If anyone is interested in this, they should read David Lewis' We, The Navigators, it covers the traditional navigation techniques practiced by Pacific Islanders. Stick charts are covered, but it covers pretty much everything the author possibly could have after sailing around the Pacific islands with navigators of various islands.
replyThere is also "The Last Navigator", written by Steve Thomas (of "This Old House" fame).
replySeconded. I have two copies of this book, love it, and just lent one out last week. In exchange, I received Master and Commander, which is an awesome reminder of the bygone floridity of educated English. Currently also working through Mumford's Technics and Civilization (1934) in connection with a pan-cultural inquiry in to machine tool evolution stemming from workshop-based inspiration in my robotics lab.
replyThe stick charts are generally not 'charts' in the normal English sense but rather more like memory palaces for not-to-scale directed graphs. I have a big interest in Pacific cultural artifacts as I started a collection some years ago and live amongst it. Nothing like a giant jungle-struck hardwood oar or a primitive giant balanced hafted axe to make buttering your croissant with illicit Iranian jam an enhanced pleasure at breakfast.
Now, that's fascinating. Posts like this is why I started reading hacker news.
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