From the late 1930s to his death in 2002, Norwegian adventurer and amateur ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl struggled to find academic acceptance for his Pacific Islands settlement theory. He even went as far as using the biblical story of David and Goliath as a metaphor for his struggle against academia. However, there are numerous reasons to question the accuracy of Heyerdahl’s description of his relationship to the scientific community. This paper discusses the reception of Heyerdahl’s ‘Kon-Tiki theory’ among Pacific scholars in the late 1940s and early 1950s. By analysing contemporary reviews of Heyerdahl’s 1952 book American Indians in the Pacific and comments on early drafts of the theory, this paper demonstrates that the material substantially differs from Heyerdahl’s own claims. He was not excluded by the Pacific scientific community, but welcomed and encouraged. Above all, reviewers of Heyerdahl’s theory praised the importance of the challenge he had posed to the established research narrative. However, Heyerdahl’s academic amateurism failed to convince the scientific community of the accuracy of his theory.

中文翻译：

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大卫的大规模杀伤性武器：托尔·海尔达尔的“康提基理论”的接受

从 1930 年代后期到 2002 年去世，挪威冒险家兼业余民族学家托尔·海尔达尔（Thor Heyerdahl）努力为他的太平洋岛屿定居点理论寻求学术认可。他甚至用圣经中大卫和歌利亚的故事来比喻他与学术界的斗争。然而，有很多理由质疑海尔达尔对他与科学界关系的描述的准确性。本文讨论了 40 年代末和 50 年代初太平洋学者对海尔达尔的“康提基理论”的接受程度。通过分析海尔达尔 1952 年出版的《太平洋上的美洲印第安人》一书的当代评论和对该理论的早期草稿的评论，本文表明该材料与海尔达尔自己的主张有很大不同。他没有被太平洋科学界排除在外，但欢迎和鼓励。最重要的是，海尔达尔理论的评论者称赞了他对既定研究叙述提出的挑战的重要性。然而，海尔达尔的学术业余主义未能让科学界相信他的理论的准确性。