It is an old, coral-encrusted question, puzzled over for the last three centuries, and usually posed in three parts. It concerns the inhabitants of the 10-million-square-mile triangle of blue-water Pacific real estate now known as Polynesia, which is bounded by New Zealand, Easter Island and the Hawaiian archipelago. The people who live there, seemingly magically marooned in a tropic Arcadia in the middle of a vast oceanic nowhere: Where did they come from, when did they get there, and how? Christina Thompson, by virtue of being American-Australian and married to a Maori…is perhaps ideally placed to try to answer the question—and in Sea People, her fascinating and satisfying addition to an already considerable body of Polynesian literature, she succeeds admirably.
Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia
Narrated by Susan Lyons
Christina ThompsonUnabridged — 11 hours, 40 minutes
Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia
Narrated by Susan Lyons
Christina ThompsonUnabridged — 11 hours, 40 minutes
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Overview
A blend of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and Simon Winchester's Pacific, a thrilling intellectual detective story that looks deep into the past to uncover who first settled the islands of the remote Pacific, where they came from, how they got there, and how we know.
For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, a vast triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. Until the arrival of European explorers they were the only people to have ever lived there. Both the most closely related and the most widely dispersed people in the world before the era of mass migration, Polynesians can trace their roots to a group of epic voyagers who ventured out into the unknown in one of the greatest adventures in human history.
How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonize these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? This conundrum, which came to be known as the Problem of Polynesian Origins, emerged in the eighteenth century as one of the great geographical mysteries of mankind.
For Christina Thompson, this mystery is personal: her Maori husband and their sons descend directly from these ancient navigators. In Sea People, Thompson explores the fascinating story of these ancestors, as well as those of the many sailors, linguists, archaeologists, folklorists, biologists, and geographers who have puzzled over this history for three hundred years. A masterful mix of history, geography, anthropology, and the science of navigation, Sea People combines the thrill of exploration with the drama of discovery in a vivid tour of one of the most captivating regions in the world.
Editorial Reviews
★ 11/05/2018
In this artfully written book, Thompson (Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All) ably elucidates changing understandings of the ancient Polynesian migrations. This story, she tells readers, “is not so much what happened as a story about how we know.” Since “we” here refers to Westerners, the narrative begins not with the prehistoric Polynesians but with Europeans’ first journeys into the Pacific, most notably those of Capt. James Cook, the first European to recognize that the distantly dispersed islands he visited were all populated by related peoples. Thompson looks at the contributions to knowledge of the migrations of Polynesian oral tradition (first shared with Cook by Tahitian “man of knowledge” Tupaia, a master of various fields including navigation, medicine, and genealogy), ethnographers (including Maori anthropologist Te Rangi Hiroa), linguists, archaeologists, mathematicians, and latter-day experimental voyagers who recreated Polynesian sea journeys (including Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society; no relation to the author). Thompson does not hesitate to point out erroneous thinking, such as Thor Heyerdahl’s unfounded claims that Polynesians migrated westward from South America. Along the way, she writes with infectious awe and appreciation about Polynesian culture and with sharp intelligence about the blind spots of those investigating it at different times. This fascinating work could prove to be the standard on the subject for some time to come. (Mar.)
