If Thor Heyerdahl were still alive....

What would he think of Tiki Central and us as a group of Tiki enthusiasts?

I have been wondering this since I have been reading his books.

I just finished The Maldive Mystery and also have read Kon-Tiki, Aku-Aku, The Ra Expeditions, and Fatu-Hiva.
I have obtained copies of The Tigris Expedition as well as Early Man and The Ocean which I will be reading next.
It has been very interesting to learn of his deication to finding the answers to some of the great mysteries of antiquity. It sure would have been great to know him. If Oslo weren't so darn far away, I would definitely be going to the Kon-Tiki museum. http://www.kon-tiki.no/Heyerdahl/
Someone should make a Heyerdahl tiki mug. Don't ya think?

When we first met.......

[ Edited by: 8FT Tiki on 2005-06-03 17:23 ]

Great idea.
It should have a beard.

He would wonder why to so many people a limited edition mug has more value than a Polynesian carving.

Then he would check out posts like thejab's discovery of the 'The Outrigger Special" and Puamana's scans of 'Rummy's Polynesian House' menu and think "Ah, my spirit of exploration and discovery does live on in these people."

Trader Woody

[ Edited by: Trader Woody on 2005-06-04 00:26 ]

i read kon-tiki. it was ok, but it was pretty boring. i mean, it WAS written in, like, 1950...

On 2005-06-04 21:03, TikiLiciousness wrote:
i read kon-tiki. it was ok, but it was pretty boring. i mean, it WAS written in, like, 1950...

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
Please stay tuned for an announcement by the tiki-emergency broadcast system:

"I just want to make a public announcement that "Tikiliciousness" is NOT me... moi... the artist and passionate lover of all things 1950s, "Tikilicious". Please remember, as you are contemplating whether or not to buy a work of art with the signature "Tikilicious" on it, that I did NOT post the reply quoted above. Please, I beg of you to MAKE NO CONFUSION.

Mahalo, Mahalo, and Mahalo for keeping this in mind. :wink:

Most Sincerely,
XOXO, Tikilicious!"

This has been an announcement from the tiki-emergency broadcast system. You may now carry on back to your home-bars for another drink.

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

I was wondering if the "Explorer's Club" still exists in New York.
My bet, it doesn't and the entire collections have been scattered thruout the world. Anyone? Anyone?

http://www.explorers.org/calendar/view_entry.php?id=64&date=20021125

It's like FBI kiddie-porn troll crossbreeds with vaccuous valley girl.

Sweet!

Mahalo Sweet Daddy Tiki. Glad I was wrong. Now I must visit.

He would think " damn that Bong is funny and I owe Hanford another MaiTai"

I just finished reading Kontiki Man and I think he would have appreciated the artists that post here.

[ Edited by: Nokala Rocky on 2005-06-06 18:24 ]

I have mix feelings about THor. I don't like how he "tricked" the people on Easter Island to give him their family rocks.

Anyways, of all his books which one is the best and can anyone help me out fnding a good summer read. Tiki related. I need something when I'm sun worshipping.

I think he would be pleased that he touched and inspired so many and, no doubt, would press for another round of printing for his book.

Even if his theories have been challenged, he is still the man.

Is it true that the Kon Tiki was towed past the currents off Chile before it set sail?

christiki295 wrote:

On 2005-06-06 21:16, christiki295 wrote:

Is it true that the Kon Tiki was towed past the currents off Chile before it set sail?

Yes, I think they were told they had to be towed by government officials. I don't think it was Thor's choice. Great book, great read, here's to the great men of Kon-Tiki :drink:

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2005-06-06 21:54 ]

Thank you Dawn Tiki. Here is an excerpt on just that point. I had, apparently, mistakenly thought that currents prohibited the voyage.

