Kon-Tiki

Kon-Tiki

Thor Heyerdahl

The Kon-Tiki Expedition was a raft trip across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl.

The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was claimed to be an old name. Heyerdahl's book about the expedition is called "Kon-Tiki Expedition: Rafting Across the South Seas". A documentary film from 1950 won the Oscar for the best documentary film, and in 2012 a feature film was shot that was nominated for the Oscar for the best foreign film.

The Kon-Tiki expedition was financed by private loans, along with equipment donations from the US Army. Heyerdahl and a small team traveled to Peru, where, with the help of a shipyard provided by the Peruvian authorities, they built a raft from balsa logs and other indigenous materials in the style noted by the Spanish conquistadors. The journey began on April 28, 1947. Heyerdahl and five companions rafted for 101 days over 6,900 km (4,300 miles) across the Pacific Ocean before crashing into a reef off Raroia in the Tuamotus on August 7, 1947. The crew successfully made it to land and everyone returned safely. Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have reached Polynesia in pre-Columbian times. His goal in organizing the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show that there were no technical reasons preventing them from doing so, using only the materials and technologies available to the people of the time. Although the expedition used some modern equipment, such as radios, clocks, maps, a sextant and metal knives, Heyerdahl claimed that these were secondary elements to prove that the raft alone could make the journey. This idea received support from a statistical analysis of the genetic evidence of contact between South America and Polynesia. However, Heyerdahl's complete hypothesis of the South American origin of the Polynesian peoples is largely rejected today. Most of the archaeological, linguistic, cultural and genetic evidence supports a western origin of Polynesians, from Southeast Asia, using sophisticated multihull vessel technologies and navigational techniques during the Austronesian expansion. There is evidence of some gene flow from South America to Easter Island. In 2020, some researchers published a study.

Original title
Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen
Translation
Petar Mardešić
Editor
Stjepan Krešić
Graphics design
Mirko Ostoja
Dimensions
20 x 15 cm
Pages
227
Publisher
Novo pokoljenje, Zagreb, 1951.
 
Latin alphabet. Hardcover with dust jacket.
Language: Croatian.

No copies available

The last copy was sold recently.

 

Are you interested in another book? You can search the offer using our search engine or browse books by category.

You may also be interested in these titles

Zlato

Zlato

Jack London
Litera, 1989.
Serbian. Latin alphabet. Paperback.
3.50
Viktor Vida

Viktor Vida

Anđelko Novaković
Erasmus, 1994.
Croatian. Latin alphabet. Paperback.
4.993.74 - 4.99
Legenda o devojci Slobodi

Legenda o devojci Slobodi

Nada Marinković
Narodna knjiga, 1980.
Serbian. Latin alphabet. Hardcover with dust jacket.
5.90
Skrivena kamera

Skrivena kamera

Zoran Živković

This work is an unexpected beauty and surprise. The author tries to communicate something about the nature of life and death, existence and non-existence, which bends perception into new and challenging forms.

Mirjana i Zoran Živković, 2003.
Serbian. Latin alphabet. Paperback.
12.98
Poslednji od pravednika

Poslednji od pravednika

Andre Švarc-Bart

"Andrea Švarc-Bart's novel, which comes to us with the much-appreciated Goncourt Prize and numerous positive reviews from all over the world, therefore inevitably demands that we coldly and seriously re-examine it.

Rad, 1961.
Croatian. Latin alphabet. Hardcover.
2.98
Rimljanka

Rimljanka

Alberto Moravia

A novel about a young girl from the common people, who after her first love experiences, driven by poverty and an unhealthy social environment, becomes a harlot.

Minerva, 1984.
Serbian. Latin alphabet. Hardcover with dust jacket.
5.184.14