DeepSummary
The episode begins with an interview with Professor Nicholas Thomas from the University of Cambridge discussing his book 'Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific.' Thomas explains how early European explorers like Captain Cook were perplexed to find thriving populations in the Pacific islands thousands of miles from continents. He describes how indigenous navigators like Rongo Matani used stars, currents, and landmarks to traverse vast ocean distances.
Thomas details how Europeans gradually came to understand the sophisticated navigation techniques employed by Pacific islanders, which involved reading stars, understanding currents and winds, and compensating for drift. This knowledge, passed down over generations, allowed islanders to sail between widely dispersed islands without modern navigation tools.
The discussion covers how Europeans initially failed to grasp the navigational prowess of Pacific peoples, and how anthropologists after WWII helped uncover and disseminate this traditional knowledge among places like Micronesia and Hawaii. Thomas highlights the remarkable ability of Pacific cultures to sustain these voyaging traditions over centuries.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Pacific islanders employed sophisticated navigation techniques using stars, currents, winds, and landmarks to cross vast ocean distances.
- This traditional navigational knowledge initially baffled early European explorers in the Pacific.
- European understanding of Pacific seafaring only emerged gradually over centuries through observing and learning from indigenous navigators.
- After WWII, renewed efforts helped uncover and disseminate this ancestral Pacific voyaging knowledge in places like Micronesia and Hawaii.
- The ability of Pacific cultures to sustain and pass down such intricate navigational traditions over generations is remarkable.
- Professor Nicholas Thomas' book provides an in-depth look at the history and accomplishments of ancient Pacific seafarers.
- The settlement of the vast Pacific islands was an immense feat of human exploration and maritime prowess.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “He counted himself as an explorer as well as a missionary, but he had a deep awareness that he couldn't get to the places he wanted to visit without local aid and advice.“ by Nicholas Thomas
- “But for navigators, right across the Pacific, a departure point was critical. A particular point on an island where landmarks such as hills or even artificially raised markers like standing stones, set the course.“ by Nicholas Thomas
- “They would look at stars as they were rising above the horizon, and they would provide points of orientation, and they could follow the particular stars that were relevant.“ by Nicholas Thomas
- “Remarkably, there were people in Micronesia into the 1960s and seventies who had sustained traditional knowledge, who were able to hand it on to a new generation who had renewed interest in the art of crossing the water.“ by Nicholas Thomas
- “And they helped disseminate that knowledge again, among others such as Hawaiians.“ by Nicholas Thomas
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Episode Information
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
6/30/24
https://www.amazon.com/Voyagers-Settlement-Pacific-Nicholas-Thomas/dp/1541619838
An award-winning scholar explores the sixty-thousand-year history of the Pacific islands in this dazzling, deeply researched account.
The islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia stretch across a huge expanse of ocean and encompass a multitude of different peoples. Starting with Captain James Cook, the earliest European explorers to visit the Pacific were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving thousands of miles from continents. Who were these people? From where did they come? And how were they able to reach islands dispersed over such vast tracts of ocean?
In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between Asia and the Americas from late prehistory onward. Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from genetics, linguistics, and archaeology, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migrations, the seagoing technologies that enabled them, and the societies they left in their wake.
1930 MICRONESIA STATES