White-Skinned Gods

Thor Heyerdahl, the Kon-Tiki Museum, and the Racial Theory of Polynesian Origins Scott Magelssen

Like many others, I spent most of my life only vaguely understanding the significance of Thor Heyerdahl. In 1947 the Norwegian adventurer built a log raft using ancient South American practices and sailed the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Polynesia in a riveting adventure that cap- tured the world’s attention. He published his book on the crossing in 1948; the first English- language edition was published in 1950. I grew up with a paperback copy of Heyerdahl’s best-selling account of the voyage, Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft, on my family’s bookshelf, but I had never read it. However, from the beginning of my formal research on historical sim- ulations, I repeatedly encountered the story of Heyerdahl as a game-changer when it came to using performance to generate understanding about the past. Heyerdahl’s performative experi- ment, sailing a balsa raft christened with the name of the Peruvian sun god from South America to Polynesia, proved possible his theory of east-to-west colonization of the islands. The foun- dational text on living history, Jay Anderson’s Time Machines (1984), positions Heyerdahl as a

TDR: The Drama Review 60:1 (T229) Spring 2016. ©2016 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 25

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021

26 Scott Magelssen Ocean from Peru to Polynesia. Figure 1. (previous page) Thor Heyerdahl aboard which classesofstudentswouldresearchandsimulatesocialorritualdramas. University of Virginia intheearly1980sinvolvedexperimentsperformativeethnography, in Schechner, andDwightConquergood. Turner andSchechner’scollaborationsatNYUthe practiced byanthropologistsandperformancestudiesscholarssuchas Victor Turner, Richard history asaresearchtool,” andHeyerdahlservesasanearlyexampleofwhatwouldcometobe truth. There’s noquestionthatHeyerdahllaidthegroundrulesforwhat Anderson calls “living kind ofOccam’srazorforpurifyingandendorsinghistoricalconjectureascommon-sense through the “hard schoolofpracticalproduction” suggestsanaxiomthatdoingitby-handisa techniques inGreek ScenicConventions inFifth B.C.proof Century (1962).called WhatArnott Theatre intheRound(1957)andthosePeter Arnott usedtodeduceancient Athenian staging techniques usedbyRichardSoutherninreconstructingmoralityplaystagesforhisMedieval seagoing balsaraftfitswithinthesamekindofmid-centuryexperimentalarchaeology Heyer ism inlivingmuseums(Anderson1991:3). day beforeopeningthe1969season, initiatinganeweraofsocialhistoryandkitchen-sinkreal- Plimoth Plantation, jettisonedthefairy-talebuckled-hattedPilgrimsfrom1620svillage financed Colonial Williamsburg, andJamesDeetz, who, inoneofhisfirstactsasdirector Reader,History putsHeyerdahlinacategoryofinfluencewithJohn D. Rockefeller, Jr., who acceptable researchtool(Anderson1984:89). Anderson’s followuptoTime Machines,the mental archaeologists,” writes Anderson, “After theKon-Tiki the 1947Kon-Tiki pioneer wholegitimizedtheuseofhands-onpracticestofigureoutthosepast: “Itwas ictor Turner and Edie Turner describe some of the Virginia experiments, for example, in “Performing Theatre History Studies, onthe editorialboardsand serves forTheatre Topics, Press’s Theater inthe Americas series. He hoststhe website theater-historiography.org with Bial, Henry Theatre (Cambridge ScholarsPublishing,History Illinois 2007);andeditorofSouthern University Historiography: Critical Interventions(University ofMichigan,Difference 2010),andQuerying in Performance of Meaning (University ofMichigan, 2014)and the University of Washington. He isauthorof Scott MagelssenProfessor isAssociate intheSchoolofDramaandCenter forPerformance Studies at Magelssen 2010). for learningaboutthepastas “performative historiography” (Magelssen2014:19, 34ff;seealso would cometoformulateaconceptionofsimmingsthatusehands-on, “sandbox” techniques these ideasinformulatingmyanalysisofimmersiveparticipatorysimulationor “simming,” and is unitedwithmemory, theresult[...]issomespeciesof (2000:247).‘living history’” Itookup historical meaningisnoexception. MarvinCarlsonwrites, “when thekinestheticimagination meaning inmannersequalto, thoughdifferentfrom, text-basedformsofcommunication. embodied practicesareawayofknowing;thatis, performancegeneratesanddisseminates graphic research([2002]2007:376). Those ofusinperformancestudiestakeitasagiventhat essays laidoutgoalsandbestpracticesforperformanceasasupplementtowrittenethno- 2. 1.