Sea People is a roaring success.… A deeply interesting read, and at points incredibly moving.” — NPR
“Compelling.… These pages will unleash the imagination [and] spark insight.” — National Geographic
“Sea People is a rich compendium of the ways Polynesia has been pinned down on the maps of geography, history, and culture through the centuries. As Thompson so eloquently shows, such descriptions are only half of a story.” — Harper’s Magazine
“I loved this book. I found Sea People the most intelligent, empathic, engaging, wide-ranging, informative, and authoritative treatment of Polynesian mysteries that I have ever read. Christina Thompson’s gorgeous writing arises from a deep well of research and succeeds in conjuring a lost world.” — Dava Sobel, bestselling author of Longitude and The Glass Universe
“Christina Thompson…is perhaps ideally placed to try to answer the question [of Polynesian origins] – and in Sea People, her fascinating and satisfying addition to an already considerable body of Polynesian literature, she succeeds admirably.” — New York Times Book Review
“Magnificent… A grand, symphonic, beautifully written book… Sea People is an archive-researched historical account that has the page-turning qualities of an all-absorbing mystery.” — Boston Globe
“Christina Thompson’s outstanding study brims with detail.” — Nature
“Fascinating… A piece of beautiful nonfiction writing.” — WBAA, an NPR affiliate
“Superb. . . . An illuminating read for amateur sleuths and professional scholars alike.” — The Spectator
“The supra theme of Sea People is a vision of knowledge systems intertwined – the outcome of history, cultural tolerance, and a grasp of misunderstandings. Thompson’s tone is perfectly tuned for such enlightenment, as is the life-position from which she writes.” — Sydney Morning Herald
“A triumph… Sea People deserves a wide audience, one well beyond those who are from, or conduct research, in the region… Infused with curiosity and respect, Sea People is everything historical nonfiction should be.” — Australian Book Review
“A thorough and page-turning investigation… Part-memoir, part-investigation, part-history book, Sea People is an adventure in itself… It’s a compelling read, and one that movingly reminds us that the world is much older and much bigger than we imagine.” — Scout Cambridge
“Fascinating… The origins of the people of Polynesia, as discussed in this spellbinding history, are sure to captivate armchair travelers and historians alike.” — Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“A revelatory summation of this vast area steeped in culture and tradition.” — BookPage
“Thompson offers not a binary (science vs myth) but a proliferation of knowledge frameworks: linguistics, oral history, computer science, anthropology, navigation, archaeology, etc. Thompson affirms a stance of intellectual appreciation, humility, and wonder.” — DigBoston
“Sea People teems with compelling insights as it explores the age-old mysteries of Polynesian origins. We don’t just visit the turreted cliffs of the Marquesas with Mendaña, the cloud-wrapped peaks of Hawaii with Cook, or the treacherous reefs of Raroia with Heyerdahl. We envision the whole panorama of European exploration and colonization against the even greater grandeur of Polynesian inventiveness, dignity, and self-determination. Thanks to Thompson’s vision, we encounter an authentic global mystery that proves as vast and luminous as the Pacific itself.” — Jack Weatherford, bestselling author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
“Sea People teems with compelling insights as it explores the age-old mysteries of Polynesian origins. We don’t just visit the turreted cliffs of the Marquesas with Mendaña, the cloud-wrapped peaks of Hawaii with Cook, or the treacherous reefs of Raroia with Heyerdahl. We envision the whole panorama of European exploration and colonization against the even greater grandeur of Polynesian inventiveness, dignity, and self-determination. Thanks to Thompson’s vision, we encounter an authentic global mystery that proves as vast and luminous as the Pacific itself.” — Paul Fisher, author of House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family
“Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, Thompson’s account shows how the science of human history, despite occasional wrong turns and dead ends, slowly but steadily advances. A must read for anyone fascinated by the Polynesians or interested in the history of science.” — Patrick V. Kirch, author of On the Road of the Winds
“A luminous, beautifully rendered account of Polynesian navigation and exploration, and the lives and knowledge that built and populated an astonishing Oceanian civilization. Thompson captures the remarkable deep history of a world shaped between land and sea.” — Matt K. Matsuda, author of Pacific Worlds
“Artfully written… [Thompson] writes with infectious awe and appreciation about Polynesian culture and with sharp intelligence about the blind spots of those investigating it at different times. This fascinating work could prove to be the standard on the subject for some time to come.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An inspired history… A beautifully woven narrative… Thompson vividly captures the wondrousness of this region of the world as well as the sense of adventure tied up in that history.” — Kirkus Reviews
“A superb chronicler of the intellectual explorers of Polynesian history, Thompson writes with command and insight, enhancing this fascinating book’s rich appeal.” — Booklist
"An elegantly written and superbly researched survey of a great geographical and historical puzzle." — Literary Review
"A rewarding chronicle that spans centuries of investigations . . . [Thompson] shows us how we know what we know about the peopling of nearly a quarter of the Earth's surface." — Smithsonian
"A mesmerizing tapestry of maritime and scholarly discovery." — Global Asia
"A fascinating answer to an enormous puzzle – and Thompson tells it beautifully. Essential reading." — Stuff magazine
"Destined to be a nonfiction classic." — Inkslinger
Compelling.… These pages will unleash the imagination [and] spark insight.
