My Thoughts On: Polynesia, and Patriotism

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On Hawaii, and Ancient Polynesian Trade

I’m sure everyone saw the news about wildfires on Maui which consumed several local towns and businesses. For many Americans, Hawaii has been a magical tropical destination where people get engaged, married, spend family vacations, and so much more. But for the Native people born and raised there, its Home. If you’ve ever vacationed to Hawaii, I’d encourage you to donate to one of these wildfire restoration funds. here’s a few to consider:

• American Red Cross

• Hawaii Community Foundation

• Maui United Way

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I’d like to take a trip back in time here, and explore some of the fascinating history of Polynesia and the people of the Pacific.

When you think of ancient trade networks, the Silk Road is probably what comes to mind from your middle school social studies class. This ancient network stretched from the far eastern reaches of Asia, and extended all the way through the middle east, and into western Europe. Archaeologists and historians are able to trace this network by following a thread of ancient goods and tools, and the cultures whose hands exchanged them. Hell, even modern Italian pasta is almost definitely an invention spurred by the arrival of rice noodles from Asia onto the Italian peninsula in the 13th century. Ancient humans in Asia, Africa, and Europe were far more connected than what you may imagine. But that was all land travel, something that required two feet and a few pack animals.

What is perhaps more surprising, and utterly fascinating to me, is the evidence of vast oceanic trade across the Pacific Ocean and South America. In the same way we can trace the arrival of various goods across the ancient Silk Road, archaeologists are able to trace the trade of ancient goods and tools across the largest continuous body of water on Earth.

Take a look at the above image. The area shaded roughly represents the modern definition of Polynesia. It’s massive area of water, approximately 63.8 MILLION square miles, of which only about 118,000 square miles is land. So its whole lot of blue, dotted with tiny islands that are very far apart. Yet despite the enormous distances between islands, there is a mountain of evidence demonstrating a robust trade network between these islands.

Over a thousand years ago, during an era when Europeans sailed close to coast lines, populations of Polynesians (potentially from New Zealand or South America) navigated vast open ocean by observing bird migrations, the stars, and the swell of the waves. By the time famous European explores like Captain James Cook began exploring the Pacific in more detail, these peoples had long settled the islands of the ocean hundreds of years prior.

Now comes an interesting twist: enter the sweet potato; one of the most underrated root vegetables. This root, native to South America, is an important piece to this trade puzzle. According to archeological research, it has been “conclusively shown that the sweet potato was introduced to Central Polynesia by approximately A.D. 1200 to 1300 (2), most likely by Polynesian voyagers who reached South America and subsequently spread the crop to the widely dispersed islands of the Polynesian triangle”.

Go take a look at the map above again, and really soak in the distance voyaged to bring the sweet potato all the way back to the middle of the Pacific.

So the Polynesians had sophisticated enough seafaring vessels that they could routinely connect across an area of millions of square miles ranging from New Zealand to South American, to trade goods and services, propagate new agriculture, and develop a mostly-shared set of cultural traditions and languages. That is supremely impressive.

Sometimes I think its easy to fall into the trap of thinking that modern humans are somehow far more advanced than ancient and medieval peoples, but I think that’s far from the truth. Everything we’ve created today, our art, writing, technology… its all built off a bedrock of early humans who sailed far to explore, settle, and innovate despite not being equipped with contemporary technology.

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On Patriotism

If someone were to ask you to define what it means to be American, how would you answer? Would you define is as the people that make this country up? The physical land we stand on? Some set of shared values? I would wager that if you asked 100 different people how they personally define American patriotism, you’d get close to 100 different answers.

America is the ultimate global melting pot. A relatively recent experimental conglomeration of people from the Netherlands, England, Germany, France, and Spain who dragged along slaves from the African continent, and mashed together with an existing indigenous population. Its a stew of different cultures, religious beliefs, and traditions that in just a short 300 years came to become a global power whose domineering influence and brand has uplifted democracy globally, while simultaneously acted as a bludgeoning force that has destabilized large swathes of the globe, all the while remaining a place where people believe you can make anything of your life.

