The idea that societies progress from "savage" to "civilized" has been debunked by modern science, and there is a haunting fact that half of the 7,000 languages spoken today are moribund on the brink of extinction. However, geneticists have proven that we are all brothers and sisters, and technology allows us to better understand the world's oceans.
Half of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world are at risk of extinction, which means we may lose half of humanity's intellectual, social, spiritual, and ecological knowledge. However, genetic studies have proven that we share the same genius as we are all descendants of Africa and cut from the same genetic cloth.
The idea of the "savage to civilized" pyramid has been shown to be irrelevant by modern science. Polynesian wayfinders can sense the presence of distant atolls beyond the visible horizon just by watching the reverberation of waves across the hull of their canoe.
This excerpt explores the ancient tradition of dead reckoning and the impressive navigational skills required to sail the seas based on empirical observations alone.