Ancient Polynesian Navigation Lives On

» tristar - polynesian navigation

At first glance, "polynesian navigation" might be something to see in a Tom Hank's movie, or furnish some insight on how to escape from Gulligan's Isle. But the man-against-nature spin just falls short of providing some sort of explanation for such a cultural phenom here.

For surely these Indo-Pacific navigators were an ancient race just as the Greeks and Romans of Classical history. And if there's one thing that painstaking archeology reveals to us it's that the Polynesians, like all other cultures of the distant past, knew a world that was dominated by spirits and deities. In short, they never did anything without first consulting the gods, and then giving thanks to them afterwards. And that would include the time-honored art of maritime navigation.

Prehistoric cultures consulted the gods and spirits of their ancestors, because these celestial beings were in possession of perfect wisdom and could provide counsel on all matters before these ancient supplients. World faiths of today embrace the same kind of doctrine concerning their respective creation deities. So the idea of a divine source of knowledge is never lost, even through time.

This aspect of tradition is not so much a reflection upon the feasiblity of such advice from above, as it is a testament to the measure a pious supplient would take to make certain that knowledge so gained accorded with all that he regarded to fall within the cosmic precinct of customary practice and good taste.

-- posted by tristar

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