Theatre andperformancescholarsarenostrangerstotheperformativeinnovations through embodied action, through cultural agency and by making choices” (2003:2, xvi). “P Ethnography” ([1986] 2007). V erformances function as vital acts of transfer,”erformances writes Diana Taylor. learn and transmit knowledge “[W]e dahl usheredintothemid-20thcentury ­ (Scarecrow, 2007);coeditorof expedition [...]thatestablished[Heyerdahl]asthebest-knownofexperi-

and (Courtesy of the Kon-Tiki(Courtesy Museum) Theatre/Practice. [email protected] Enacting (University History ofAlabama, 2011),Theatre Simming: Participatory Performance andtheMaking Kon-Tiki, Living History Museums:Living History Undoing Through History , either. The physical “recreation” ofaprimitive Journal and ofDramaticCriticism, Theory several weeks into his voyage across the Pacific voyage, simulationbecameamore 1 Conquergood’s Living 2 And Thor Heyerdahl 27 had become a household what the Incas told the Spaniards, whom they what the Incas told the Spaniards, A photo of Kon-Tiki at Sea, probably taken from the the from taken probably Sea, at Kon-Tiki of photo A Figure 2. Figure 1950) Heyerdahl (From raft. the to tethered lifeboat

—

was -

—

Kon-Tiki was never Kon-Tiki

The colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race The colossal monuments that stood deserted the Incas themselves had become rulers. of white gods which had lived there before who had originally peaceful instructors, as wise, These vanished architects were described and had taught the Incas’ primi- long ago in the morning time, come from the north, They were as well as manners and customs. tive forefathers architecture and agriculture and long beards; they were also taller than the unlike other Indians in having white skins (Heyerdahl [1950] 1956:17) Incas. Heyerdahl’s expedition was lauded by the midcentury Surely I’d misread. “White gods?” I’d been lugging celebratory I’d been lugging in plain hidden Right there, white. greeted as divine on their arrival to Peru: the brown-skinned indigenous Peruvians every- having taught bearded men, The white, after a great battle. Titicaca were ousted from the civilization’s center at Lake thing they knew, power in “Finally they left Peru as suddenly as they had come; the Incas themselves took over America and fled and the white teachers vanished forever from the coast of South the country, (17). westward across the Pacific” with its , The 1947 voyage of the Kon-Tiki popular media as a feat of ingenuity and endurance. and against-all-odds reliance on primitive sharks, edge-of-the-seat battles with freak weather, academic projects using performative historiogra- not only inspired a host of new navigation, it spurred a wave of post- phy as lynchpin evidence for understanding past human practices, In addition to the bestselling war optimism about human achievement and global cooperation. Academy won that year’s which used footage from the voyage, Heyerdahl’s 1950 film, book, Kon-Tiki By the mid-1950s, for best documentary feature. Award cocktail menus to tourist hotels. which appeared on everything from name, indigenous to what is now South but was he maintained, America, rather a bearded newcomer with Caucasoid features from the north and east who’d brought the Indians out of their primitive savagery into civilization (indig- Americans were enous South darker skinned and didn’t grow facial hair for the most part). Heyerdahl writes in the first chapter of Kon-Tiki ing for branding purposes Heyerdahl changed the spell Heyerdahl changed the accounts of Heyerdahl’s early accounts of with me since I work around - student research was a Master’s simulations in the ing historical was I finally decided it so 1990s, I picked . time to read Kon-Tiki book- up a copy at a local used ago. store a couple of years me over. What I read bowled claim that is Heyerdahl’s sight, the deity Viracocha, Con-Ticci civili- connected to a pre-Incan namesake zation and the raft’s Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021 28 Figure 3. Scott Magelssen Science News “Reed to Rockets,” Rafts April 2002) Kon-Tiki image from in a colorized NASA. (From oid 2473 Heyerdahl, in the Main Asteroid Belt, was discovered in 1977 by Russian astronomer Nikolai break fromaworldthathadgonedark. audiences whathumanbeingswerecapableof, andtheremarkablevoyageofferedanexotic humanity wasdownseveralnotches. Herewasataleofbraveryandendurancethatreminded had justexperiencedadevastatingwar, withinconceivableatrocitiesonbothsides, andfaithin and hadonlymadeitintothehandsofmillionsreaders origin. Iimaginedthathisviewsweremostlikelyanartifactoflate-19th-centurypseudoscience ancient, advancedcivilization, andthatallsubsequentculturesspreadfromthispointofcultural racist asitsounded. Hyper-diffusionism isthehypothesisthatcultureoriginatedinasingle, ventional research. One of hislastprojects, unfinishedatthetimeofhisdeathin2002, wasan only didheneverpublicallyrecanthistheories, hecontinued topursuethemwithhisuncon- 2015). 2015; Amazon.com can onlyrateatitleiftheysubmitwrittenreview, giveit4.6outoffivestars(Goodreads.com ers gaveitanaverageof4.07out5starsonGoodreads.com, and 248 Amazon users, who ist passagesremainunexpurgated, yetit to theenduringpowerofHeyerdahl’sstory sive evermadeinNorwayandthehighestgrossingthatcountry’s boxofficein2012, testifies both anOscarandaGoldenGlobeforbestforeign-language film. Thefilm, themostexpen- Sandberg basedontheKon-Tiki expedition, releasedinEnglish2013, wasnominated for of Polynesianorigins, in hishonor. decorations fromseveralcountriesandbecameasought-afterspeaker. An asteroidwasnamed He establishedhimselfasaneminentenvironmentalandpeaceactivist, receivingawardsand 3.

