Sea People

Sea People
Christina Thompson

‘Wonderfully researched and beautifully written’ Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan‘Succeeds in conjuring a lost world’ Dava Sobel, author of LongitudeFor 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. Until the arrival of European explorers they were the only people to have ever lived there. Both the most closely related and the most widely dispersed people in the world before the era of mass migration, Polynesians can trace their roots to a group of epic voyagers who ventured out into the unknown in one of the greatest adventures in human history.How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonise these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? This conundrum, which came to be known as the Problem of Polynesian Origins, emerged in the eighteenth century as one of the great geographical mysteries of mankind.For 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 masterful mix of history, geography, anthropology, and the science of navigation, Sea People is a vivid tour of one of the most captivating regions in the world.

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Copyright (#ulink_15e80482-6655-5756-9e3e-22da9f2a94e2)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://WilliamCollinsBooks.com) This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2019 Copyright © Christina Thompson 2019 Cover photographs © Nuku Hiva pirogues, Marquesas Islands, Polynesia, engraving by Danvin and Boys / Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy / De Agostini Picture Library / Bridgeman Images; A View in Oheitepha Bay on the Island of Otaheite, from‘Captains Cook’s Last Voyage’, 1809 (coloured engraving), Webber, John (1750–93) (after) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images Christina Thompson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Information on previously published material appears here (#litres_trial_promo). All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Source ISBN: 9780008339012 Ebook Edition © February 2019 ISBN: 9780008339036 Version: 2019-02-15

Dedication (#ulink_9d3c3759-f60a-5251-bf97-6dff954a92a1)

For Tauwhitu

Epigraph (#ulink_0907e7f6-ada0-59a0-a076-ea6ffaff3ecb)

For we are dear to the immortal gods,

Living here, in the sea that rolls forever,

Distant from other lands and other men.

—Homer, the Odyssey

(translated by Robert Fitzgerald)

Contents

Cover (#ulink_8069d8b8-cdb1-5b23-a2e0-03f9994dc16f)

Title Page (#ulink_381f5ea0-7d91-5e98-8e92-f3d2c11fcae3)

Copyright (#ulink_0cf93bec-c184-5993-a97a-488f58ca2686)

Dedication (#ulink_9dc3fe42-2612-5f44-8d2a-e6a120778b71)

Epigraph (#ulink_9992c240-0468-595c-80dd-9e9c56f47ba8)

List of Illustrations (#ulink_ecfbda1c-ffd8-5245-9d33-cf8f39b66b32)

Prologue: Kealakekua Bay (#ulink_e0fb864d-dbc2-5a45-bcdc-e541db023fcd)

Part I: The Eyewitnesses (1521–1722) (#ulink_93591b5d-fb5b-5ecb-8750-f02db503b809)

In which we follow the trail of the earliest European explorers as they attempt to cross the Pacific for the first time, encountering a wide variety of islands and meeting some of the people who live there. (#ulink_93591b5d-fb5b-5ecb-8750-f02db503b809)

A Very Great Sea: The Discovery of Oceania (#ulink_18f00bd0-204c-5d5a-9ac3-bb607c0d7764)

First Contact: Mendaña in the Marquesas (#ulink_35a87658-d357-54bd-97ff-4735a5c4a8a7)

Barely an Island at All: Atolls of the Tuamotus (#ulink_c8e23911-d39b-5b5a-9cfe-f7cd541008ae)

Outer Limits: New Zealand and Easter Island (#ulink_91c493f7-5642-58b4-a645-d3cc31322552)

Part II: Connecting the Dots (1764–1778) (#ulink_142a7220-89d7-5990-94fe-106ce9f5e3dc)

In which we travel with Captain Cook to the heart of Polynesia, meet the Tahitian priest and navigator Tupaia, and sail with the two of them to New Zealand, where Tupaia makes an important discovery. (#ulink_142a7220-89d7-5990-94fe-106ce9f5e3dc)

Tahiti: The Heart of Polynesia (#ulink_df03caf7-4983-523a-840a-20737f90a827)

A Man of Knowledge: Cook Meets Tupaia (#ulink_32e108f0-9160-52e6-b531-62e6493388d7)

Tupaia’s Chart: Two Ways of Seeing (#litres_trial_promo)

An Aha Moment: A Tahitian in New Zealand (#litres_trial_promo)

Part III: Why Not Just Ask Them? (1778–1920) (#litres_trial_promo)

In which we look at some of the stories that Polynesians told about themselves and consider the difficulty nineteenth-century Europeans had trying to make sense of them. (#litres_trial_promo)

Drowned Continents and Other Theories: The Nineteenth-Century Pacific (#litres_trial_promo)

A World Without Writing: Polynesian Oral Traditions (#litres_trial_promo)

The Aryan Māori: An Unlikely Idea (#litres_trial_promo)

A Viking in Hawai‘i: Abraham Fornander (#litres_trial_promo)

Voyaging Stories: History and Myth (#litres_trial_promo)

Part IV: The Rise of Science (1920–1959) (#litres_trial_promo)

In which anthropologists pick up the trail of the ancient Polynesians, bringing a new, quantitative approach to the questions of who, where, and when. (#litres_trial_promo)

Somatology: The Measure of Man (#litres_trial_promo)

A Māori Anthropologist: Te Rangi Hiroa (#litres_trial_promo)

The Moa Hunters: Stone and Bones (#litres_trial_promo)

Radiocarbon Dating: The Question of When (#litres_trial_promo)

The Lapita People: A Key Piece of the Puzzle (#litres_trial_promo)

Part V: Setting Sail (1947–1980) (#litres_trial_promo)