Christina Thompson…is perhaps ideally placed to try to answer the question [of Polynesian origins] – and in Sea People, her fascinating and satisfying addition to an already considerable body of Polynesian literature, she succeeds admirably.
Sea People is a roaring success.… A deeply interesting read, and at points incredibly moving.
Fascinating… A piece of beautiful nonfiction writing.
I loved this book. I found Sea People the most intelligent, empathic, engaging, wide-ranging, informative, and authoritative treatment of Polynesian mysteries that I have ever read. Christina Thompson’s gorgeous writing arises from a deep well of research and succeeds in conjuring a lost world.
Superb. . . . An illuminating read for amateur sleuths and professional scholars alike.
Magnificent… A grand, symphonic, beautifully written book… Sea People is an archive-researched historical account that has the page-turning qualities of an all-absorbing mystery.
The supra theme of Sea People is a vision of knowledge systems intertwined – the outcome of history, cultural tolerance, and a grasp of misunderstandings. Thompson’s tone is perfectly tuned for such enlightenment, as is the life-position from which she writes.
Christina Thompson’s outstanding study brims with detail.
Sea People is a rich compendium of the ways Polynesia has been pinned down on the maps of geography, history, and culture through the centuries. As Thompson so eloquently shows, such descriptions are only half of a story.
Compelling.… These pages will unleash the imagination [and] spark insight.
Christina Thompson’s outstanding study brims with detail.
A luminous, beautifully rendered account of Polynesian navigation and exploration, and the lives and knowledge that built and populated an astonishing Oceanian civilization. Thompson captures the remarkable deep history of a world shaped between land and sea.
A triumph… Sea People deserves a wide audience, one well beyond those who are from, or conduct research, in the region… Infused with curiosity and respect, Sea People is everything historical nonfiction should be.
Sea People teems with compelling insights as it explores the age-old mysteries of Polynesian origins. We don’t just visit the turreted cliffs of the Marquesas with Mendaña, the cloud-wrapped peaks of Hawaii with Cook, or the treacherous reefs of Raroia with Heyerdahl. We envision the whole panorama of European exploration and colonization against the even greater grandeur of Polynesian inventiveness, dignity, and self-determination. Thanks to Thompson’s vision, we encounter an authentic global mystery that proves as vast and luminous as the Pacific itself.
A superb chronicler of the intellectual explorers of Polynesian history, Thompson writes with command and insight, enhancing this fascinating book’s rich appeal.
"Destined to be a nonfiction classic."
"A fascinating answer to an enormous puzzle – and Thompson tells it beautifully. Essential reading."
"A rewarding chronicle that spans centuries of investigations . . . [Thompson] shows us how we know what we know about the peopling of nearly a quarter of the Earth's surface."
"An elegantly written and superbly researched survey of a great geographical and historical puzzle."
A revelatory summation of this vast area steeped in culture and tradition.
A thorough and page-turning investigation… Part-memoir, part-investigation, part-history book, Sea People is an adventure in itself… It’s a compelling read, and one that movingly reminds us that the world is much older and much bigger than we imagine.
Thompson offers not a binary (science vs myth) but a proliferation of knowledge frameworks: linguistics, oral history, computer science, anthropology, navigation, archaeology, etc. Thompson affirms a stance of intellectual appreciation, humility, and wonder.
"A mesmerizing tapestry of maritime and scholarly discovery."
Fascinating… The origins of the people of Polynesia, as discussed in this spellbinding history, are sure to captivate armchair travelers and historians alike.
Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, Thompson’s account shows how the science of human history, despite occasional wrong turns and dead ends, slowly but steadily advances. A must read for anyone fascinated by the Polynesians or interested in the history of science.
