Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Gladwin, Thomas, 1916-

Title East is a big bird : navigation and logic on Puluwat Atoll. / Thomas Gladwin
Published Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1970

Copies

Description 1 online resource (241 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Contents -- 1 A Sail in the Sun -- 2 The Way of the Voyager -- 3 Canoes -- 4 The Navigators -- 5 Navigation under the Big Bird -- 6 Perspectives on Thinking -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary Puluwat Atoll in Micronesia, with a population of only a few hundred proud seafaring people, can fulfill anyone's romantic daydream of the South Seas. Thomas Gladwin has written a beautiful and perceptive book which describes the complex navigational systems of the Puluwat natives, yet has done so principally to provide new insights into the effects of poverty in Western cultures. The cognitive system which enables the Puluwatans to sail their canoes without instruments over trackless expanses of the Pacific Ocean is sophisticated and complex, yet the Puluwat native would score low on a standardized intelligence test. The author relates this discrepancy between performance and measured abilities to the educational problems of disadvantaged children. He presents his arguments simply and clearly, with sensitive and detailed descriptions and many excellent illustrations. His book will appeal to anthropologists, psychologists, and sailing enthusiasts alike
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-237)
Notes Included index
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Print version record
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Navigation -- Puluwat Atoll
Cognitive styles -- Puluwat Atoll
TRANSPORTATION -- Navigation.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
Cognitive styles
Navigation
Puluwat Atoll
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780674037625
0674037626
0674224264
9780674224261