Episode 18 High Middle Ages in Pacific Polynesia

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

Between 400 and 700 AD Polynesia outrigger voyages from Samoa to the eastern Pacific islands far exceeded any European sea voyages at the time. From 400 till 1300 AD, Polynesians settled all the habitable islands in the so-called Polynesian triangle, an area of 800,000 square miles.

Starting from a homeland in Tonga/Samoa settled around 900 BC, they spent the first millennium expanding into the Cook Islands, Hawaii, the Marquesas Islands, Rapanui (Easter Island) and New Zealand. They reached New Zealand last (1200-1320 AD). Evidence from DNA and carbon dating is consistent with their oral tradition.

They traveled in double hulled dug out canoes, the forerunners of the catamaran. They used the area between the two canoes for storage and were powered by 24 rowers and/or triangular sails made of woven mats that could tack into the wind. During storms they overturned their vessels to ensure they stayed on course, breathing the trapped air under the canoe.

Eurasian sailors used the sky, compasses, or astrolabes to navigate along latitude lines (first conceived of by the Greeks). They were unable to measure longitude prior to the modern age.

Polynesians navigated by the rising and setting of 10 stars, prevailing ocean swells, the sun (when it was low on the horizon), cloud patterns, driftwood, fish and to some extent winds (less reliable). They used a 3-dimenional stick chart to teach novice sailors to read the winds and tides.

When they set out to settle a new island, explorers carried breadfruit, tarot, coconut (used for wood and thatch as well as food), banana, mangoes, Malay apples, sugar cane sprouts, pigs, dogs (eaten as delicacy by chiefs) and chickens. Diet also included fish, dolphin and shark.

Practicing a form of animism, they believed supernatural forces (the main one being mana) animated the universe and everything on earth, eg trees. rocks, buildings, people and ancestors. Mana could be canceled by violating tapus (taboos). For example, if a commoner touched a chief’s robe, it diminished the chief’s mana unless the commoner was killed. A common art form, the tattoo, helped preserved the mana of the individual being tattooed and their ancestors.

Typical tapus included a ban on men and women eating together or men eating food prepared by women (men did most of the cooking). Women wove mats and clothing.

Most Polynesian cultures played a nose flute (made from a one foot bamboo stalk), pan pipes and/or and ankle rattles.* Dancing, however, was the most important art form.

• Hawai – hula dance
• Tahiti – dance in which legs and arms are stationary and hips move to rapid drum beats
• New Zealand – haka war dance

The inhabitants of Rapanui built extremely tall stone statues known a mohai. Believed to represent semi-divine ancestors they face the interior guarding the inland. Although 880 have been discovered, most remain in the quarry. Of the 113 erected, 25 of them extremely large (average 13 feet tall, 28,000 pounds). They were transported from the quarry by 60-500 people pulling a long wooden sled and using a sloping ramp to tip them upward.

Rat DNA suggest a continued state of trade between Samoa/Tonga and the other Polynesian islands (except for Rapanui) until 1400 AD when climate change curtailed ocean travel.

Human DNA studies reveals that Rapanui voyagers traveled 4,000 miles to the coast of Colombia before 1150. Sweet potato cultivated throughout the Pacific Islands originated in South America.

The Polynesians inventing surfing (first depicted in 12th century art work).

*The Ukelele was introduced to Hawaii after European arrived.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/13172786/13172825