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A curious question..

Elendur

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A quick search landed me here:
(Polynesia is a subgroup of islands in the pacific ocean)
800px-Pacific_Culture_Areas.jpg


Polynesia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Edit:
Sloppy by me, I just read the models name and assumed they were an answer. I'll continue looking.

Edit 2:
Found it :)
Polynesia - How Did The Polynesians Find Their Homeland?

They did use canoes :)
 
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J

Jazer

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They did use canoes :)
A canoe is little more then a dug out tree trunk. I read a story about some Amerian Indians 200 years ago that made a canoe out of a tree trunk and it only took them maybe 5 hours start to finish. Of course that was for going down stream. If they want to go up stream that would require something lighter out of deer skins and taken longer. Maybe the Pacific Island people were out fishing and a storm came along and carried them to the next island and they did not know how to find their way back.
 
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Elendur

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A canoe is little more then a dug out tree trunk. I read a story about some Amerian Indians 200 years ago that made a canoe out of a tree trunk and it only took them maybe 5 hours start to finish. Of course that was for going down stream. If they want to go up stream that would require something lighter out of deer skins and taken longer. Maybe the Pacific Island people were out fishing and a storm came along and carried them to the next island and they did not know how to find their way back.
If you had followed the link you would've found some info. It was a deliberate process over 2000 years, if I didn't read wrong.

I doubt an entire population got swept away to the next island.
 
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TheReasoner

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Genetics. It's a wonderful thing!

Y-Migration_Map.jpg


How, technically speaking? I don't know. But this is likely when and where our ancesors moved around.

Thor Heyerdahl might have been onto something with the Ra I and II and Tigris boats though. Even if the routes he took were off.
 
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Wiccan_Child

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How was the pacific ocean islands populated? i hardly think they came there by canoe.
Nonetheless, that's exactly how they got there. Generations of slowly canoeing from one island to the other.
 
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TLK Valentine

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Nonetheless, that's exactly how they got there. Generations of slowly canoeing from one island to the other.

It's actually easier than you'd think -- there are literally thousands of tiny islands not shown on the map; one could hop from one island to the next with relative ease.
 
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Elendur

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It's actually easier than you'd think -- there are literally thousands of tiny islands not shown on the map; one could hop from one island to the next with relative ease.
True, but there are also vast bodies of water that they crossed my navigating according to the sun, the stars and knowledge of the sea.

"He learned how the pilots used the zenith passages of key stars to navigate far from the land, as well as swell direction, waves reflected off distant land, and even the flights of sea and land birds, to make landfall on island archipelagos far from their departure point. These navigators were able to return to their homes safely, using the same signs of sea and sky. Determined to preserve a rapidly vanishing art, Lewis sailed his European-designed ocean-going yacht from Rarotonga in the Cook islands to New Zealand, using only a star map and a Polynesian navigator to help him."
 
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Mr Strawberry

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Oh, Lillen, please don't play the "argument from incredulity" card here. They really did "island hop" using canoes. Don't think little dinky canoes. Think big ocean going canoes.

Kon-Tiki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I remember reading about the Kon-Tiki expedition when I was younger. It was an attempt to prove that the Polynesian islands were populated by people from South America rather than Asia. Even though it turns out he was probably wrong, his small raft voyaging across the Pacific showed what was possible with such tiny vessels.
 
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Radagast

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The people came from everywhere. There is no one direction they came from.

They came this way:

4051052aa.2.jpg


Sailing things like this:

CanoeKane.jpg


Navigating this way.

Language similarity helps tell the story:

Gray_et_al2009.png
 
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Resha Caner

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Somehow i don't fall for that...

Do some research on people like Thor Heyerdahl. He proved it possible to cross an ocean with very primitive transportation ... by doing it.

I would bet many people died looking for new islands. After all, there were Western European explorers who died. Some people thought the risk was worth it.

And, though islands in the Pacific are hard to find, it's not an impossible task. Watching for clues ... ocean currents, animal migration patterns, etc. helps.
 
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Radagast

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Do some research on people like Thor Heyerdahl. He proved it possible to cross an ocean with very primitive transportation ... by doing it.

Indeed.

Of course, not all canoes that set out arrived, and not all passengers were alive on arrival. But that's been true for all major settlements. Thousands of people died along the Oregon Trail too. As Resha Caner said, some people thought the risk was worth it.
 
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TheReasoner

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Indeed.

Of course, not all canoes that set out arrived, and not all passengers were alive on arrival. But that's been true for all major settlements. Thousands of people died along the Oregon Trail too. As Resha Caner said, some people thought the risk was worth it.

Life is a dangerous ordeal. None have yet survived it.... ;)

I think we have grown a little too complacent lately. We should be continuing our expansion. We've moved to all continents on earth - though antarctica does not hold permanent settlements we're there. And we have the technology to move beyond the planet. Personally I think it's beyond time we did so. It is dangerous, space is incredibly inhospitable. But we should still do it, and we should have started in the 60s. We should have expanded the Apollo project and settled there permanently in the 70s, following up with a massive colonization effort through the decades following.

But no. We haven't done that. Perhaps it is time to pick up the colonization and exploration torch again. Had I the funds I would do it myself. While I do not have the funds I have the brain, so I am considering joining the Tau Zero foundation eventually. I suggest people here working on or having completed advanced degrees do the same. Spend some free time on the effort of getting mankind back on the exploration and expansion track. If our ancestors could brave the oceans in those canoos, or brave the Oregon Trail... Well, we are better equipped to expand today.So let's do it already!
 
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Resha Caner

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I wrote a paper on Japanese exploration because I had the opposite question: Why did it take the Japanese so long to start exploring the Pacific?

The Japanese have legends about how their own islands were discovered. While they may not be completely accurate, they indicate a very deliberate attitude toward exploration by very bold people. But after that their maps indicate a belief that the Pacific was empty and/or that it was the edge of the earth ... much like the view of some Europeans toward the Atlantic around the time of Columbus.

It is fascinating to see how events conspired to keep the Japanese in Japan until the 18/19th century. There were a few exceptions, but until others (Russians, Americans, etc.) started showing the Japanese there was a larger world, they were content to remain in the islands.

But not all cultures were like that. Some were very outgoing - the Pacific Islanders are one case, and the Vikings were another case.

It is interesting to compare those cultures. Specifically, with respect to Japan, the West was calling them the "British of the East" because from Western eyes there are many similarities. What is funny is that within Japan they considered themselves the "Germans of the East."
 
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Resha Caner

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It is dangerous, space is incredibly inhospitable. But we should still do it ...

Mmm. There are some differences. I can't fish in space while I'm waiting to find an island, nor is there an unlimited supply of some essentials like air. There is no natural propulsion system (I can't follow "space currents"), and the distances are a little larger. I don't have to procreate on board and hope my children will agree to finish the journey I started.
 
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