"Some criticized the fact that the Kon-Tiki had to be towed well away from the coast before it could begin its voyage. Heyerdahl, however, was required to do so to avoid port traffic in his untested vessel. Secondly, the knowledge of how to steer the raft using the centerboards was unknown at the time thus steering the raft away from shore was a dubious process. Subsequent experiments demonstrated the magnificent versatility of these centerboards and other raft voyagers after Kon-Tiki would be able to maneuver directly from their departure points using this method." http://www.plu.edu/~ryandp/AIP.html

However, this Island Heritage essay suggets otherwise:

"While there are prevailing western winds and currents part of the year, they are just as strong eastward the rest of the year. And the strong ocean currents off the Peruvian coast actually make it virtually impossible for anything but a powered vessel to escape into the south Pacific (in the absence of motorized capabilities, rafts are caught in the Humboldt coastal currents that carry them northward to Central America rather than westward into the south Pacific; rarely emphasized by Heyerdahl is the fact that his own Kon-Tiki expedition raft had to be towed 50 nautical miles out to sea by a tug boat before beginning his long and courageous journey)." http://islandheritage.org/heyerdahl.html

If Thor Heyerdahl were still alive....

he'd probably be drinking a Viking Fog-Cutter...

With a shot of Akvavit.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141023131655.htm

Genomic data support early contact between Easter Island and Americas

Date: October 23, 2014

Source: Cell Press

Summary:

People may have been making their way from Easter Island to the Americas well before Dutch commander Jakob Roggeveen arrived in 1722, according to new genomic evidence showing that the Rapanui people living on that most isolated of islands had significant contact with Native American populations hundreds of years earlier. The findings lend the first genetic support for such an early trans-Pacific route between Polynesia and the Americas, a trek of more than 4,000 kilometers.

—-----

Genome-wide analysis of 27 native Rapanui now confirms significant contact between the island people and Native Americans sometime between approximately AD 1300 and AD 1500, 19 to 23 generations ago. The Rapanui population began mixing with Europeans only much later, in about 1850. The ancestry of the Rapanui today is 76% Polynesian, 8% Native American, and 16% European.

From Reuters, a little more on the same story:
Easter Island's ancient inhabitants weren't so lonely after all
In case the link disappears, it says:

(Reuters) - They lived on a remote dot of land in the middle of the Pacific, 2,300 miles (3,700 km) west of South America and 1,100 miles (1,770 km) from the closest island, erecting huge stone figures that still stare enigmatically from the hillsides.

But the ancient Polynesian people who populated Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, were not as isolated as long believed. Scientists who conducted a genetic study, published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology, found these ancient people had significant contact with Native American populations hundreds of years before the first Westerners reached the island in 1722.

The Rapa Nui people created a unique culture best known for the 900 monumental head-and-torso stone statues known as moai erected around Easter Island. The culture flourished starting around 1200 until falling into decline by the 16th century.

Genetic data on 27 Easter Island natives indicated that interbreeding between the Rapa Nui and native people in South America occurred roughly between 1300 and 1500.

"We found evidence of gene flow between this population and Native American populations, suggesting an ancient ocean migration route between Polynesia and the Americas," said geneticist Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas of the Center for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen, who led the study.

The genetic evidence indicates either that Rapa Nui people traveled to South America or that Native Americans journeyed to Easter Island. The researchers said it probably was the Rapa Nui people making the arduous ocean round trips.

"It seems most likely that they voyaged from Rapa Nui to South America and brought South Americans back to Rapa Nui and admixed with them," said Mark Stoneking, a geneticist with Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who collaborated on a related study of Brazil's indigenous Botocudo people. "So it will be interesting to see if in further studies any signal of Polynesian, Rapa Nui ancestry can be found in South Americans."

In making their way to South America and back, the Rapa Nui people may have spent perilous weeks in wooden outrigger canoes.

The researchers concluded that the intermixing occurred 19 to 23 generations ago. They said Rapa Nui people are not believed to have started mixing with Europeans until much later, the 19th century. Malaspinas said the genetic ancestry of today's Rapa Nui people is roughly 75 percent Polynesian, 15 percent European and 10 percent Native American.

A second study, also published in Thursday's issue of Current Biology, illustrates another case of Polynesians venturing into South America. Two ancient human skulls from Brazil's indigenous Botocudo people, known for the large wooden disks they wore in their lips and ears, belonged to people who were genetically Polynesian, with no detectable Native American ancestry.

"How the two Polynesian individuals belonging to the Botocudos came into Brazil is the million-dollar question," said University of Copenhagen geneticist Eske Willerslev of the Center for GeoGenetics, who led the study on the Botocudos.

The findings suggest these Polynesians reached South America and made their way to Brazil, either landing on the western coast of the continent and crossing the interior or voyaging around Tierra del Fuego and up the east coast, Stoneking said.

"In either event it is an amazing story," he said.

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Leslie Adler)