Sea People
In Search of the Ancient Navigators of the Pacific
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $26.13
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Susan Lyons
About this listen
‘Wonderfully researched and beautifully written’ Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan
‘Succeeds in conjuring a lost world’ Dava Sobel, author of Longitude
For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, a vast triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. Until the arrival of European explorers they were the only people to have ever lived there. Both the most closely related and the most widely dispersed people in the world before the era of mass migration, Polynesians can trace their roots to a group of epic voyagers who ventured out into the unknown in one of the greatest adventures in human history.
How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonise these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? This conundrum, which came to be known as the Problem of Polynesian Origins, emerged in the eighteenth century as one of the great geographical mysteries of mankind.
For Christina Thompson, this mystery is personal: her Maori husband and their sons descend directly from these ancient navigators. In Sea People, Thompson explores the fascinating story of these ancestors, as well as those of the many sailors, linguists, archaeologists, folklorists, biologists and geographers who have puzzled over this history for three hundred years. A masterful mix of history, geography, anthropology, and the science of navigation, Sea People is a vivid tour of one of the most captivating regions in the world.
©2019 Christina Thompson (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
-
Great Exploration Hoaxes
- By: David Roberts
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Did Peary reach the North Pole? Was Admiral Byrd the first to fly over it? Did Frederick Cook actually make the first ascent of Mt. McKinley? Spanning 450 years of history, Great Exploration Hoaxes tells the spellbinding stories of ten men who pursued glory at any cost even the truth.
-
-
Very interesting
- By Jane B Nurnberg on 07-31-23
By: David Roberts
-
Ancient Hawaii
- A Captivating Guide to Hawaiian Human History, Starting from the Polynesian Arrival Through the Growth of a Civilization to Kamehameha the Great
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Saffir
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are you interested in the history of one of the most isolated kingdoms on Earth? Then this audiobook is for you! When most people hear the phrase “ancient Hawaii”, it brings up a certain air of mystery and intrigue. Some might think of tattooed tribesmen sailing across the vast emptiness of the Pacific Ocean under the moonlight, dancing around campfires to connect with their gods, or living on the sides of volcanos. But is this an accurate depiction? Or is there more to the early people of Hawaii?
-
-
Why not a Hawaiian Narrator instead?
- By Anonymous User on 05-23-24
-
Mysterious Polynesia: The Myths, Legends, and Mysteries of the Polynesians
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Gregory T. Luzitano
- Length: 2 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mysterious Polynesia: The Myths, Legends, and Mysteries of the Polynesians chronicles some of these remarkable stories, as well as lingering mysteries across the region. You will learn about Polynesia like never before.
-
-
Interesting and Informative
- By Reuben A. Nakagawa on 11-20-21
-
Hawaiian Legends: Introduction
- The Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi: The Fables and Folk-Lore of a Strange People
- By: King David Kalākaua
- Narrated by: Kekoa Lake
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning several centuries of history in the Pacific, The Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi: Fables and Folk-Lore of a Strange People is a collection of Hawaiian stories that were preserved through the ages by oral tradition and documented for posterity by King David Kalākaua in 1887. This massive tome recalls the tales of chiefs and kings, explorers and pirates, prophets, sorceresses, and renegades. This is the first in a series of 22 parts.
-
-
Great, despite the performer.
- By Khassy on 01-28-23
-
Mycophilia
- Revelations From the Weird World of Mushrooms
- By: Eugenia Bone
- Narrated by: Aimee Jolson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Mycophilia, accomplished food writer and cookbook author Eugenia Bone examines the role of fungi as exotic delicacy, curative, poison, and hallucinogen, and ultimately discovers that a greater understanding of fungi is key to facing many challenges of the 21st century.
-
-
Absolutely awful, insufferable, racist author
- By Rs 🦇 on 11-25-19
By: Eugenia Bone
-
The Apache Wars
- The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History
- By: Paul Andrew Hutton
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They called him Mickey Free. His kidnapping started the longest war in American history, and both sides - the Apaches and the white invaders - blamed him for it. A mixed-blood warrior who moved uneasily between the worlds of the Apaches and the American soldiers, he was never trusted by either but desperately needed by both. He was the only man Geronimo ever feared. He played a pivotal role in this long war for the desert Southwest from its beginning in 1861 until its end in 1890 with his pursuit of the renegade scout Apache Kid.
-
-
Ruined by the Narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 02-22-17
-
Great Exploration Hoaxes
- By: David Roberts
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Did Peary reach the North Pole? Was Admiral Byrd the first to fly over it? Did Frederick Cook actually make the first ascent of Mt. McKinley? Spanning 450 years of history, Great Exploration Hoaxes tells the spellbinding stories of ten men who pursued glory at any cost even the truth.
