Here’s an interesting little tidbit I spotted today. Polynesians once traveled throughout the South Pacific by canoe. Apparently, one way they navigated was by stick charts, which were bits of wood woven together to represent both the locations of islands and the direction of ocean waves. The charts themselves look like abstract sculptures rather than anything we would recognize today as maps.
More, including pictures, here.
This is very interesting. I wonder what Ed Said would have thought about this? It seems to confirm is major thesis of Orientalism. Thanks for the post!
NS
http://sciencedefeated.wordpress.com/
The basic idea behind the charts is that there was a prevailing wind that would cause waves to arrive at the islands from the same direction. When a straight wave ran into an island it gets wrapped around it (diffraction?). Here’s what I mean, with the waves arriving from the left:
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| o |o
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The interactions between various islands and winds were recorded in the stick charts. This is most clear on the second and last pictures of the link. In the second picture, say, a navigator would look/feel for the of the curving sticks (which represent swells), then follow them at a prescribed angle to find the island.
A nice reference is:
Ascher, Marcia. Models and maps from the Marshall Islands: a case in ethnomathematics. Historia Math. 22 (1995), no. 4, 347–370
The ASCII art got messed up. Here it is again in two separate diagrams. Incoming wave:
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| o
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Wave arrives at island:
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|o
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You might also find more specific information at the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s site
BTW Nainoa Thompson is probably the most well-known living navigator alive, he sailed with Hoku’lea on many trips (from what I understand he learned his craft from Mau Pialug, a Micronesian master).
Nainoa’s bio here:
http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/rapanui/nainoa.html
BTW interesting to note that a teacher by the name of Mabel Hefty figures large in Nainoa’s recollection of his early schooling - Mrs. Hefty’s name appears also in Barack Obama’s recollection of his early years at Punahou School in Hawaii as well
Mau’s way of teaching Nainoa is also fascinating.
-T