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Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002)

Autor(a) de Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft

57+ Works 7,266 Membros 106 Críticas 9 Favorited

About the Author

"This is an enthralling book," Hamilton Lasso wrote in The New Yorker of Kon-Tiki (1948), "and I don't think I can be very far off in calling it the most absorbing sea tale of our time." Heyerdahl, a Norwegian ethnologist, conceived the theory---not then accepted by other scientists---that mostrar mais Polynesia may have been originally settled by people who crossed the 4,100 miles of ocean from Peru in rafts made of balsa logs. Kon-Tiki is the story of how he and five others built the raft, as people of the Stone Age could build it, and traveled in it from Peru to a small island east of Tahiti---a "most fascinating description of intelligent courage." Heyerdahl believes that he has at last solved the problem of how natives raised the great statues on Easter Island and has written a most absorbing account of it in Aku-Aku (1958). He has adduced further corroboration of his theory from the findings in The Archaeology of Easter Island (1961). In the spring of 1969, Heyerdahl was engaged in a new experiment---planning to cross the Atlantic from Morocco to Yucatan in a 12-ton papyrus boat that he and others built themselves in the manner of the ancient Egyptians. In spite of general skepticism as to whether the boat, called the Ra, could make the journey without sinking when it became thoroughly water-soaked, Heyerdahl and six others set out in full confidence. They hoped to demonstrate that Egyptians might have made the journey in this manner 4,000 or 5,000 years ago and thus were the precursors of the Incas and Mayas. In July 1969, however, they were forced to abandon their attempt 600 miles short of their goal, near the Virgin Islands, after a series of storms had crippled the Ra. They left it drifting in the hope that it might reach Barbados on its own. Their second attempt, in Ra II, was successful. A subsequent journey in the reed-ship Tigris in 1977--78 was meant to show that such craft could maneuver against the wind and thus complete round-trip journeys through the ancient world via the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea. Political conflicts in the region, however, led Heyerdahl and his crew to burn the Tigris in protest. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Image credit: L'explorateur norvégien Thor Heyerdahl vers 1980

Obras por Thor Heyerdahl

Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island (1957) — Autor — 1,008 exemplares
The Ra Expeditions (1970) 719 exemplares
Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (1974) 457 exemplares
The Maldive Mystery (1986) 118 exemplares
Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (1989) 64 exemplares
American Indians in the Pacific (1952) 37 exemplares
The art of Easter Island (1975) — Autor — 30 exemplares
Sea Routes to Polynesia (1968) 24 exemplares
The Quest for America (1971) 14 exemplares
Ingen grenser (1999) 8 exemplares
Selected from Kon-Tiki (1993) 7 exemplares
Great Norwegian expeditions (1950) 5 exemplares
Archaeology of Easter Island (1962) 5 exemplares
Kon-Tiki [motion picture] (2002) 2 exemplares
Ve znamení Kon-Tiki (1951) 1 exemplar
Das große Heyerdahl-Buch (1980) 1 exemplar
Tillbaka till paradiset (1990) 1 exemplar
Oppdageren 1 exemplar
Kon~Tiki, Ra, Aku~Aku (1972) 1 exemplar
Hablan los vencidos (1996) 1 exemplar

Associated Works

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Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Críticas

Guy who’s afraid of boats and can’t swim decides to prove that ancient settlers of Polynesian islands came from South America, and he does so by recreating the journey they may have made on the kind of craft they would have used. Impressive, but apparently the account of such a journey is not my jam. I just couldn’t get interested in it.
 
Assinalado
electrascaife | 52 outras críticas | Jul 9, 2023 |
Testing a theory by making a trip, with adventures along the way, and context to explain why.
 
Assinalado
mykl-s | 52 outras críticas | May 28, 2023 |
Thor Heyerdahl ezúttal nem egy lélekvesztőn hajózik az óceánon, hanem egy csapattal a Húsvét-szigetre utazik régészeti feltárásra. Az 1950-es években ez volt az első komolyabb feltárás, érdekes olvasni ahogy egyre többet tudunk meg a sziget történelméről a felfedezések miatt, izgalmas a szerzővel együtt rácsodálkozni ezekre. Nekem úgy tűnt sok olyant tudást is megosztottak vele a szigetlakók amik pár évtized múlva elvesztek volna a modernizáció miatt. Még éppen időben érkezett és sikeresen elnyerte a helyiek bizalmát.

A könyv kezdeti érdekes része után egy idő után túlzottan hosszan olvashatunk arról, hogy miként próbálta Heyerdahl megszerezni a bennszülöttek titkos barlangban elrejtett gyűjteményeit. Kicsit kényelmetlen ezt a részt olvasni, ahol a fehérember próbál "kincseket" szerezni, kihasználva a helyiek babonaságát. Ugyanakkor az is igaz, hogy a bennszülöttek is teljes erejükkel azon vannak, hogy átverjék a messziről érkezett embert, és saját faragványaikat adják el neki jó pénzért ősi kincsnek beállítva. Szóval tulajdonképpen mindketten egymást próbálták becsapni.

A könyv végén az expedíció elment még pár közeli (pár ezer km.) szigetre, de ez a rész nagyon rövid.

Még egy apróság: Klausztrofóbiások óvatosan olvassák a könyvet. A barlangászásról szóló részek elég nyugtalanítók időnként.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
asalamon | 15 outras críticas | Mar 4, 2023 |
I just finished reading reading Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island by Thor Heyerdahl. This book must have sat on my parent's shelf since the early-to-mid 1960's. I had heard of Kon-Tiki, which they didn't have. Finally, curiosity got the better of my and I started reading it in late November. I really plunged into it late last month and finished it tonight. What a book!

This book is far outside what I normally read. Thor Heyerdahl admits, at the close of the book, that his theory about east-to-west Southern Hemisphere is not purely scientific. His reasoning is guided in part by by his own "Aku-Aku's" or, roughly translated, speculation or superstition. Spoiler alert; the term Aku-Aku, loosely translated, are good or evil spirits, what we would call in Yiddish "bubbe meise" or old-wives' tales. But it's more than that; there are definite parallels among the peoples and cultures of Inca South America, Easter Island (the subject of the book) and Polynesia that defy easy explanations.

Every one in a while every one should read this kind of book.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
JBGUSA | 15 outras críticas | Jan 2, 2023 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
57
Also by
16
Membros
7,266
Popularidade
#3,367
Avaliação
4.0
Críticas
106
ISBN
298
Línguas
22
Marcado como favorito
9

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