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Deceptive title. The science around this issue was settled definitively in 1976 and multiple lines of evidence have only strengthened the story since then. It's

Deceptive title. The science around this issue was settled definitively in 1976 and multiple lines of evidence have only strengthened the story since then. It's no longer even remotely mysterious: People built boats and sailed eastward from Asia and navigated without instruments. Thor Heyerdahl was wrong and Captain Cook was right. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-voyage-kon-tiki-misled-world-about-navigating-pacific-180952478/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-v...

deleted 8y ago
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technotony 8y ago
And presumably if there remains any debate about this we could settle it with a genomic study.
- HarryHirsch 8y ago
  Wouldn't be surprised if Cavalli-Sforza had done it already.
- gerbilly 8y ago
  Genomic studies suggest that the ancestor of the Polynesian people were from a combination of New Guinea and ancient Taiwan.
  - aaron695 8y ago
    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/game-changing-study-suggests-first-polynesians-voyaged-all-way-east-asia https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/game-changing-study-... Word of the day 'BP' - 'years before present'. The 'present' in BP is set at 1950, as this was close to when radiometric dating began to be used - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20026-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20026-8
boatjd 8y ago
It was shocking to learn Guam was settled 4,000 years ago by the Chamorro people who built boats and seemingly sailed 2,000+ miles from Southeast Asia.
vram22 8y ago
Discussed here a few days earlier: The Voyage of the Kon-Tiki Misled the World About Navigating the Pacific (2014) (smithsonianmag.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19352806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19352806
itwasnoaccident 8y ago
The full title is Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and their Polynesian Ancestors. The book shows - among other things - how tens of millions of shearwaters on migration to their nesting sites in spring point to the whereabouts of islands.
dang 8y ago
That really is misleading. Ok, we changed the title above to that of the book being reviewed. That 2014 article is much better. Interesting that it was discussed here so recently (as vram22 points out).

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technotony 8y ago

And presumably if there remains any debate about this we could settle it with a genomic study.

HarryHirsch 8y ago
Wouldn't be surprised if Cavalli-Sforza had done it already.
gerbilly 8y ago
Genomic studies suggest that the ancestor of the Polynesian people were from a combination of New Guinea and ancient Taiwan.
- aaron695 8y ago
  https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/game-changing-study-suggests-first-polynesians-voyaged-all-way-east-asia https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/game-changing-study-... Word of the day 'BP' - 'years before present'. The 'present' in BP is set at 1950, as this was close to when radiometric dating began to be used - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20026-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20026-8

boatjd 8y ago

It was shocking to learn Guam was settled 4,000 years ago by the Chamorro people who built boats and seemingly sailed 2,000+ miles from Southeast Asia.

vram22 8y ago

Discussed here a few days earlier: The Voyage of the Kon-Tiki Misled the World About Navigating the Pacific (2014) (smithsonianmag.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19352806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19352806

itwasnoaccident 8y ago

The full title is Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and their Polynesian Ancestors. The book shows - among other things - how tens of millions of shearwaters on migration to their nesting sites in spring point to the whereabouts of islands.

dang 8y ago

That really is misleading. Ok, we changed the title above to that of the book being reviewed. That 2014 article is much better. Interesting that it was discussed here so recently (as vram22 points out).