Old Theory

Polynesians

New Scientist With an Old Theory

IN articles published widely in North American newspapers in recent months, Thor Heyerdahl, described as “a Norwegian scientist and traveller”, claimed that he had traced the origin of the Polynesian race to the Bella Coola Valley, a district of British Columbia, in Eastern Canada.

There is nothing new in the theories of Mr. Heyerdahl. The origin of the Polynesian race has been for long a subject of much controversy; but every scientist, of any standing, who has dis cussed the matter agrees that the original Polynesians must have come into the Pacific from South Asia, or South-West Asia, via the East Indian Archipelagoes.

THIS business of the origin of the Polynesians is like a jig-saw puzzle”, Mr. Heyerdahl said, in an interview.

“Once the key is found all the parts fit together perfectly and make it impossible to believe that the Polynesian races came from any place except the North-West Coast of America, and Bella Coola in particular.”

Mr. Heyerdahl, who with his wile spent a year in Polynesia, expressed the belief that the original inhabitants of the mountain-girt Bella Coola Valley had been driven from their homes 1000 A.D. by the war-like Salish Indians of the lower Fraser Valley, 300 miles farther south.

He suggested they fled in their huge dugout canoes until they reached the open seas, where prevailing winds carried them 2,300 miles south-west to the Hawaiian Islands. Some spread on through the South Sea archipelagoes while others penetrated as far as New Zealand, to found the Maori race.

Mr. Heyerdahl declared that stone carvings, found in remote sections of the Marquesas Islands, are identical with those found in the Bella Coola Valley, and that there is a marked relation evi dent in the bark clothes worn by the in habitants of both regions. He also found a similarity in carved columns, instru ments of war and peaceful utensils.

He said that nearly 200 years ago, Captain Cook and Captain George Van couver reported in their journals that the Hawaiian Islanders had canoes 60 ft. long, made of American pine. Heyerdahl said the explorers thought the logs had drifted there, but he sees it as further proof of his theory.

Similarity between the Malays and Polynesians had led scientists to regard the Malayan archipelago as a possible source of the Polynesians, he added, but his theory is that both races started from a common cradle in Asia and went different ways, the Polynesians crossing to North America by way of the Bering Straits.

Mr. Heyerdahl also claims to have solved the riddle of the monster stone monuments on Easter Island, in the South Pacific. He believes they were erected by a pre-Inca civilisation from South America which used Easter Island, the Hawaiian Islands, the Marquesas group, Tahiti and Tonga as colonies.

Dr. Mead Is Sceptical

Dr. Margaret Mead, A World

famous anthropologist, now curator at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, New York, who is an authority on the Polynesians and author of the well-known “Coming of Age in Samoa”, said, on the basis of the inter view given by Mr. Heyerdahl, “it does not appear that he is presenting any new

material to support an old, frequently advanced theory, so far unsupported by evidence.

“These superficial resemblances be tween the cultures of the north-west coast of Britisn Columbia arid the cul tures of the Polynesians have led ethno logists and students to construct periodi cally. theories of this sort, for the last 50 years”, said Dr. Mead. ‘‘The Polynesians, in fact, were once called the lost ten tribes, and have been called every other lost thing on earth”, she said. If Mr, Heyerdahl has made archaeological finds in an extensive area and could offer substantial new material of this sort, to support his theory, then it would indeed be of outstanding anthro pological interest.

What has often confused ethnologists has been their finding similar instruments of war and utensils in widely scattered parts of the Pacific. Dr. Mead said many of these were scattered by Captain James Cook and other travellers, who' purchased utensils in one spot and left them in an other.