Heyerdahl’s theoryofculturalhyper-diffusion wasdefinitelythereinthetext, andwasas Stepanovich Chernykh. Aster It wasnotasifHeyerdahlhimselfhadbackedoffhisracistviews ofculturaldiffusion. Not 3 The 2012NorwegianfeaturefilmdirectedbyJoachimRønningandEspen nothistheorythatKon-Tiki waswhite. Unlikethe movie, thebook’srac- continues todoabriskbusiness. Nearly11,500read- NASA

—

notably thatofHeyerdahl’seast-to-westtheory as aresultofitstiming. The world from IraqtoDjiboutiin1978. Atlantic in1970andtheTigris rus reedboatRaIIacrossthe Tiki century. HereprisedtheKon- by thesecondhalfof20th international celebrityandbrand in popularculture, becomingan Heyerdahl enjoyedahighprofile nearly entirelyonconjecture), the Peruvianraftwasbased rians wouldquicklydetermine and archaeologistshisto- water withanthropologists, colonization neverheldmuch to-west theoryofPolynesian academic community(theeast- ries werehardlyacceptedbythe into the21st. While histheo- the 20thcenturyandnowwell ity throughouttheremainderof Heyerdahl’s continuedpopular But thisdidn’texplain expedition withthepapy- - Thor Heyerdahl 29 The spread across the globe.

—

and specific cultural traits

—

to publish real-time reports from the voyage. He oversaw the to publish real-time reports from the voyage. legacy and of Heyerdahl’s racist views of indigenous Americans and indigenous legacy and of Heyerdahl’s racist views of continues to perform.

raft, in other words, while ostensibly performing “American Indians in the Pacific” Indians in the Pacific” “American performing while ostensibly in other words, raft,

Kon-Tiki Kon-Tiki Why, with the continued success of the raft’s legacy and its cross-platform accomplish- with the continued success of the Why, the vari - expedition is readily available in Heyerdahl’s books, The story of the Kon-Tiki Heyerdahl positioned his conjectural raft with its racially loaded namesake as the pro- loaded namesake raft with its racially positioned his conjectural Heyerdahl Kon-Tiki Kon-Tiki books) ultimately divested indigenous peoples of the (the title of one of Heyerdahl’s subsequent By the mid-1960s 50 million global migration history. Americas and the Pacific of their place in the world. copies of this history had been sold around theory undergirding it remained largely under- has the racially motivated ments as a property, bona fides as Why haven’t Heyerdahl’s discourses? acknowledged in both academic and popular I would The answer, been exposed as crackpot? an experiential archaeologist and a do-gooder and is that the racist aspects of Heyerdahl’s enterprise have been consistently eventually find, The troubling foun- who still stand to gain from it. explicitly hushed as unpalatable by those dation of the Kon-Tiki The significance of an impression downplayed. have been deliberately that is, Pacific Islanders, if I didn’t but I’d be kidding myself not lost on me, management campaign on this scale was not only had I been proud Until this rude awakening, admit there was something personal here. but I’d also (I’m Norwegian on my father’s side), to claim Heyerdahl as a famous countryman Heyerdahl’s Without of discursive godfather. been holding him up all these years as a kind be the simu- the odds are I wouldn’t in 1947, momentous act of performative historiography My been duped and I wanted to set the record straight. I felt I had lations scholar I am today. into Heyerdahl’s early writings and ultimately took me began with research then, investigation, the museum established to permanently display to the most purportedly educational of spaces: up how (and what and who) I would take In other words, voyage. and interpret the Kon-Tiki’s the the briefest Still, accounts on the internet. and in blow-by-blow ous media adaptations of them, theory early attempts to publish his hyper-diffusionist Heyerdahl’s summary is in order here. the establish- of white racial origins of Polynesian culture as an academic project were foiled by he pulled together Undeterred, arguments seriously. who refused to take his unorthodox ment, and one Swede (a fellow migration engineer, a Norwegian a crew of Norwegian war heroes, through a reconstruction of the Pacific journey itself. to prove the validity of his idea theorist), US mili- The planning alone was a feat: Heyerdahl secured funding and contracts with the building the permissions from the Peruvian government to use their naval shipyard for tary, and press American forests, materials deep in the South contacts and suppliers for building raft, Times deals with the New York tagonist on the epic stage of the Pacific in a historiographic struggle to topple paradigms of topple paradigms of struggle to Pacific in a historiographic the epic stage of the tagonist on navigator as prehis- white-skinned and insert the neolithic migration of his day early human - It would be problem and the South Seas. Americas to the bringer of culture tory’s dominant Deloria’s term Philip J. Indian,” “playing project was an exercise in atic enough if Heyerdahl’s But because Heyerdahl in 1998). of Native imagery (see Deloria for non-Native appropriation not indigenous Peruvians at all America were ancient seafarers from South fact believed that the treated as gods by the benighted white-skinned men, or red-bearded, but rather a race of blond- culture before sailing westward America to whom they brought South Indians in Central and the notion that the indigenous peo- Clearly, doing something much worse. he was to Polynesia, to come up with their own cul- America did not have the wherewithal ples of what is now South But the patronizing and racist. bearded men from the north is of white, ture without the help America the coast of South the westward migration to Polynesia from subsequent claim that is a move by these same white men, but the indigenous Indians of Peru, was undertaken not by out as active agents in Americans and Polynesians both indigenous South that completely cuts the discourse about how humanity attempt to prove that the Norse God Odin was a real person who brought “culture” to north- to “culture” person who brought God Odin was a real prove that the Norse attempt to Russia. Azerbaijan and from ern Europe Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021 30 Scott Magelssen (Juan and de Ulloa [1748] From Wikimedia Commons) American balsa raft, one of Heyerdahl’s sources for his conjectural reconstruction. Figure 4. Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa’s South depiction of an 18th-century

