When Europeans first encountered the native people scattered across the Eastern Pacific Islands, they were astonished at what they found: a people who were fairly homogenous in culture, language, and ethnicity. This was surprising because the natives were essentially a Stone Age people with, what appeared to the Europeans, fairly primitive sailing technology. Yet they had managed to settle a number of small islands across an incredibly vast stretch of the world’s largest ocean. This expanse, which forms a gigantic triangle, extends from New Zealand north to Hawaii and then back south to Easter Island (Finney et al., 1994). This area, called by Europeans ‘Polynesia’, meaning ‘many islands’, is approximately the size of the North American continent (Finney, 1979). From the time of initial European exploration, various theories were proposed to explain how the Polynesians came to settle their far-flung islands.

Thor Heyerdahl popularized one theory in the mid-twentieth century when he set out on his famous Kon Tiki expedition. Heyerdahl supposed that the ancestors of the Polynesian people must have been native North and South Americans because the prevailing winds and currents of the Pacific Ocean are easterly, and a primitive people would need to use them to transport themselves across such a huge distance of open ocean. However, his theory never gained much scholarly acclaim, and is now considered highly unlikely because of overwhelming archeological, linguistic, and genetic evidence that shows a strong link between the Polynesians and the Asian and island peoples west of them, and virtually no link to native North and South Americans. (Kirch, 2000)

Within the predominant school of thought which states that the likeliest Polynesian migration path was eastward from Asia, rather than westward from the Americas, are two main scenarios. The first idea is known as the ‘accidental drift’ theory. This theory postulates that Polynesians were carried to their many islands as castaways on the open ocean, accidentally finding and settling habitable islands. This theory, much like Heyerdahl’s, is based on the notion that the Polynesians were too primitive to be able to intentionally navigate such an enormous ocean against the prevailing winds and currents (Kirch, 2000). However, it is also considered to be unlikely for two main reasons. First, archeological evidence shows that when people first colonized their islands, they brought with them their families, their pigs, dogs, and chickens, their tools, and their crops -- these are the supplies of intentional settlers, not accidental castaways (Howells, 1973). Also, the odds that anyone would be able to accidentally find such isolated islands as Hawaii, Easter Island, or New Zealand seem extremely small (Kirch, 2000).

The second, and currently most accepted theory of west to east migration is the ‘deliberate navigation’ theory. Most scholars today believe that Polynesia is the result of several millennia of deliberate colonization of the islands of the East Pacific (Irwin, 1992). They now realize that the sailing craft used by the ancient Polynesians were much larger and more sea-worthy than previously imagined (Lewis, 1994). The early notion that they were small and fairly flimsy appears to come primarily from the fact that the Polynesians had lost much of their boatmaking skills by the late nineteenth century (Kirch, 2000). Also, the Polynesians had a primitive way of determining ‘latitude’ by using horizon and zenith stars to navigate to known islands (Lewis, 1994). The oral traditions of several island groups give more evidence that they could purposely travel to other island groups. For example, the people of Hawaii and Tahiti (two very distant island groups) have stories of contact with each other’s lands (Finney, 1979). Perhaps most important is exactly what amazed the European explorers: the obviously close cultural, linguistic, and ethnic ties among the Polynesians (Irwin, 1992). Without contact between island groups, then many distinct and different cultures and languages would have developed instead.

Armed with their archeological, linguistic, and recent genetic findings, scholars have been able to reconstruct the basic migration path that the Polynesians used to settle their islands. It appears they originated from a people called the Austronesians who began expanding east from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines around 5000 BC (Lewis, 1978). By 1300 BC, a culture called ‘Lapita’ had propagated across Melanesia (the relatively populous islands west of Polynesia) and had spread to what is now Western Polynesia -- Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa – thus beginning the distinct Polynesian culture. By two thousand years ago, they had spread to the Marquesas Islands, which then became the hub for the further development of Polynesia. The last islands of the Polynesian triangle to be settled (around one thousand years ago) were those at the furthest extremes: Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand (Lewis, 1978)

A final, and most oceanographically relevant notion that leads scholars to believe in intentional voyaging is that the Polynesians had a thorough understanding of the easterly winds and currents of the Pacific and that these forces changed seasonally and under certain weather conditions. Scholars have also supposed that they used this knowledge in a paradoxical way. The Polynesians intentionally sailed against the prevailing winds and currents even though it was much harder because they knew that this would always provide them with a way to return home. If they found no island to settle, they could just go back the way they came (Finney et al., 1994).

With the evidence at hand, it seams clear that Polynesia is the result of several thousand years of deliberate migration and settlement. For the Polynesians, the Pacific was more than just an ocean, but a way of life, for they lived surrounded by it everyday. This intimate contact brought to them an understanding and mastery of it that was most likely surpassed by western civilization only in the past few hundred years.
 

Bibliography

Finney, Ben R.  1979.  Hokule’a the Way to Tahiti.  Dodd, Mead & Company.  New York.  8, 9, 10.

Finney, Ben.  Among, Marlene.  Baybayan, Chad.  Crouch, Tai.  Frost, Paul.  Kilonsky, Bernard.  Rhodes, Richard.  Schroeder, Thomas.  Stroup, Dixon.  Thompson, Nainoa.  Worthington, Robert.  Yadao, Elisa. 1994. Voyage of Rediscovery.  University of California Press.  Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London.  11, 260.

Howells, William. 1973. The Pacific Islanders.  Charles Scribner’s Sons.  New York.  26.

Irwin, Geoffrey. 1992. The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific.  Cambridge University Press.  Cambridge.  13, 16.

Kirch, Patrick Vinton. 2000. On the Road of the Winds.  University of California Press.  Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London.  238.

Lewis, David. 1972, 1994. We, the Navigators.  2nd ed.  University of Hawaii Press.  Honolulu.  53-55, 82, 83.

Lewis, David. 1978. The Voyaging Stars.  W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.  New York.  54, 60-62, 65, 67.