June History Book Club Meeting - "Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia"

In June, we will learn the history of a region of the world that we have only rarely visited in this group: Polynesia. This book explores the history of how humans came to populate these islands. Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson.

Here is what the publisher has to say about the book:

"For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, a vast triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. Both the most closely related and the most widely dispersed people in the world before the era of mass migration, Polynesians can trace their roots to a group of epic voyagers who ventured out into the unknown in one of the greatest adventures in human history.

How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonize these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? This conundrum, which came to be known as the Problem of Polynesian Origins, emerged in the eighteenth century as one of the great geographical mysteries of mankind.

Thompson explores the fascinating story of these ancestors, as well as those of the many sailors, linguists, archaeologists, folklorists, biologists, and geographers who have puzzled over this history for three hundred years."

Please remember that this is, first and foremost, a book club. Like any local book club, the point is discussion about a shared experience - reading the book! It is not a lecture series. So as usual, get yourself a copy and read it, then join us for another interesting discussion. We continue to meet virtually because so many of our members now join us from locations far from the D.C area.

A zoom link to the discussion will be sent a day before the meeting.