Voyaging Canoes and the Settlement of Polynesia

Abstract

Sailing trials with two reconstructed Polynesian double canoes indicate that these craft can make good a course to windward up to approximately 75 degrees off the wind on long ocean voyages. This windward performance would have enabled Polynesians to exert a degree of control over their movements that would have been denied them had they only been able to sail or drift before wind and current. Indeed, without this windward sailing capacity there probably never would have been a Polynesian people today, for in a sense they are a product of their maritime technology. Had there been no great voyaging canoes, the settlement of Polynesia might have had to await the relatively late entry into the Pacific of the European navigators. But the Pacific was the scene of early innovation in weatherly sailing canoes, and as the European navigators "discovered" island after island, they were surprised to find that neolithic seafarers had preceded them into this vast ocean realm.

Archaeobotanical and GIS-based approaches to prehistoric agriculture in the upper Ying valley, Henan, China

“…The latter assumes travel by canoe along the local waterways 5 and, for simplicity, averages out the directional and seasonal complexity that this would have involved, assuming instead, an even isotropic speed of ca.10 km per hour along the river system (e.g. Heyen 1972:72;Finney 1977). These terrestrial and riverine linkages builds a network among contemporary sites that allows as to consider the place of any individual site in its wider probable social context (figure 4a-c).…”

History, Phylogeny, and Evolution in Polynesia

“…At one end of the spectrum are extremes such as Easter Island and the Chathams, apparently completely isolated following initial settlement. The Hawaiian Islands and New Zealand were also relatively isolated but may have had some secondary contact with other Polynesian groups (Finney 1977). At the other extreme, some central East and West Polynesian archipelagoes had significant and continuous contacts with neighboring groups throughout prehistory; the significance of such low-level isolation will be further discussed below.…”

Small islands, valuable insights: systems of customary resource use and resilience to climate change in the Pacific

“…Because knowledge of weather is essential for navigators, they are well positioned to make unique and complementary contributions to the understanding of changes in weather patterns, especially conditions in the deep sea, open ocean environment. Although there is a solid foundation of scholarship on traditional navigation (e.g., Lewis 1994, Finney 1998, especially as it concerns the migration routes and settlement of the Pacific Islands (e.g., Finney 1977, Howe 2006, navigators' knowledge and observations of climate change remain largely unexplored. Although such knowledge declined in the first half of the twentieth century, there has been a resurgence of traditional voyaging and the use of traditional navigation systems in the Pacific Islands (Finney 2003, Genz 2011, and much collaboration with and integration of global scientific research and educational programs, especially related to environmental stewardship.…”