pacific stick charts and maps

[Michael & Rosemary Clement]

Yes, the Marshall Islanders are the only ones to use the stick charts, and
as I understand, it is because of the general configuration of the islands
in two columns. The stick charts indicate the motion of the waves bouncing
off
the various islands in the chain, indicating where the  islands are to the
sailer sailing down the middle of the island group. We used to be able buy
these here in Guam. I haven't seen them in a while but it still should be
possible to get one.


----- Original Message -----
From: Byron W. Bender <bender at hawaii.edu>
To: AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS <AN-LANG at anu.edu.au>
Cc: <dsmith at mos.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 12:00 PM
Subject: RE: pacific stick charts and maps


> The only location I am aware of for navigational stick charts is the
> Marshall Islands. I recommend looking in the early anthropological
> literature on these islands. See especially Winkler, Captain. 1899. On sea
> charts formerly used in the Marshall Islands, with notes on the navigation
> of these islands in general. Smithsonian Institution, Annual Report.
> Washington, D.C., and Krämer, A., and H. Nevermann. 1938. Ralik-Ratak
> (Marshall Inseln). Ergebnisse der Südsee Expedition 1908-10 (G. Thilenius,
> ed.). Hamburg, pp. 221-226. Also Spoehr, Alexander. 1949. Majuro: A
village
> in the Marshall Islands. Fieldiana: Anthropology vol. 39. Chicago: Chicago
> Natural History Museum, pp. 20-25.
>   Incidentally, an image of one such chart is to be found on the cover of
> the Marshallese-English dictionary (Abo, Takaji, Byron W. Bender, Alfred
> Capelle, and Tony DeBrum. PALI Language Texts: Micronesia. Honolulu:
> University of Hawaii Press, 1976.
>
> Byron W. Bender  (808)956-8374 fax -9166
> Editor, Oceanic Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai`i
> 1890 East-West Rd., Honolulu, HI 96822-2318
> http://www2.hawaii.edu/~bender/
>
>