Inuit Cartography: Wooden Coastline Maps That Fit in a Mitten

I'd never seen Polynesian stick charts before, they're incredible. Thanks for sharing!

That page hints at it, but they don't mention that Polynesians used one of the most sensitive wave detection instruments available: the navigator's own testicles.[1]

Besides mapping wave interference patterns as they refract around islands (note the similarities between the second stick chart and the diagrams in [2]), the Polynesians also used "the stars [also using stick charts], driftwood, clouds, seaweed, winds, birds, weather, the smell, taste and temperature of the ocean, ... and the olfactory sense of an on-board pig."[1]

The most curious method however is with "te lapa," a phosphorescent phenomenon that appears as 'underwater lightning' pointing toward islands. The phenomenon is not fully understood even to this day, but it could be related to constructive interference of seismic waves.

Their development of sophisticated navigation makes sense from a business perspective. The Polynesians maintained numerous trading routes between islands, so there was a lot of technological pressure to develop better navigation methods. If even 10% of your boats didn't come back it would be disastrous for the endeavor.

[1] http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/friends/Technology_of_Oceania.pdf

[2] http://www.coastal.udel.edu/ngs/waves.html

[3] https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23041479.pdf

Presumably they are more useful than not having a map, else the inuit wouldn't have bothered making and using them?

I've heard of indigenous maps scaled by time of travel rather than physical distances. Maybe that's why these Inuit maps look distorted.

I've never seen such maps (only heard of them), so if anyone has a link to such a map I'd be interested.

It does mention they can be read in the dark, which would definitely be useful if you knew which area you wanted to get to without being able to see it

They're probably closer to what developers use as "cheat-sheets" - stuff you actually know and have used before, but don't always immediately remember. Maybe some of those coast line routes they only navigated only once a year for some seasonal trades or so.

As I've rediscovered time and again while hunting and hiking; if you haven't been to a place in a couple of years you may recognize landmarks but not remember exactly how they fit into your mental map of the area. This kind of problem would have been deadly in places like Greenland, so any kind of mnemonic could be a life saver.

Also, when you are hungry, thirsty and tired, self doubt can be debilitating; a map can give a little extra assurance that you are heading towards fresh water.

All the training I had about how to navigate outdoors emphasized that your instincts, particularly in bad weather and/or when you are tired, can be 100% wrong.

Add to that the complexities of trying to navigate from a kayak at sea and I can see why they would develop navigation aids.

I'd guess that many generations of accumulated knowledge and experience made them extremely adept at this.

The rest of us are out of practice.