eyerdahl’s reconstruction was apparently based on accounts around the time of Spanish contact with the Incas, origin storiesindicatingthattheislands’inhabitantscamefrom theeast. the Pacificislandsandacross Americasthatsharedtraits suggestingbeards, andPolynesian nous peoplesofpre-contact Americas. Hewasparticularlydrawn tostonehumanoidfigureson sons betweenartifactsandlinguistictermsphrasesacross theislandswiththoseofindige- amateur studiesofarchaeologyandethnographywhileinPolynesia ledhimtodrawcompari- of theirancestorswhocameacrosstheseafromalandwhere thesunrises. Heyerdahl’sown ing culturetotheIndiansrangabellwithstorieshehadheard theFatuHivaislanderstell Incas asiftheywerethereturningwhitevisitorswhohadsailed westintothesunsetafterbring- apparent afterward. The wayhetellsit, theSpanishhistoricalaccountsofbeinggreetedby South America. The connectiontothePeruviansungodCon-Ticci Viracocha onlybecame from theEastandperceivedculturalbotanicalcorrespondencebetweenMarquesas at leastaccordingtohisstoryinKon-Tiki, when heandhiswife, Liv, wereontheislandofFatuHivainMarquesas1937. There, By hisownaccounts, HeyerdahlhadcomeupwiththeideaofwestwardmigrationtoPolynesia of westwardmigration(seeHeyerdahl[1950]1956;andNordemar 1950). atoll, thecrewwadedtoshore, andHeyerdahlfinallyhadtheproofhesoughtforpossibility days afterlaunchingfromCallao, theKon-Tiki crashedandwreckeditselfonthereefoffRaroia raft sailed, was lost in a storm (in the 2012 film, she was eaten by a shark). One hundred and one the wholeway, buttheirparrotcompanion, Lorita, givenbya “friendly soul” inLimabefore the 5. 4.

by Henry Lie (2011:73). M Meridional ([1748] 2011). ily upon Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa’s study mid-18th-century 19th century. From the illustrations provided in but the visuals he drew upon were and photographs taken in the early prints dated from the late 18th century H Heyerdahl frameshis1948narrativeoftheexpeditionwithhyper-diffusionist theories. any of these stories and surface similarities, as Axelany of these stories and surface Andersson reminds us, had been pointed out to Heyerdahl he heardtalesoftheislanders’ancestorsarriving American Indians in the Pacific Relación histórica del viaje a la América first-contact. from aroundthetimeofSpanish 19th centuriesandaccounts of vesselsfromthe18thand log raftbasedonvariousimages building ofatraditionalbalsa Johannes, whowouldmakeit a stowawaycrabtheynamed means. The crewbefriended navigating theoceanbyancient weather, man-eatingsharks, and harrying adventureswiththe species offish, andtherewere whale sharkandundiscovered press, thecrewencountereda accounts ofthejourneyto the voyage, Heyerdahlwired Humboldt Current. During catching thePacificOcean’s island groupin April of1947, Peru, towardtheMarquesas across thePacificfromCallao, The raftbeganthevoyage (1952), it appears he drew heav- 5 The preponderance The 4

Thor Heyerdahl 31 Figure 5. Drawings by crew member Erik Hesselberg of some of the stone figures figures stone the of some of Hesselberg Erik member crew by Drawings 5. Figure were men bearded that evidence archaeological as used Heyerdahl reliefs and courtesy1950; Simon of Hesselberg (From Incas. the before America South in & Schuster) 6 expe-

Americas to Easter Island, where they settled for generations until being wiped out by a nonwhite culture. culture. nonwhite a by out wiped being until generations for settled they where Island, Easter to Americas peoples indigenous the between correspondence genetic of contemporaryto degree a is there scientists, According eastward from comes similarity this that agree scientists these but Americas, the and Pacific, the Australasia, of of traces found have studies scientific Recent Beringia. submerged now the over land by instance for migration, contemporaryto points still this though Americans, Indigenous in material genetic Melanesian and Australian 2015:354–55). (Balter west the to peoples other and Asia in origins American Native F I was no longer in doubt that I was no longer in doubt the white chief-god Sun-Tiki, that whom the Incas declared driven their forefathers had Pacific, out of Peru on to the white was identical with the son of the Tiki, chief-god of whom the inhabitants sun, islands all the eastern Pacific founder hailed as the original the details And of their race. life in Peru, of Sun-Tiki’s with the ancient names of Titicaca, places round Lake cropped up again in historic legends current among the natives of the Pacific islands. (Heyerdahl [1950] 1956:19)

