Observers, for many years, viewed indigenous Pacific Islands seafaring as a vanishing art, largely confined to the Central Carolinian atolls of Micronesia. Yet, in a number of small, remote Polynesian communities, traditional vessels and knowledge of how to use them are an active, ongoing concern. Our awareness of these systems of knowledge and practice is preserved in works on Ontong Java and Nukumanu (Sarfert and Damm 1929; Haddon and Hornell 1975 [1936–1938]; Feinberg 1995), Taumako (Davenport 1962, 1964, 1968; Lewis 1972; George 1998, 1999, n.d.; Vaka Taumako Project 1997, 1999), and Anuta (Feinberg 1988, 1991). Important information also is presented on Kapingamarangi by Lieber (1994) and on Tikopia in Firth's voluminous writings.
Generalizations about these “Polynesian outliers” are difficult. They range from communities like Sikaiana (Donner 1995), where sailing canoes have been entirely abandoned, to such isolated specks of land as Taumako and Anuta, where traditional...
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Notes
- 1.
According to elderly Duff Islanders, the Sikaiana were in regular communication with Taumako prior to the 1917 influenza pandemic, and they ordered and used large voyaging canoes from Taumako.
- 2.
We must note, however, that few ancient hulls have been recovered from Pacific waters. Perhaps, with further research, we will find evidence of submarine hull shapes from other parts of Polynesia.
- 3.
In 1979 people of Taumako built a te puke to represent the Solomon Islands at the 1980 Pacific Arts Festival in Port Moresby. The voyage from Taumako to New Guinea had to be cut short for political reasons. Local officials required them to travel via Honiara, the national capital, which meant taking a risky and nontraditional route. Those officials then held the canoe so long that the seasonal winds ceased before the crew could navigate the vessel from Vella Lavella in the Western Solomons to Papua New Guinea.
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Feinberg, R., George, M. (2008). Seafaring in the Polynesian Outliers. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9330
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