Sea People teems with compelling insights as it explores the age-old mysteries of Polynesian origins. We don’t just visit the turreted cliffs of the Marquesas with Mendaña, the cloud-wrapped peaks of Hawaii with Cook, or the treacherous reefs of Raroia with Heyerdahl. We envision the whole panorama of European exploration and colonization against the even greater grandeur of Polynesian inventiveness, dignity, and self-determination. Thanks to Thompson’s vision, we encounter an authentic global mystery that proves as vast and luminous as the Pacific itself.
A superb chronicler of the intellectual explorers of Polynesian history, Thompson writes with command and insight, enhancing this fascinating book’s rich appeal.
Sea People is a rich compendium of the ways Polynesia has been pinned down on the maps of geography, history, and culture through the centuries. As Thompson so eloquently shows, such descriptions are only half of a story.
I have rarely read so exciting and companionable a narrative as Christina Thompson’s Sea People. In her capable hands this saga of Polynesia’s scattered islands becomes a comprehensive and dramatic history of our planet and the ways its peoples, creatures, vegetation, land forms, and waters interacted over the centuries and eons since the world began.
To those of the western hemisphere, the Pacific represents a vast unknown, almost beyond our imagining; for its Polynesian island peoples, this fluid, shifting place is home. Christina Thompson’s wonderfully researched and beautifully written narrative brings these two stories together, gloriously and excitingly. Filled with teeming grace and terrible power, her book is a vibrant and revealing new account of the watery part of our world.
Who hasn’t stayed up late reading South Sea tales? Christina Thompson’s Sea People is a South Sea tale to top them all—the exploration and settlement of the vast Pacific Ocean by stone-age Polynesians—and every word is true. It’s a compelling story, beautifully told, the best exploration narrative I’ve read in years.
Christina Thompson’s Sea People is luminous, a beautifully rendered account of Polynesian navigation and exploration, and the lives and knowledge that built and populated an astonishing Oceanian civilization. From Islander oral histories to European accounts and the study of intertwined genealogies, Sea People is at once historical, literary, archaeological, personal, poetic, and scientific. It is a work that traces ancient settlements and modern controversies, moving with canoe explorers and contemporary experimental voyagers, weaving together chants and pottery fragments with anthropology and molecular biology. In this, Thompson captures the remarkable deep history of a world shaped between land and sea.
2018-11-21
An inspired history of the elusive far-flung Pacific region and peoples of the "Polynesian Triangle."
Defined by the three points of Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island—and encompassing all the islands within it—the Polynesian Triangle was initially colonized thousands of years ago by a group of voyagers carrying with them their shared language, tools, myths, and plants and animals. Where did they come from: South America or Melanesia and Taiwan? Since the Pacific islands were first "discovered" by European explorers in the 16th century, the Western myths surrounding the "problem of Polynesian origins" abounded, and Harvard Review editor Thompson (Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story, 2008), a dual citizen of the United States and Australia, follows the thread in a beautifully woven narrative. The author is inspired by her husband, Seven, of Maori origin, who is essentially at home among any of the islands within this vast area of the Pacific Ocean, much as the original settlers would have been. From the first eyewitnesses to make contact with the islanders—Spaniard Álvaro de Mendaña on the Marquesas (1595), Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Island (1722), and James Cook on Hawaii (1778)—there was much wonderment about how these early seafarers could have traversed 600 miles between islands amid a vast expanse of ocean in canoes lacking sophisticated navigation instruments. As Thompson smoothly traces the history of the Polynesians and their language and culture through discoveries in anthropology and archaeology, especially radiocarbon dating, she emphasizes the importance of the migrations of the Lapita people from Asia. Ultimately, the author makes clear that the original settlers were not just blown about by currents and winds; they keenly navigated using star paths, ocean swells, and other land-finding techniques like bird-watching.
Thompson vividly captures the wondrousness of this region of the world as well as the sense of adventure tied up in that history.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170068357 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 03/12/2019 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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