6. the from sailed also who’d stock same the from men bearded white was it Heyerdahl, argued urthermore, Even in these first pages of his account of the Kon-Tiki dition, Heyerdahl mis-assigns dition, credit due to others’ accom- and not just those plishments, Amerindians. of the pre-Incan Heyerdahl’s accounts of his the- ory’s provenance were later and revealed to be exaggerated, the hypothesis he claimed was Thor and 1937 Andersson reports that in Axel Heyerdahl scholar original to him is hardly that. who as a young man in 1909 had one Henry Lie, Liv had visited with a Norwegian compatriot, Lie had Marquesas on the large island of Hiva Oa. jumped a merchant ship and settled in the he who sug- and it was peoples of the island group, similarly been fascinated with the historic the east gested to Heyerdahl that the origin stories referencing a light-skinned people from Lie brought Heyerdahl to see ancient America. had a correspondence with stories from South been erected by an earlier myste- to legend, according sacred pillars on the island that had, By the rious people who had been defeated in a race war by Polynesians arriving after them. of these comparisons led him to led him to of these comparisons prevailing sci- against declare, that the original entific opinion, Polynesia and the peoples of of Peru were one “white gods” and the same: Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021

32 Scott Magelssen so similartothatofthe Vikings theycouldberelatedtothosemostcommandingof voyagers. claims thattheoriginalinhabitantsofPolynesiahadbeenlight-skinned, withblond, wavyhair, following yearHeyerdahlpublishedPå Jakt efterParadiset (InSearchofParadise)withhisfirst

the nineteenth-centuryhypothesisthatPolynesianshadbeenpartof Aryan race” (18). Günther askedHeyerdahlto “bring himsomecraniumsfromFatuHivaashewantedtotest linked withtheNaziproject” (Andersson2010:18). IncorrespondenceaftertheirvisitinBerlin, had migratedtothemostdistantcornersofworld, astapleofthe Aryanism orNordicismso ity that “the world’sgreatcivilizationshademanatedfromonewhiteculture-bearingracethat theorist whowouldbecomethearchitectof Third Reich’sNuremburgLaws)thepossibil- Berlin in1935, beforemovingtoFatuHivawithLiv, discussingwithHansF.K. Günther(arace ers tobelieve. Heyerdahl’sreminiscencesinFatu Hiva: Back toNature (1974aandb)puthimin he didnotoriginallydeduceitfromstudyingarchaeologyinthe Americas asheledhisread- of hisclaims, Heyerdahl’stheoryofhyper-diffusion waslikewisenotoriginaltohim, oratleast (in Heyerdahl1941:26). Itwouldappear, however, thatinadditiontothecontroversialnature The responsibilityforanyorallstatementsmadethereinmust, naturally, restwiththeauthor” sions, theeditorshavefoundabovearticlestimulatingandthoroughlyworthyofattention. explicit distancingfromhisclaims: “While takingexceptionwithsomeoftheauthor’sconclu- An editors’noteatthebeginningofessayexpressedameasureambivalenceandan ingly sharedracialcharacteristicsofPolynesian, South American, andNorth American peoples. ues, carvings, pottery, hieroglyphs, petroglyphs, words, placenames, architecture, andtheseem- Columbia (Heyerdahl1941:18). Hemadehiscasewithalistofsimilaritiesheobservedinstat- first fromneolithicSouth Americaandlater(around1000 AD)fromwhatisnowBritish would publicallypursuefortherestofhislife. Science of NorwaywiththeFreeNorwegianForces. dispatched toFinnmarkin1944takeparttheresistancefightingGermanoccupation United Stateswherein1942heenlistedtheNorwegian Army-in-exile. Hewaseventually surmises, hewasn’taNazihimself. When World War IIbrokeoutin1939heemigratedtothe While HeyerdahlmayhavegottenhisviewsofracialsuperiorityfromtheNazis, Andersson subsequent wavesofMongoloidandNegroidsettlers, firstfrom thePacificNorthwestandlater and thatthepresent-dayPolynesiansonlydisplaymixed-race featuresafterinterminglingwith Polynesia werenotindigenous Amerindians butbeardedwhitemenwithCaucasian-liketraits title, asubstantialportionofthebookagainarguesthatfirstsettlersEasterIslandand American IndiansinthePacific: The BehindtheKon-Tiki Theory Expedition(1952). Despiteits world, HeyerdahlexpoundedhistheoriesoftheoriginsPolynesianpeoplesin800-page 7. 8.

