The Kon-Tiki voyage Thor Heyerdahl, (born October 6, 1914, Larvik, Norway—died April 18, 2002, Colla Micheri, Italy) was a Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer who organized and led the famous Kon-Tiki and Ra transoceanic scientific expeditions. Both expeditions were intended to prove the possibility of ancient transoceanic contacts between distant civilizations and cultures. For the most part, Heyerdahl’s theories have not been accepted by anthropologists. The Kon-Tiki voyage led by Norwegian explorer was a huge success and proved beyond doubt that Polynesia could have been settled from South America. It did, however, do nothing to prove that it was. More recent advances in genetic testing and radiocarbon dating have shown that, whilst some South American origins are present in the Polynesian DNA pool, the vast majority is distinct. There’s no conclusive proof of origin, and how and why the Moai on Rapa Nui got into place is still unknown. But thanks to Thor Heyerdahl, a South American influence is one possible explanation. One of the great mysteries of anthropology is how Polynesia – a vast pseudo-country in the Pacif-
ic spread triangularly between Rapa Nui, Hawaii and New Zealand – came to be inhabited by people with similar customs, cultures and, notably, languages. One theory, advanced in the 1930s is that the Islands were populated step-by-step from South-East Asia. But many remained unconvinced, including a Norwegian Explorer and Ethnographer by the name of Thor Heyerdahl. Thor’s theory was that the islands making up Polynesia were settled from the West by natives of South America using ‘drift voyaging’ – basically building a raft with a sail and letting the ocean take you. His primary evidence was the Moai statues on Rapa Nui (known in the West as Easter Island) which, he claimed, owed more to South American than Asian culture. There was also the legend of Kon-Tiki Viracocha, a native chief who is said to have set sail from Peru into the sunset on a balsawood raft. When making these claims, Heyer-
dahl was dismissed by most anthropologists with one, Herbert Spinden, exclaiming ‘Sure, see how far you get yourself sailing from Peru to the South Pacific on a balsa Raft!’ Not one to turn down such a challenge, even though it wasn’t necessarily serious, Thor Heyerdahl decided to do just that. Heyerdahl
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