Canoes of the Grand Ocean [Paperback]

If Oceanic canoes, by their very strangeness were surprising to the earliest European observers, it was not long before their descriptions shifted from being impressed, enthusiastic or fascinated and gave way to detailed observations, measurements, comparisons and representations. Canoes are also the means by which the islanders apprehend space. In this perspective, this interesting volume on the study of canoes of the Grand Ocean remains a vehicle for discovery. Contents: 1) Canoes of the Grand Ccean (Anne Di Piazza); 2) Early European descriptions of oceanic watercraft: Iberian sources and contexts (Carlos Mondrag??n and Miguel Luque Talav??); 3) Voyaging exchanges: Tahitian pilots and european navigators (Anne Salmond); 4) Traditional oceanic canoes as seen by Admiral P??ris (Eric Rieth); 5) Polynesian representations of geographical and cosmological space: Anuta, Solomon islands (Richard Feinberg); 6) Origins and relationships of Pacific canoes and rigs (Adrian Horridge); 7) Dugout and sewn plank canoe construction on Raivavae, Austral islands (Robert Veccella); 8) Simulating island discovery during the Lapita expansion (Chris Avis, ??lvaro Montenegro and Andrew Weaver); 9) Simulating polynesian double-hulled canoe voyaging. combining digital and experimental data to prepare for a voyage to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) (Bradley M. Evans).This collection of essays examines the canoes of the Pacific islands. The first section reflects the strangeness of the canoes to early European explorers, looking at their accounts, and at exchanges between islanders and Europeans. There is also a fascinating piece about the importance of the canoe in Polynesian conceptions of space and time.