Kvam, Jr.’s Thor Heyerdahl: Mannen og havet (2005:137, 194). In hisarticle, “Did PolynesianCultureOriginatein America?” appearinginInternational After theKon-Tiki Andersson the east” (Kirch 2012:59; Heyerdahl 1974b:217). name for islands to the west (Fiti is the Polynesian version of Fiji), Heyerdahl focused on the old man’s nod to as he nodded to the east, was flawed “Not from the start. understanding that Te-Fiti is actually an old Polynesian old islander Tei told Thor and Liv of his ancestors being led across the sea “from Te-Fiti Heyerdahl 1974a:228–29, 231–35). Hiva longer makes any secret of the fact that he owes behind the Kon-Tiki to Lie the theory expedition. In Andersson in 1941, Heyerdahlarticulatedinascholarlyvenuethehyper-diffusionist theoryhe , Heyerdahl wrote that his meeting with Lie would change his life (Andersson 2011:73; Heyerdahl 1938:59; cites Heyerdahl’s writes that in voyage securedhimmoreclout, atleastinthepopularpublishing Grønn var jorden Grønn var jorden Patrick Vinton Kirch has since written that Heyerdahl’s story, in which the (1991), Heyerdahl’s later book about his time on Fatu Hiva, he no (1991:87) and He positedthatPolynesiawassettledinwaves, Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (1974a), and Ragnar ” by a chief named Tiki Fatu- 8 7

Thor Heyerdahl 33 - then we have

—

Figure 7. Specimens of pre-Inca mummies with what what with mummies pre-Inca of Specimens 7. Figure (From traits. European-like were alleged Heyerdahl de Nacional courtesy1952; Museo of Heyerdahl Perú) del Historia e Antropología Arqueología, and an explanation of the blond ancestors of the Easter Islanders, and an explanation of the blond ancestors of the Easter Islanders, In the essay “The Bearded Gods before Columbus,” first published in “The Bearded Gods before Columbus,” In the essay 9 1952; courtesy of Museo Nacional de de Nacional courtesy1952; Museo of

embalmed individuals with non-Mongoloid and clearly Caucasoid traits embalmed individuals with non-Mongoloid

eyelids, straight coarse hair) in contemporary Polynesians to later waves of Mongoloid or mixed Mongoloid- mixed or Mongoloid of waves later to contemporaryin hair) coarse straight eyelids, Polynesians or curly noses, broad skin, (dark features Negroid and Asia, Central from eastward immigration Caucasian (Williamson Melanesia from eastward traits Negroid with peoples aboriginal of waves later to hair) woolly 1939:332–33). D —

9. found in pre-Inca Peru what we were looking for: a natural source of the uru-keu strain on the found in pre-Inca Peru what we were looking adjacent islands of Polynesia, sons with full beards were equally unknown on either side of Polynesia when the Europeans sons with full beards were equally unknown yellow-brown peoples of Indonesia and South round-headed “The short, he writes. arrived,” have How then could the Polynesian islanders America were equally anatomically beardless. Heyerdahl finds his answer to ([1971] 1979:97). obtained their deviant Europoid features?” wavy hair and cranial charac- brown or blond, soft, this question by analyzing accounts of the America, mummified remains in Polynesia and South teristics and narrow features of pre-Inca that these mummies are what they appear to “If [...] we assume and makes his connection. be ‘Burial Place’” cited by them as having come from a desert land to the east known as the (Heyerdahl [1971] 1979:103). 1971, Heyerdahl returns again to the question of Polynesian origins. “Tall and red-haired per “Tall Heyerdahl returns again to the question of Polynesian origins. 1971, in folds epicanthic faces, (flat features Mongoloid part early the in iffusionists century 20th the of attributed from Asia and Melanesia. from Figure 6. A mummy bundle from ancient coastal coastal ancient from bundle mummy A 6. Figure of braids blond seemingly the used Heyerdahl Peru. presence European-like for evidence as hair human (From Columbus. before centuries America South in Heyerdahl Perú) del Historia e Antropología Arqueología, Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021

