Mystery behind Moana: After 1,700 years, why did Polynesians suddenly sail east?

goda90•about 3 hours ago

This talks about climate impacting the population, but it made me wonder if herd immunity to disease in an isolated population could cause population limiting diseases to go extinct after awhile.

mtoner23•about 3 hours ago

Food would be the biggest barrier to population growth in pre modern times

clickety_clack•about 3 hours ago

Why does anyone do anything? Some people obviously just got really into the idea of sailing to the islands.

Right now there are people in the world that are super into the idea of going to Mars. There’s no reason why anyone has to do it, but they’re into the idea of it and they’ll find whatever rationale they need to explain the desire.

rflrob•about 2 hours ago

There are always going to be people whose reason is “because we can”. Going to Mars has, on the scale of a human lifetime, only recently become vaguely feasible. As someone who works in STEM, I’m generally on the side of new technologies unlocking things, though I don’t doubt that population and environmental shifts in the home territory can tip things over from a few crazy dreamers to a more coordinated expansion.

kelseyfrog•about 2 hours ago

We're going to Mars because of rainfall patterns. The anthropologists of the future will peice together clues and come to the same conclusion.

clickety_clack•about 2 hours ago

I have been running from rainfall patterns my entire life.

RajT88•about 2 hours ago

"Why was there a massive migration to Mars starting in 2050? More importantly why did every wave of settlers die out almost immediately"?

ezconnect•about 1 hour ago

They are probably trying but only succeeded after many failures and fix the food supply of a long sea journey, navigation and mapping of the sea.

yzydserd•about 2 hours ago

An increase in the supply of boat snacks?

ohyoutravel•about 3 hours ago

This was covered in the movie.

dosisking•about 1 hour ago

TLDR; There was a guy who sailed west. Other people didn't like that guy, so they sailed the opposite way.

dostick•about 2 hours ago

Same reason as everything - looking for women

noworriesnate•about 2 hours ago

The Pilgrims weren't looking for women. They were looking for religious freedom.

mullingitover•about 1 hour ago

They had religious freedom in the Netherlands. The idea that they were persecuted is a very stubborn myth.

They went to the Americas in search of the same thing as most immigrants: money[1].

[1] https://www.history.com/articles/why-pilgrims-came-to-americ...

pstuart•about 2 hours ago

> They were looking for religious freedom.

That's a tired trope and not the real reason. If history interests you, I suggest you dig deeper with fresh eyes.

Mystery behind Moana: After 1,700 years, why did Polynesians suddenly sail east?

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