-
-
Very interesting
- By Jane B Nurnberg on 07-31-23
By: David Roberts
-
Ancient Hawaii
- A Captivating Guide to Hawaiian Human History, Starting from the Polynesian Arrival Through the Growth of a Civilization to Kamehameha the Great
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Saffir
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are you interested in the history of one of the most isolated kingdoms on Earth? Then this audiobook is for you! When most people hear the phrase “ancient Hawaii”, it brings up a certain air of mystery and intrigue. Some might think of tattooed tribesmen sailing across the vast emptiness of the Pacific Ocean under the moonlight, dancing around campfires to connect with their gods, or living on the sides of volcanos. But is this an accurate depiction? Or is there more to the early people of Hawaii?
-
-
Why not a Hawaiian Narrator instead?
- By Anonymous User on 05-23-24
-
Mysterious Polynesia: The Myths, Legends, and Mysteries of the Polynesians
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Gregory T. Luzitano
- Length: 2 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mysterious Polynesia: The Myths, Legends, and Mysteries of the Polynesians chronicles some of these remarkable stories, as well as lingering mysteries across the region. You will learn about Polynesia like never before.
-
-
Interesting and Informative
- By Reuben A. Nakagawa on 11-20-21
-
Hawaiian Legends: Introduction
- The Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi: The Fables and Folk-Lore of a Strange People
- By: King David Kalākaua
- Narrated by: Kekoa Lake
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning several centuries of history in the Pacific, The Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi: Fables and Folk-Lore of a Strange People is a collection of Hawaiian stories that were preserved through the ages by oral tradition and documented for posterity by King David Kalākaua in 1887. This massive tome recalls the tales of chiefs and kings, explorers and pirates, prophets, sorceresses, and renegades. This is the first in a series of 22 parts.
-
-
Great, despite the performer.
- By Khassy on 01-28-23
-
Mycophilia
- Revelations From the Weird World of Mushrooms
- By: Eugenia Bone
- Narrated by: Aimee Jolson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Mycophilia, accomplished food writer and cookbook author Eugenia Bone examines the role of fungi as exotic delicacy, curative, poison, and hallucinogen, and ultimately discovers that a greater understanding of fungi is key to facing many challenges of the 21st century.
-
-
Absolutely awful, insufferable, racist author
- By Rs 🦇 on 11-25-19
By: Eugenia Bone
-
The Apache Wars
- The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History
- By: Paul Andrew Hutton
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They called him Mickey Free. His kidnapping started the longest war in American history, and both sides - the Apaches and the white invaders - blamed him for it. A mixed-blood warrior who moved uneasily between the worlds of the Apaches and the American soldiers, he was never trusted by either but desperately needed by both. He was the only man Geronimo ever feared. He played a pivotal role in this long war for the desert Southwest from its beginning in 1861 until its end in 1890 with his pursuit of the renegade scout Apache Kid.
-
-
Ruined by the Narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 02-22-17
-
Shoal of Time
- A History of the Hawaiian Islands
- By: Gavan Daws
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Hawaiian kingdom was tiny, and the big world was huge. The 19th century was the high water mark of Western imperialism, worldwide, and the great powers were planting their flags across the Pacific. Hawai'i was in their sights. By late in the century, two strong American currents were running: one east from the islands, one west from the continent. Sugar plantations had become Hawai'i's biggest moneymaker. And many of the biggest names in the business were of American blood - the sons of missionaries, devout capitalists.
-
-
Truly wonderful history and storytelling.
- By Sharman on 06-12-22
By: Gavan Daws
-
The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
-
-
Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
-
To the Edges of the Earth
- 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As 1909 dawned, the greatest jewels of exploration - set at the world's frozen extremes - lay unclaimed: the North and South Poles and the so-called "Third Pole", the pole of altitude, located in unexplored heights of the Himalaya. Before the calendar turned, three expeditions had faced death, mutiny, and the harshest conditions on the planet to plant flags at the furthest edges of the Earth.
-
-
brutally honest accounts unbelievable stories
- By Troy Hamilton on 07-17-18
By: Edward J. Larson
-
Life in a Medieval City
- By: Frances Gies, Joseph Gies
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Life in a Medieval City is the classic account of the year 1250 in the city of Troyes, in modern-day France. Acclaimed historians Frances and Joseph Gies focus on a high point of medieval civilization - before war and the Black Death ravaged Europe - providing a fascinating window into the sophistication of a period we too often dismiss as backward. Urban life in the Middle Ages revolved around the home, often a mixed-use dwelling for burghers with a store or workshop on the ground floor and living quarters upstairs.
-
-
Troyes, an old town but a new city
- By Darwin8u on 04-02-18
By: Frances Gies, and others
-
Fatal Discord
- Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind
- By: Michael Massing
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 34 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This deeply textured dual biography and fascinating intellectual history examines two of the greatest minds of European history - Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther - whose heated rivalry gave rise to two enduring, fundamental, and often colliding traditions of philosophical and religious thought.
