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Sea people : the puzzle of Polynesia / Christina Thompson.

By: Publisher: New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2019]Edition: First editionDescription: xvi, 365 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps (some on endpapers) ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780062060877
  • 0062060872
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • DU510 .T56 2019
Partial contents:
Prologue: Kealakekua Bay -- The eyewitnesses (1521-1722). A very great sea : the discovery of Oceania ; First contact : Mendana in the Marquesas ; Barely an island at all : atolls of the Tuamotus ; Outer limits : New Zealand and Easter Island -- Connecting the dots (1764-1778). Tahiti : the heart of Polynesia ; A man of knowledge : Cook meets Tupaia ; Tupaia's chart : two ways of seeing ; An aha moment : a Tahitian in New Zealand -- Why not just ask them? (1778-1920). Drowned continents and other theories : the nineteenth-century Pacific ; A world without writing : Polynesian oral traditions ; The Aryan Maori : an unlikely idea ; A viking in Hawai'i : Abraham Fornander ; Voyaging stories : history and myth -- The rise of science (1920-1959). Somatology : the mesure of man ; A Maori anthropologist : Te Rangi Hiroa ; The Moa hunters : stone and bones ; Radiocarbon dating : the question of when ; The Lapita people : a key piece of the puzzle -- Setting sail (1947-1980). Kon-Tiki : Thor Heyerdahl's raft ; Drifting not sailing : Andrew Sharp ; The non-armchair approach : David Lewis experiments ; Hokole'a : sailing to Tahiti ; Reinventing navigation : Nainoa Thompson -- What we know now (1990-2018). The latest science : DNA and dates ; Coda : two ways of knowing.
Summary: For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, a vast triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonize these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? For author Christina Thompson, this mystery is personal: her Maori husband and their sons descend directly from these ancient navigators. In Sea People, Thompson explores the fascinating story of these ancestors, as well as those of the many sailors, linguists, archaeologists, folklorists, biologists, and geographers who have puzzled over this history for three hundred years. A mix of history, geography, anthropology, and the science of navigation, Sea People combines the thrill of exploration with the drama of discovery in a tour of one of the most captivating regions in the world.
Holdings
Item type Current library Shelving location Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book NMC Library Stacks DU510 .T56 2019 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 33039001485852

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue: Kealakekua Bay -- The eyewitnesses (1521-1722). A very great sea : the discovery of Oceania ; First contact : Mendana in the Marquesas ; Barely an island at all : atolls of the Tuamotus ; Outer limits : New Zealand and Easter Island -- Connecting the dots (1764-1778). Tahiti : the heart of Polynesia ; A man of knowledge : Cook meets Tupaia ; Tupaia's chart : two ways of seeing ; An aha moment : a Tahitian in New Zealand -- Why not just ask them? (1778-1920). Drowned continents and other theories : the nineteenth-century Pacific ; A world without writing : Polynesian oral traditions ; The Aryan Maori : an unlikely idea ; A viking in Hawai'i : Abraham Fornander ; Voyaging stories : history and myth -- The rise of science (1920-1959). Somatology : the mesure of man ; A Maori anthropologist : Te Rangi Hiroa ; The Moa hunters : stone and bones ; Radiocarbon dating : the question of when ; The Lapita people : a key piece of the puzzle -- Setting sail (1947-1980). Kon-Tiki : Thor Heyerdahl's raft ; Drifting not sailing : Andrew Sharp ; The non-armchair approach : David Lewis experiments ; Hokole'a : sailing to Tahiti ; Reinventing navigation : Nainoa Thompson -- What we know now (1990-2018). The latest science : DNA and dates ; Coda : two ways of knowing.

For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, a vast triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonize these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? For author Christina Thompson, this mystery is personal: her Maori husband and their sons descend directly from these ancient navigators. In Sea People, Thompson explores the fascinating story of these ancestors, as well as those of the many sailors, linguists, archaeologists, folklorists, biologists, and geographers who have puzzled over this history for three hundred years. A mix of history, geography, anthropology, and the science of navigation, Sea People combines the thrill of exploration with the drama of discovery in a tour of one of the most captivating regions in the world.

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