The Evolution of Pacific Canoe Rigs

Abstract

The recent upsurge of interest in the origins of Pacific cultures1 is based mainly on three lines of modern data; linguistics,2 archaeology of Lapita and related sites3 and the distribution of genetic factors in humans and cultivated plants.4 From these extensive subjects we can safely infer that there was a great deal of frequent to-and-fro movement by sea, not only by over-the-water colonists, but also follow-up by regular contact, whether trade or marauding. Movement between islands requires boats of some kind, however, and conveyance of plant shoots requires excellent boats that would also carry pigs, chickens, fire, family and trade cargo. However, when we try to piece together a theory of what the boats and rigs might have been like, we run into a situation which has been confused in the literature for the past half century.5 The present intention is to examine recent theories about the origins of Pacific maritime transport, to introduce some new ideas that have originated from my own fieldwork on outrigger canoes in Indonesia, and to reconstruct a picture of what was possible and probable over the long periods when movement by sea was clearly taking place.