IGX

Thor Heyerdahl was Norwegian, but as far as he was concerned, he was hardly of Viking ancestry, even though he’d go on to do things his ancestors would’ve found immensely bold. Heyerdahl, who controversially sailed across both the Pacific and the Atlantic in crafts more primitive than what the Vikings used, said, “I was dead scared of the water as a young man. If I had been a sailor, I wouldn’t have believed that you couldn’t cross the ocean in the Kon-Tiki. My ignorance was very lucky.”

The Kon-Tiki (above) was the name of the craft he and five crew used to cross the Pacific from Peru to Tahiti in 1947, when the young anthropologist sought to prove his theory that the Southeast Asian archipelagos were settled not from the Asian mainland, but from South America. In fact Heyerdahl believed that all of our ancestors were much more adventurous than his contemporaries in the scientific community — and rather than argue or pontificate, he boldly set out to show rather than tell.

Heyerdahl and his men nearly met disasters several times, sometimes of their own making. At one point early in the expedition, a few men got bored and decided to row around in the rubber rescue dinghy (yes, they did bring modern conveniences, including a radio to signal their position), only to discover that the Kon-Tiki was moving at such an incredible clip they could scarcely keep up even rowing all out…which they had to do for an hour to get back on the craft and were almost lost at sea.

In 1970, now in his mid-50s, Heyerdahl again set out across an ocean, this time attempting to cross the Atlantic from Morocco on a ship called the Ra (after the ancient Egyptian sun god). The boat was made of papyrus, and although it didn’t make it, a subsequent voyage in the Ra II did make landfall in Barbados. It was Heyerdahl’s aim to prove that ancient Egyptians could’ve sailed to South America and left behind the idea of building pyramids as tombs.

Even into his 60s Heyerdahl took on controversial and challenging expeditions. In 1977 he set sail in a boat made of reeds, in the style of Mesopotamian sailors from 3,000 B.C., to prove that it was possible that Mesopotamia (present-day Syria, Jordan, Turkey) and Pakistan/India could’ve been linked via the sea. Heyerdahl then burned that ship, the Tigris, in protest over war in the region that engulfed nearly all of the nations on the Red Sea.

Heyerdahl wrote an open letter to the U.N. suggesting that while he was out trying to prove how the ancient civilizations of the world had managed to trade and learn from each other, the modern nations had learned nothing from their history.

One aspect of Hyerdahl’s life that’s often forgotten is that even before Kon-Tiki he and his first wife went off to Polynesia, in 1937-38 to live as “Adam and Eve,” trying to prove how people could live happily but very primitively.

Which maybe worked out a little less ideally than the very “first marriage,” in recorded history, since Heyerdahl ended that marriage in divorce (he was married three times).

Thor Heyerdahl was born in Larvik on 6th October 1914. His father, also called Thor, was a master brewer and his mother, Alison (née Lyng), was, among other things, the chairwoman of the city’s museum association. She was a strong proponent of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and inspired her son’s interest in zoology and anthropology. Thor was also allowed to create a small ‘zoo/museum’ in his father’s brewery.

Fat Cat wrote:They don't think very highly of him in Polynesia.

Batboy2/75 wrote:

Fat Cat wrote:They don't think very highly of him in Polynesia.

Why? Because it challenges their idea of how the Polynesians settled the pacific or who the Polynesians are as a people?

There is tons of evidence that what we call Polynesia was not one mass invasion from the east. There is plenty of evidence of migrations from several different directions: East from Asia, West from South America, and Even North from Alaska/Canada.

Anthropologists have found chicken bones in South America that pre date Columbus. Specifically, these remains when tested are chickens that originated in the pacific area. Then there is the question of the sweet potato, how did the sweet potato make it out into Polynesia before the arrival of Europeans? This means there was some sort of bi-lateral trade established between the peoples the Pacific and South America. Trade means people moving back and forth. Exchanging genes, culture, ideas, animals, plants etc.

The Hawaiians in their legends talk of enduring tremendous cold during part of their migration to Hawaii. Some Anthropologists believe there is a connection between the totem pole building peoples of the American Pacific North West and Polynesia.

Our Stone Age ancestors were not exactly dummies, particularly towards the latter period of the Stone Age.

Fat Cat wrote:

Batboy2/75 wrote:

Fat Cat wrote:They don't think very highly of him in Polynesia.

Why? Because it challenges their idea of how the Polynesians settled the pacific or who the Polynesians are as a people?

There is tons of evidence that what we call Polynesia was not one mass invasion from the east. There is plenty of evidence of migrations from several different directions: East from Asia, West from South America, and Even North from Alaska/Canada.

Anthropologists have found chicken bones in South America that pre date Columbus. Specifically, these remains when tested are chickens that originated in the pacific area. Then there is the question of the sweet potato, how did the sweet potato make it out into Polynesia before the arrival of Europeans? This means there was some sort of bi-lateral trade established between the peoples the Pacific and South America. Trade means people moving back and forth. Exchanging genes, culture, ideas, animals, plants etc.

The Hawaiians in their legends talk of enduring tremendous cold during part of their migration to Hawaii. Some Anthropologists believe there is a connection between the totem pole building peoples of the American Pacific North West and Polynesia.

Our Stone Age ancestors were not exactly dummies, particularly towards the latter period of the Stone Age.

I think most of what you say has merit, but to answer your question directly, "we drifted here on a raft carried by currents" doesn't sound as cool to them as "we sailed her on canoes navigating by the stars". It's also borne out by genetic analysis.

Of course I do agree that there was likely far more interaction between ancient civilizations than we tend to accept as fact now.

Fat Cat wrote:Also, there is the famous case of Juan de Gaitán who claimed to have discovered the Hawaiian Islands in 1555.

Schlegel wrote:The mitochondrial DNA has nailed this down pretty well. About 6k years ago there was a migration from around Taiwan to islands near New Guinea. 3K years ago a migration from there to Polynesia occurred. There doesn't seem to be any significant DNA exchange between the Western Pacific of the Americas and Polynesia. just 2 out of about 1,200 Maori tested, for example had any haplotypes that matched anybody in the Americas. If the migration had gone to the Americas first, this would be a very, very , very unlikely result.

Fat Cat wrote:Well, red hair, what they call `ehu hair (really more "rust" colored) is a recessive trait among some Hawaiians. The goddess Pele is supposed to appear with `ehu hair. I have never heard of blue eyes among Hawaiians, but I wouldn't doubt that you have.

Schlegel wrote:The mitochondrial DNA has nailed this down pretty well. About 6k years ago there was a migration from around Taiwan to islands near New Guinea. 3K years ago a migration from there to Polynesia occurred. There doesn't seem to be any significant DNA exchange between the Western Pacific of the Americas and Polynesia. just 2 out of about 1,200 Maori tested, for example had any haplotypes that matched anybody in the Americas. If the migration had gone to the Americas first, this would be a very, very , very unlikely result.

Batboy2/75 wrote:

Fat Cat wrote:Well, red hair, what they call `ehu hair (really more "rust" colored) is a recessive trait among some Hawaiians. The goddess Pele is supposed to appear with `ehu hair. I have never heard of blue eyes among Hawaiians, but I wouldn't doubt that you have.

Europeans describe some upper cast Polynesians with red hair and blue eyes. Melville in his book Typee describes a Polynesian woman with blue eyes. The book is based on Melvilles actual experiences as a captive on a Polynesian island.

Interesting stuff. I find Polynesian culture, specifically Hawaiian and Maorii very interesting.

Fat Cat wrote:If you want I can post some cool petroglyphs from Kona side of Hawaii I photographed last month.