34 Scott Magelssen masked byprogressivesocialDarwinism, andthepatronizingwhiteman’s-burden-attitude of racial discourseofthelate19th centuryinwhichHeyerdahlsteepedhimself, thestereotypes formance studiesscholarshave beenworkingagainst. archies (Colla-) Indiansofthedistrict” (Heyerdahl1952:229). and ambitions, whichcannotbejudgedbythelowstandards ofthehistoricallyknown Aymara- the subsequentIncas, musthaveincludedindividualswithoutstanding intelligence, abilities dynamic high-culture, whichinitsartandarchitecture surpassed(butinspired)thecultureof now Bolivia, withhiswhiteIndians: “It isclearthatthe mobileculture-bearersbehindsucha the areaaround Tiwanaku, thecapitolof pre-IncanempirenearLake Titicaca inwhatis In of a “monochromatic universe.” InHeyerdahl’smind, writes Andersson, as asexist). Andersson putsitwellwhenhedescribesHeyerdahl’sproseasinformedbyhisview several centuriesbeforeColumbus. considered Nordic, broughtculturetoandinitiatedmanyofthegreatcivilizationsworld Norse stock. Inotherwords, hearguedthathe’dproventhepossibilityawhiterace, now already laidthegroundworkforestablishinglinksbetweenthesefair-skinned folkandhisown people tomakeitfromtheCaucasusregionSouth America toPolynesia. Heyerdahlhad maritime humanpractices, thatitwaspossibleinasinglelifetimeforgroupoffair-skinned to havesuccessfullydemonstrated, throughhisperformativeexperimentsinsimulatingneolithic French Arabic reedboatbuilderfromChad). Bytheendof1970s, then, Heyerdahlclaimed nalists fromtheUS, Italy, theSovietUnion, Mexico, aCoptphotographerfromEgypt, anda live andworkinharmonywithoneanother(hiscrewcomprisedadventurerstraveljour Ra IIexpedition. Heyerdahlsailedwithaninternationalcrewtodemonstratethatculturescould Kon-Tiki archaeology, thevoyageofreedboatRaIIfromMoroccotoBarbadosin1970. As withthe tion fromtheMediterraneantoNew World withanotherperformativeactofexperimental Heyerdahl, wouldhaveoriginallycomefromthesameregion(124). The tall, blond-hairedpeoplesoftheNordicculturesnowlivinginnorthernEurope, argued “Afro-Asiatic civilizationsthatextendedfromMesopotamiatothe Atlantic coastofMorocco.” blue-eyed typewouldhavecomefromthesamestockasthatfoundinPhoeniciaand ). Hesuggeststhatthetall, blond,among earlyhistoriesoftheMayansand Aztecs (111ff teaching insteadloving-kindnessandcharity(107). Heyerdahlfindssimilarfair-skinned figures He spokelovinglyandgentlytothebarbarians, leadingthemoutofevilandhumansacrifice, accounts asbeingtall, fair-skinned, withaflowingbearddowntohiswaist, andflowingrobes. 1979:106). The leaderofthesevisitors, Heyerdahl’sKon-Tiki amalgam, isdescribedinvarious his entouragecametotheircountry, taughtthemthewaysofcivilization, anddeparted” ([1971] admission thattheIncaslivedmoreorlessassavagestillalight-skinned, beardedforeignerand toried originstoriesofPeru: “Common toallaccountsofhowculturereachedPeruisthe east (T American IndiansinthePacific, Heyerdahlunfavorablycontraststhepresent-daypeoples in In additiontoconsultingrecordsofhumanremainsfor “Bearded Gods,” Heyerdahlinven Heyerdahl’s insistenceonwhat Diana Taylor andothershavedescribedashemispheric hier (Andersson 2010:86) also inferiorandplebeian. The whiteswerethebearded culture-bringingpatricians. lated intopsychologicalcharacteristics. Brownpeoplewerenot onlybeardlessbut As isusualinracistpseudosciencetheimplicationwasthatthesephysicaltraitstrans- most definitelybrown, orderogatorily “swarthy” aswerethepresent-dayPolynesians. people wereeitherwhiteorbrown, andtheindigenouspeoplesofSouth America were For allhisworkasaworldpeaceadvocate, Heyerdahlwasanunreconstructedracist(aswell Heyerdahl wouldgoontodemonstratethepossibilityofpre-Columbianwestwardmigra- aylor 2007)

— expedition, therewasmorethanjustthenarrativeofmigrationbeingperformedin

an indocrinatedperceptionthat moreadvancedpeoplecomefromthenorthand

—

is indicativeoftheskewedglobal perceptionthatpostcolonialistandper Clearlymuchhasbeenwritten aboutthe - - ­ -

- Thor Heyerdahl 35 . “Racism and sexism in in sexism and “Racism . Age Atomic the for Hero The upshot, both in Con-Ticci’s time both in Con-Ticci’s The upshot, 11

10 expedition, down to such details as the crew growing beards like the the like beards growing crew the as details such to down expedition, Kon-Tiki “Being themselves very white, and most conspicuously bearded, the crew conspicuously bearded, and most “Being themselves very white, writes, “[w]here Heyerdahl proved innovative was not in the articulation of his theory, which origi- which articulationthe in not was theory, his of innovative proved Heyerdahl “[w]here writes,

But the larger issue at stake is that Heyerdahl was not simply perpetuating the discursive and the discursive and simply perpetuating Heyerdahl was not issue at stake is that But the larger have been denied “Other” the ingrained prejudices has been that the The consequence of As long as the image and representation of world prehistory. their past in the imagining Third and to contemporary societies is linked “primitive” non-literate, of prehistoric, in contemporary poli- prehistoric past remains strongly implicated their Worlds, Fourth and excluded the achieve- portrayal of the periphery was often ignored, The tics and life. past thereby creating a distorted view of the ments of subaltern cultural development, and a denial of auton- primitivity, capacity, with low mental “non-literate” that equated (2004:178) omy or full human rights. in Thor Heyerdahl and the crew of the Kon-Tiki of the feel-good performance Effectively, the time when Heyerdahl wrote, as they still are today, were almost universal stories” (Andersson 2010:83). (Andersson stories” universal almost were today, are still they as wrote, Heyerdahl when time the Andersson nineteenth-centuryin nated theorythat his idea his in but discourse, racist be to performedbe to needed in order performativityThe the of proved. (2010:158). play” a in though as it dramatized and state abstract its of out idea diffusionist the carried race, white “The

