has ‘settled in’.

Engaging, smart, sprawling but focused. An easy but all-encompassing read about the history of the Polynesian Triangle. Every subject matter touched upon from oral narratives to radiocarbon dating over DNA are expertly introduced and woven seamlessly into the general narrative without ever leading the author astray. The best thing about this book, though, is that all the key players from Cook and Tupaia to Lewis and Mau are given life and voice and seem to act out the history of Polynesia in your mind’s theatre, sailing their outrigger canoes and their schooners from atoll to island to archipelago.