Testing Indigenous Spatial Orientation and Navigation Systems

理查德·范伯格博士、本·R·芬尼博士和玛丽安·乔治博士将在所罗门群岛的波利尼西亚社区陶马科研究土著导航背后的认知空间系统。独具特色的波利尼西亚航行方法缺乏文献记载和理解，因为独木舟航行在波利尼西亚大部分地区很久以前就被放弃了。然而，直到20世纪60年代，由于舷外马达和岛间航运的存在，他们也放弃了独木舟航行。调查人员将把陶马科航行作为一个抽象的知识体系和具体的实践来研究。他们将记录领航员在海上的观察、推理和行动；他们将使用复杂的仪器来跟踪独木舟并测量航行性能。通过比较这两个数据集，他们将确定传统方法的工作方式和效果。最近，研究空间定位系统的科学家分析了密克罗尼西亚加洛林群岛的导航报告，那里的航行从未消失。然而，卡罗莱尼亚人依赖于概念性的“星罗盘”，而桃马科人则使用“风罗盘”作为他们的中心导航结构。这项拟议的研究将测试从卡罗莱纳航海得出的假设，与一个平行的、尽管结构不同的波利尼西亚系统有关。在20世纪90年代，陶马科的最高酋长发起了一场航海复兴，仅存的几名专家一直在教年轻人建造、驾驶和航行独木舟。芬尼和乔治将学习陶马科独木舟和航行技术，它们在岛上社会经济秩序中的地位，它们对陶马科文化认同的重要性，以及复兴过程本身。研究结果将发表在科学期刊上，还将提供给当地岛上的教师和课程制定者，他们将把这些结果纳入不同年级的教学计划，从而使当地东道主受益，并促进科学知识。

Dr. Richard Feinberg, Dr. Ben R. Finney, and Dr. Marianne George will investigate the cognitive spatial system underlying indigenous navigation on Taumako, a Polynesian community in the Solomon Islands. Distinctively Polynesian navigation methods are poorly documented and understood, as canoe voyaging was long ago abandoned in most of Polynesia. However, such methods were used by the Taumako until the 1960s, when availability of outboard motors and inter-island shipping led them also to give up canoe sailing.The investigators will study Taumako navigation both as an abstract knowledge system and as concrete practice. They will record the navigators' observations, reasoning, and actions at sea; and they will use sophisticated instruments to track the canoes and measure navigational performance. By comparing the two data sets, they will determine how, and how well, traditional methods work.Recently, scientists investigating systems of spatial orientation have analyzed reports on navigation in Micronesia's Caroline Islands, where voyaging never died out. However, whereas Carolinians rely on a conceptual "star compass," the Taumako employ a "wind compass" as their central navigational construct. The proposed research will test hypotheses derived from Carolinian navigation in relation to a parallel, though differently structured, Polynesian system.During the 1990s, the paramount chief of Taumako initiated a voyaging revival in which the few remaining experts have been teaching youths to build, sail, and navigate voyaging canoes. Finney, and George will study Taumako canoes and voyaging techniques, their place in the island's socio-economic order, their importance for Taumako cultural identity, and the revival process itself. The findings will be published in scientific journals and will also made available to localisland teachers and curriculum developers, who will incorporate them into lesson plans for various grade levels, thus benefiting the local hosts as well as contributing to scientific knowledge.