Word: polynesia
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...could say Liliuokalani, Clara was the barefoot toast of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and a great tourist attraction. But it took her ten years to catch on with the home-folks. Last week, as Hilo Hattie, Clara was Hawaii's No. 1 radio hit, and the talk of Polynesia...
...TIME, April 21). It was the island of Puka Puka, easternmost atoll of the Tuamotu archipelago. To the six Scandinavian scientists on the Kon-Tiki, the smudge of land was proof of their theory that ancient, pre-Inca Indians might have traveled across the Pacific from Peru to Polynesia on big, homemade rafts, carried by the south equatorial current. Sailing on, as the Indians may have done, until wind and currents actually cast it on the beach of some island, the Kon-Tiki expedition hopes to reach Tahiti, 750 miles dead ahead...
...leader of the expedition, Thor Heyerdahl, 32, had been to Tahiti in 1937 to finish a doctorate thesis in zoology. Like other scholars before him, he was struck by resemblances between the cultures of Polynesia and South America. Both regions have "stepped" pyramids, "megalithic" structures, elaborate feather-work. Both cultivate sweet potatoes and call them by names which closely resemble their ancient Peruvian name: kumara. The strange stone heads on Easter Island look a great deal like some sculpture in Peru...
...might have brought such cultural bits from the South Seas to the Americas. But Heyerdahl decided that the trickle must have moved in the opposite direction. Ancient Peru, even during the Tiahuanaco period (about 1,000 A.D., before the start of the Inca Empire), was far more civilized than Polynesia. The Peruvians built large rafts of balsa wood which were probably capable of voyaging as far as the South Seas. The prevailing winds and the ocean currents (both moving from east to west-see map) would help them make the one-way trip...
...Herbarium of the Arboretum was increased by 19,413 mounted specimens from many parts of the world, bringing the total collection to 513,880. Specimens were received from Japan, China, the Philippines, Australia, Malaysia, Papuasia, Polynesia, India, and Indo-China, as well as from North and South America...