Tonga vaka ua nima fefine
Niue vaka ua lima fifine
Samoa va’a lua lima fafine
rainbow
‘umata tangaloa nuanua
E.Uvea vaka lua nima fafine
E.Futuna vaka lua lima fafine
Mangareva vaka rua rima ahine
Marquesas vaka ‘ua ‘ima vehine
Hawaii wa’a lua lima wahine
Tahiti va’a rua rima vahine
Tuamotu vaka rua rima vahiine
Rarotonga vaka rua rima va’ine
nuanua
nuanua
anuanua
aanuanua
aanuenue
aanuanua
anuanua
aanuanua
NZ
science teacher
Figure 2: A sample of cognate (homologous) words for eleven Polynesian languages. Noncognate terms are in an italic bold font. arrival. And ancient DNA techniques from these bones make it probable that these are ancient Polynesian chickens. The evidence is still partly disputed, so it would be good to have more ancient bones, and more DNA from ancient bones of both South American and Polynesian chickens. The work continues. There is now evidence of a Polynesian settlement just off the coast of Chile, evidence from sailing technologies in parts of South America, and even evidence from archeology from islands off the coast of southern California (possibly a more northern contact from Hawaii?). Thus the genetic, archeological and radiocarbon dating supports the contact. So the best evidence we have at present is that such as the Polynesians left the chickens in South America, and brought back the kumara; we call this the “chicken ‘n chips” model. But – and it is an important ‘but’ – as good scientists, we always look for a more thorough testing of our models and our ideas.
Conclusions and future directions Increasingly we will see whole human genomes being sequenced, and this will give even more detailed
information of the history of the Polynesians. If there was ongoing acceptance of males into the local groups, we may find a gradient across the Pacific, with less introgression the further eastward we go? Molecular genetics offers many opportunities for increased precision, and we find the subject attracts mathematicians and physical and computer scientists. A new opportunity comes from the detection of haplotype blocks – relatively long stretches of nuclear DNA where recombination has not occurred for many generations. Increased genetic study of commensal and domesticated species, such as chickens, pigs, taro, breadfruit and kumara are necessary. Models of long-distance voyaging make getting to South America and back realistic for early Polynesians. Nowhere else in the world offers the same opportunity to unravel the dramatic and complex effects of humans on the environment and on indigenous plants and animals. Everything we have learned confirms that Remote Oceania is the best location to test our understanding of human migration and impacts on a naïve environment. For further information contact: D.Penny@massey.ac.nz
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Meaning canoe two five woman
continued from page 25
New HPS questions internationally Within healthy science there is a critical dynamic, but for there to be such a dynamic requires at the same time a complementary dynamic of (considered, rationally defensible) trust. The social negotiation of this relationship is researched (e.g. by Helen Longino, a leader in this field) with the critical purpose of understanding when science is sick, not only when it is well. A particular case concerns professional determination that complex scientific experimentation has come to an end; that equipment (often constructed and maintained by whole teams of people, typically diverse in their expertise, and even at odds with one another in the general view they have of the natural world) has produced results that truly tell the characteristics of arcane phenomena of nature. Peter Galison and Ian Hacking are among the leaders of this sociological, but at the same time epistemic, work on experimental science. A wonderful new set of questions arise because of
heightened recognition of the sociological richness and independent epistemic significance of the experimental side of science. What relation cognitively is there between the refinement of practical skills, and our possession of clear or contentful concepts? The question reaches beyond the naïvety of empiricist operationalism into contemporary reaches of cognitive science, as well as the depths of Heideggerian philosophy. Work like Galison’s and Hacking’s on experimental science also models on the sociological microscale the formation of trust surrounding pronouncements by science. On the sociological macroscale such understanding is pertinent to key social issues of the present day, such as evaluating the trust owed by the polis to scientific concerns about geohazards, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, water geological issues surrounding agriculture or health, vaccination avoidance, antibiotics overuse, and so on.
futurefocus–HPS
meaning, mentation, and who is who in the history of philosophy, including in recent and contemporary philosophy. They have all marked philosophy of science from these parts in ways that the rest of the world truly recognises and truly cares to know about. Meanwhile, historians of science in the two countries broaden understanding among other things of Australian and New Zealand contributions to science, and of the science-society relationship down under. With regards to the New Zealand connection, look out for works by Rebecca Priestley for example. One aspect of science-society relationships is the relation of down under indigenous and down under later arriving peoples. I am myself exploring this in the New Zealand connection.
Concluding concern One could have expected that universities worthy of the name would ever secure a place for academics who pursue these general, reflective concerns, and thus for their mode of reflection. But that expectation is challenged by most contemporary universities, perhaps especially those in Australia and New Zealand. Individualised by recent re-design to an egregious extent, universities also fail to advance liberal education. Students breathe the same air as their teachers. They focus and follow a single path. The number of, say, science or engineering students, who branch out and study HPS, falls away. I am not as confident as I would wish to be that NZ will even hold onto this significant and important mode of reflection on science. For further information contact: philip.catton@canterbury.ac.nz New Zealand Association of Science Educators
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