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The Conversation USA

Pacific voyagers’ remarkable environmental knowledge allowed for long-distance navigation without Western technology

  • Written by Richard (Rick) Feinberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Kent State University
imageAn outrigger canoe would typically have several paddlers and one navigator.AP Photo/David Goldman

Wet and shivering, I rose from the outrigger of a Polynesian voyaging canoe. We’d been at sea all afternoon and most of the night. I’d hoped to get a little rest, but rain, wind and an absence of flat space made sleep impossible. My...

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