In short, America is like a weird microcosm of Earth, where just about every race, ethnicity, and culture attempt to live together. Its often a rocky relationship, and in a lot of ways its rocky because much of the shit happening elsewhere on the planet between nations is magnified within the immigrants of those original nations who are living here in the US.

This makes the idea of American patriotism a very tough, touchy, and complex topic to discuss and define.

Here’s a personal example: I often struggle with the reverence people in this country have for those who serve in our military. Its a reverence I personally do not share, nor is it something I will ever fully understand. In America, the expectation and tradition is we thank our military forces for their service, for protecting our freedoms, and for putting their lives on the line to defend democracy. Yet in this modern era, I view our military complex as a machine that grinds, gnashes, and downright exploits the people and resources of the countries it is involved in. It’s a machine whose primary objective I believe is less about defending democracy, and more about expanding American sovereign interests and power, most often to enrich a tiny percentage of us while keeping resources flowing through this complex. So for me, I find it quite difficult to separate and respect the individual who chooses to serve in our armed forces, from the machine that is our military industrial complex.

As I said, this is a difficult and touchy subject to talk about, because feeling that way isn’t really allowed in a large part of America. Or at least it is frowned upon, because that kind of scrutiny and criticism of our institutions can also been seen as inherently disrespectful to the individuals who have chosen to serve. So how can we untangle the person from the institution? How can I find respect for someone who is in service to something I find abhorrent? And furthermore, does this scrutiny of our country make me less patriotic? Less American? Again, it would fully depend on where in this country you ask that question.

For me, I see the criticism and scrutinization of our current values and institutions as a form of patriotism. To me, America is first and foremost the people who make it up. And if the cultural and physical health of the people of this country is poor (as I believe it is now) then the patriotic thing to do is call attention to the issues plaguing it, and to find solutions to make it better. However if you jump to the other side of the aisle, I get the sense that this view is misconstrued as “hating America”.

Online, I see plenty of discussion from conservative leaning groups and leaders who articulate the growing frustration and criticisms from left-wing voters and groups as somehow “anti” American. I often read claims that left-leaning folks must certainly hate America based on how critical they are of it, or even worse, are actually intentionally teaching our kids to hate the American institution. I personally fall into this more critical, liberal group, but I don’t hate America.

Where did the balance go? The nuance? in the last decade, I really believe we’ve become much to black and white about our issues. There’s no middle ground anymore, no shades of gray. If you’re a Democrat, you are a rainbow loving socialist who wants the government to have all the power over our day to day, over our children, over our values, and our money. If you’re a Republican, you’re a evangelical racist blue-collar gun-lover who didn’t go to college. But this is not true. There are far too many subcultures to our country for this to be true. We desperately need to find that nuance, that balance again. There needs to be more open discussion, more grounded conversation on our beliefs and differences, and the intent behind them.

Where I’ve landed is that I believe its OK for all of us to have different views of patriotism. In fact, I think its actually critically important, as our differences might even be our biggest strength. With respect to the military example above, I believe I can respect the intention behind the individual who serves in the military, just as I can respect someone else’s own brand of patriotism. I think all of us want what’s best for this country. We all want a functioning society where folks of different classes and backgrounds have the opportunity to improve their lives and outcomes, even if each of our definition of “this country” is skewed based on which corner of the US we were born.

We face a lot of mounting issues as a population here. But there’s no one size fits all approach. So there must be nuance. There must be a greater attempt to understand one another’s intentions, and one another’s own brand of patriotism. We need to hash this thing out.

So whether we like it or not, we’re all apart of this American experiment. And it’s success is predicated on our ability to connect, respect, and attempt to understand our differences. Because I think its in those differences, those shades of gray, where we may find common ground on what it means to be a part of this country.