Anderson Atholl, O'Regan Sir Tipene, Parata-Goodall Puamiria, Stevens Michael, Tau Te Maire
Kā Waimaero | Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
J R Soc N Z. 2021 Sep 12;52(5):599-605. doi: 10.1080/03036758.2021.1973517. eCollection 2022.
Recent publications by Wehi and colleagues assert that Māori or other Polynesians in the pre-European era voyaged to and from the Antarctic. Such ideas have been advanced for more than a century, largely in relation to Rarotongan traditions translated by Percy Smith. As the juxtaposition of unexamined Polynesian traditions with historical archives is problematic for both historiography and matauranga Māori, an analytical approach is taken here to the traditional evidence. It is argued that a key assertion referring to frozen seas has a different and more probable interpretation and that there are no compelling traditions of Antarctic voyaging. In addition, Polynesian voyaging through the circumpolar westerlies would have little chance of success and archaeological evidence of Polynesian voyaging does not extend south of about 50° South. It is concluded that Antarctic voyaging by pre-European Polynesians seems most unlikely.
韦希及其同事近期发表的文章断言，在欧洲人到来之前的时代，毛利人或其他波利尼西亚人曾往返于南极洲。这类观点已提出一个多世纪了，很大程度上与珀西·史密斯翻译的拉罗汤加传统有关。由于未经审视的波利尼西亚传统与历史档案的并置对历史编纂学和毛利知识体系来说都存在问题，因此本文对传统证据采用了一种分析方法。有人认为，一个关于冰封海域的关键断言有不同且更有可能的解释，而且没有令人信服的南极洲航行传统。此外，波利尼西亚人通过极地西风带航行成功的可能性很小，而且波利尼西亚人航行的考古证据并未延伸到南纬约50°以南。结论是，欧洲人到来之前的波利尼西亚人进行南极洲航行似乎极不可能。
