Thomas Gladwin

Anthropolgy book picked purely because it's location was Puluwat and I needed Micronesia for the states challenge. Very readable. The author wanted to study the navigation culture of these people to try to ascertain how to measure intelligence and cognitive thinking without IQ tests. The Puluwat navigators hop in a canoe and sail off on the many "Seaways", such as in America we would hop in a car and navigate the highway. The way they build canoes, learn to navigate and island hop is extraordinary. When a non-native product proves superior, they integrate it into their culture, but on their own terms. For example, a compass is used only some of the time to just keep on a course, never to determine the sailing location. Instead a complex arrangement of stars, waves, sea birds and location sightings (reference islands, reefs, water changes) all keep the canoes on course.… (altro)