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Notable Cultural Differences In Navigation

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Navigation, the science of determining your position and establishing a course or path of destination where it will bring you to a desired location in the soonest time and safest route possible. It involves the use of maps, charts, compasses and nowadays with GPS portable devices. But it wasn't always like this.

People way back were able to navigate using nothing more than the starts as their guides and references. No GPS to guide them, people back then relied on information passed down from generation to generation and with the various visible landmarks that they could see. However, you will see some varying differences on how people across the globe navigate. Be on land or seas, cultural backgrounds affect the way people perform navigation techniques.

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Austronesians, for example, were known seafarers. They were known to cross wide open seas allowing them to settle in islands that are far from the mainland. It is estimated that the Austronesians started traveling across the oceans way back in 2500 BC. Probably, back then, they relied mainly on gut feel and most probably on the positions of the stars during their ocean travels since they were pioneers.

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On the other hand, Polynesian navigation involves the same keen senses and the information passed down through oral tradition. The older people, the experts in navigation will pass down his wisdom to his apprentice. What is passed down include information on the motion of specific stars, the particulars of the weather, the right time to embark, the various kinds of marine and land animals and the meaning behind each one, directions of sea swelling and the feeling associated with it, the meanings behind the color of the sea and the sky as well as the meanings behind cloud formations and how they will affect navigation.

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In these cultures, the job of a navigator is usually held in high esteem. Their position allows them to help the tribe migrate in times of calamities or famine. The information and techniques of a navigator is often times one of the well guarded secrets in the tribe.

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It is said that the first settlers of the Hawaiian Islands used Polynesian navigation to travel from the Marquesas Islands. The exact kind of navigation the early Hawaiian settlers have used is till unknown. There were a couple of attempts to find out how they did it but the results weren't conclusive.

Ainuddin Mohamad is the Webmaster of the Online Reading Center at http://onlinereadingcenter.com which features online reading resources.