Notes

Voyaging achievements of Māori and their Polynesian ancestors
288 pages
illustrations (chiefly colour), maps, portraits
Contents include: Easter Island: out on a limb -- Pitcairn, Mangareva, Rapa and the Austral Islands: dark horses of the south -- The Hawaiian and Line islands: Maui's hook -- The Marquesas Islands: statues in the forest -- Traditional wayfinding at sea: expanding the target -- The Tuāmotu Archipelago: crossroads of East Polynesia -- The Society Islands: one Hawaiki among many -- Rarotonga and the Cook Islands: en route to New Zealand -- Exploration and disovery: nature's signposts to the Kermadecs and beyond -- Passage to New Zealand: planned voyages of settlement -- Settling New Zealand: adapting to a cool land -- Voyages of return: the cuckoos depart -- The Western Pacific: a wider range of possibilities -- A mirror and a window: origins, achievements and loss
Summary: Pathway of the Birds explores a neglected epoch of world history, one that saw Polynesians expand their territory across the world's largest ocean in one of the most expansive and rapid phases of human migration in prehistory. Were Polynesians adept at navigating return voyages or had they settled the Pacific in a more random fashion? In an effort to find out, Crowe surveys a wealth of evidence from surprisingly diverse sources, including archaeology, palaeoecology, genetics, ethnology and linguistics, and presents it here in the context of Polynesian poetry, the long-distance migration of birds, non-instrument navigation, and wind tunnel experiments. From this, a spell-binding picture emerges of a people who have been deprived of recognition for some of their most illustrious achievements. Through an engaging narrative, integrating a diversity of research and viewpoints, and over 400 maps, diagrams, photographs and illustrations, Crowe conveys the skills, innovation, resourcefulness and courage of the people that drove this extraordinary feat of maritime expansion in a format that is both accessible to the lay reader and required reading for any serious scholar of this fascinating region. (Publisher)