[marktwain]

“I’m still wondering how the Polynesians made it to Hawaii. Doesn’t anyone else find it odd that some men would sail out into the middle of a huge ocean in a canoe and find land 2000 miles away; and they would take women along?.”

Seems obvious to me. Lose a war and run away. Their mission: simple survival.

Wars are endemic in more primitive societies. An excellent book on the subject is: War Before Civilization.

[Will_Zurmacht]

logical enough...

another arg is that colonization in the South Pacific accomplished 2 goals:
1. reduce conflict within the settlement.
2. reduce drain on limited resources.

I think Diamond’s “Collapse” mentions something on these lines. Either way, run for your life or voyage out to find new resources. In any event people were travelling more than we have imagined/