[ml/nj]

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?. What were they doing? Why would enough Polynesians set out to have any statistical chance of even finding Hawaii? Are all Hawaiians supposedly descendants of one Polynesian pair, or were there several? People who question the conventional wisdom would like to know.

ML/NJ

[yankeedame]

Those are all good questions. How 'bout: Where did they get the drinking water for this trek? The couldn't drink sea water. Did they carry their own? How? And how much? Esp. considering they didn't know of any islands along the way...or for that matter, they didn't know if there was anything anywhere out there.

[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.

[Rodney King]

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?. What were they doing? Why would enough Polynesians set out to have any statistical chance of even finding Hawaii? Are all Hawaiians supposedly descendants of one Polynesian pair, or were there several? People who question the conventional wisdom would like to know.

A lot of the great viking explorers were essentially escaping death, having been exiled or been in a feud with some king or other. It could be the same sort of thing.