This is the way early Polynesians first conquered this seemingly endless world of water that is punctuated by lumps of volcanic rock and coral.

BBC: Getting in the Tahitian spirit

Polynesians are descended from southeast Asians, and moved across the Pacific from west to east, eventually reaching remote islands such as Easter and Hawaii.

BBC: What is anthropological genetics?

The most pressing is this: How do the Polynesians cook now?

NEWYORKER: A Fork of One��s Own

It seemed to him, though, that Polynesians and Micronesians were one people, united by the vast ocean which he, and they, had crisscrossed for millennia in their tiny boats.

ECONOMIST: Mau Piailug

It may be that the Polynesians, having just crossed two thousand miles of the Pacific in a fleet of outrigger canoes, were too exhausted to think about making cooking pots.

NEWYORKER: A Fork of One��s Own

He saw cultural and genetic links between South Americans and Polynesians, and set out to show that such a voyage between the two territories would have been possible in ancient times.

ECONOMIST: Thor Heyerdahl

Like ancient Polynesians who set off over the horizon in their sailing canoes without a clue where they would land, the first kitesurfers pushed out through the waves without knowing how to sail broadside to the wind.

FORBES: Wing and a Prayer