ABSTRACT

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.

摘要

Wehi 及其同事最近发表的文章断言，在前欧洲时代，毛利人或其他波利尼西亚人曾往返于南极洲。这些想法已经推进了一个多世纪，主要与珀西史密斯翻译的拉罗汤加传统有关。由于未经审查的波利尼西亚传统与历史档案的并列对于史学和 matauranga 毛利人来说都是有问题的，因此这里对传统证据采取了一种分析方法。有人认为，关于冰冻海洋的关键断言有不同的和更可能的解释，并且没有令人信服的南极航行传统。此外，波利尼西亚人在环极西风带的航行几乎没有成功的机会，而且波利尼西亚人航行的考古证据并未延伸到南纬 50° 以南。