-
-
Excellent work - up until the discussion of America
- By Michele Esposito on 08-24-19
By: Michael Massing
-
A Brief History of Earth
- Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters
- By: Andrew H. Knoll
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing 21st-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going.
-
-
Very chilling and well thought out
- By Colin Bump on 05-21-21
By: Andrew H. Knoll
-
Pacific
- Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the modern world, exploring our relationship with this imposing force of nature. Winchester's personal experience is vast and his storytelling second to none. And his historical understanding of the region is formidable, making Pacific a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives.
-
-
Political Asides Have Become Bombastic Didactic
- By Mark Patterson on 12-25-15
By: Simon Winchester
-
An Arabian Journey
- One Man's Quest Through the Heart of the Middle East
- By: Levison Wood
- Narrated by: Levison Wood
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Starting in a city in Northern Syria, Wood set forth on a 5,000-mile trek through the most contested region on the planet. He moved through the Middle East for six months, from ISIS-occupied Iraq through Kuwait and along the jagged coastlines of the Emirates and Oman; across a civil-war-torn Yemen and on to Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Israel, before ending on the shores of the Mediterranean in Lebanon. Like his predecessors, Wood traveled through some of the harshest and most beautiful environments on Earth, seeking to challenge our perceptions of this misunderstood part of the world.
-
-
Learning about people
- By B Tidball on 07-13-21
By: Levison Wood
-
Underworld
- The Mysterious Origins of Civilization
- By: Graham Hancock
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 31 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Graham Hancock, best-selling author of Fingerprints of the Gods, comes a mesmerizing book that takes us on a captivating underwater voyage to find the ruins of a lost civilization that's been hidden for thousands of years beneath the world's oceans. While Graham Hancock is no stranger to stirring up heated controversy among scientific experts, his books and television documentaries have intrigued millions of people around the world and influenced many to rethink their views about the origins of human civilization.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Michael Beeson on 05-13-19
By: Graham Hancock
-
America Before
- The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization
- By: Graham Hancock
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stunning new archaeological discoveries in North America together with new genetic evidence have launched a revolution in our understanding of the remote past of our species and of the origins of civilization. Graham Hancock, the internationally best-selling author has been overwhelmingly vindicated by recent discoveries. America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization is a mind-dilating exploration of the mystery of ancient civilizations, amazing archaeological discoveries, and profound implications for how we lead our lives today.
-
-
Fun to Think About
- By Amazon Customer on 04-26-19
By: Graham Hancock
-
The Impending Crisis
- America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861
- By: David M. Potter, Don E. Fehrenbacher
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern secession.
-
-
A Slog for Sure
- By Brux on 04-13-17
By: David M. Potter, and others
-
The End of Empire
- Attila the Hun & the Fall of Rome
- By: Christopher Kelly
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
History remembers Attila, the leader of the Huns, as the Romans perceived him: a savage barbarian brutally inflicting terror on whoever crossed his path. Following Attila and the Huns from the steppes of Kazakhstan to the court of Constantinople, Christopher Kelly portrays Attila in a compelling new light, uncovering an unlikely marriage proposal, a long-standing relationship with a treacherous Roman general, and a thwarted assassination plot.
-
-
LISTEN TO THE SAMPLE
- By Chelsea on 03-23-21
Critic reviews
‘I loved this book. I found Sea People the most intelligent, empathic, engaging, wide-ranging, informative, and authoritative treatment of Polynesian mysteries that I have ever read. Christina Thompson’s gorgeous writing arises from a deep well of research and succeeds in conjuring a lost world’ Dava Sobel, author of Longitude and The Glass Universe
‘To those of the western hemisphere, the Pacific represents a vast unknown, almost beyond our imagining; for its Polynesian island peoples, this fluid, shifting place is home. Christina Thompson’s wonderfully researched and beautifully written narrative brings these two stories together, gloriously and excitingly. Filled with teeming grace and terrible power, her book is a vibrant and revealing new account of the watery part of our world’ Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan
‘A compelling story, beautifully told, the best exploration narrative I’ve read in years’ Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb
‘Fascinating and satisfying’ Simon Winchester, author of The Map that Changed the World
‘Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Polynesia, the Pacific, or the spread of humanity around the globe’ Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
‘Christina Thompson…is perhaps ideally placed to try to answer the question [of Polynesian origins] – and in Sea People, her fascinating and satisfying addition to an already considerable body of Polynesian literature, she succeeds admirably’ New York Times Book Review
‘Compelling… These pages will unleash the imagination [and] spark insight’ National Geographic
‘Superb. . . . An illuminating read for amateur sleuths and professional scholars alike’ Spectator