 Contact with rest of Polynesia.
"Lars Johansson" <johansson_onsala@m> wrote in message=20
news:<1067331001-sch@news.lava.net>...
> Hi,
> I know that Hawaii was colonised in two vaves and that it had been=20
> isolated
> for a while before Cook.
> But how much contact was there beteen the colonisation and the=20
> isolation? I
> remember reading that a new ruler was impored at one time, so=20
> obviously the
> routes where known. But how much traffic was there? Family ties? =
Trade?
> Or is it not known?
>
As to exactly how much traffic was there, I can't say. I do know that
in the genealogies of the chiefs, there were many chiefs who were from
foreign places and there are genealogies that specifically mentions
their place of origin as well as the places they have ventured to.
With other Polynesians you can find the same people listed on their
genealogies, although in their genealogies like Hawaiian genealogies,
it mentions how these people were part of their nation. Which
suggests that these chiefs travelled frequently back and forth.
The imported ruler that you mentioned is Piliaka'aiea. He lived about
23 generations before Kamehameha. Estimate about 4 generations per
century, from 23 generations you have 5 3/4 centuries. Subtract 575
from when Kamehameha was born - 1758, you come up w/ 1183 A.D., which
coincides w/ the time of the great migrational period.
These so called "waves" seemed to be only in 2 large numbers. Or more
than likely 1 large number. In any case, if you look up the
Polynesian Voyaging society's website, they have lots of info. on
ancient travelling ways. The site provides some stories on ancient
travellers and other revealing things regarding prophecies that some
Polynesians held about how these ties were broken and reopened again.
Polynesians had a lot of oral history passed on. Unfortunately these
so called scientist fail to look at these for verification. They use
their own science to prove that Polynesians were capable of sailing
back and forth, something that was known to Polynesian people since
the stories have been passed on for generations.
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