quotidian racism of his time; his performance of his story of the past on the global stage, while while the global stage, story of the past on performance of his racism of his time; his quotidian both indigenous South damage on wrought historiographic actually to scientists, unconvincing people’s place in global history. and on the popular conception of native American origin beliefs Theory and Tiki Kon “Heyerdahl’s Holton writes in his essay E.L. Anthropologist Graham late 19th century resulted in an that the diffusionism of the Past” the Denial of the Indigenous indigenous peoples in historical of the accomplishments of prehistoric entrenched minimization engineering: discourses from art to beliefs not only robbed indigenous peoples of their Holton asserts that these pseudoscientific legislate and deny land and benefits to indigenous pop- but also were used to claim to history, Indians, Aymara theory strips away claims the Quechua and Tiki “Heyerdahl’s Kon ulations. might have to identify with the great artistic and engineering accomplishments for example, Holton points out that Heyerdahl actually mobilized (177). still visible on their ancestral lands” from the Peruvian government for the expedi- this racial theory to help secure cooperation expedition because it claimed white “Peru’s President Bustamente supported the Kon Tiki tion: rights” thereby eliminating potential Quechua lands Indians owned the land before the Incas, “been used theories have similarly White Race” “Great Holton traces a trend in which (178). and oppose land and Brazil to glorify their prehistory Paraguay, by the governments of Bolivia, (177–78). rights claims by their indigenous peoples and affecting both pop-culture imagination pillaging, 1947 performed racist historical-cultural crew were in Heyerdahl and his six-man wit, To wake. the lives of real indigenous peoples in its that of Pacific Americans nor of indigenous South fact simulating neither the maritime prowess bearded It was Heyerdahl’s white, . on the Kon-Tiki islanders when making the 101-day journey the Scandinavian bod- Dramaturgically speaking, god and his men whom they were simming. after not especially quite well with their referents, ies aboard the raft could correspond visually Andersson comments on the course of the voyage. shaving and letting their hair grow over the perceivable fidelity: itself played their part perfectly in Heyerdahl’s reconstruction of the colonizing of the Kon-Tiki (2010:87). westward journey of his mythic white race” and Heyerdahl’s, was that the white people could be the “American Indians in the Pacific” more Indians in the Pacific” “American could be the was that the white people and Heyerdahl’s, 11. 10. in Andersson writes Heyerdahl,” chastise to not is here point the global north-and-east toward the global south-and-west. And, as others point out, it is easy others point out, as And, the global south-and-west. north-and-east toward the global been, as he might have well intentioned depict a Heyerdahl who, connect the dots to enough to of his racist time. was a product Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021

36 Scott Magelssen weeks at sea. right thereinhis best-sellingbook, now repackagedwiththepicturefrom themovieposteron lar media. Onedidn’thave toconsultAnthropologicalForum forsmoking-gunevidence. Itwas erated musthavebynowscared uphisracistfootprintandoutmodedworldviewinthepopu - inspiration hadtobeover. The jigwasup. All theattentionNorwegianfeaturefilmgen- centuries, withrealpolitical andhistoricconsequences. were paintedbyHeyerdahl’sbrushasillegitimateclaimantsto thelandstheyhaveoccupiedfor pure white-skinnedrace. Finally, 20th-and 21st-centuryindigenouspeoplesofthe Americas ers oftheislandsbecauseHeyerdahlinsistedtheywereonlya mongrelizedremnantofaonce Third, contemporaryPolynesiansarekeptfromclaiming theirancestorsastheculturalfound- oughness?,” Heyerdahlqueried: vast astronomicalknowledgeandtheircalendar, whichwascalculatedwithastonishingthor likewise divestedofahistoricalplaceatthetable. “Whence hadthePolynesiansobtainedtheir by mainstreamanthropologistsasbeingfromSoutheast Asia, Micronesia, andMelanesia, are the greatpre-Incancivilization. Secondly, thehistoricalfirstinhabitantsofPolynesia, identified low-up accountsdenytheancientindigenouspeoplesofPerutheirhistoryinbuilding Figure 8. The crew aboard Coming tothispointinmyresearch, IfiguredHeyerdahl’srunasaninternationalfigure of 1956:152) similar astronomicalknowledgewhichEuropeinthosetimes couldnotmatch. ([1950] and Incastheiramazingculturein America, hadevolved acuriouslysimilarcalendarand vanished civilizedrace, the “white andbeardedmen,” whohadtaughtthe Aztecs, Mayas, Certainly notfromMelanesianorMalayanpeoplestothewestward. Butthesameold (From Heyerdahl 1950) Kon-Tiki, now bearded after several Kon-Tiki ture isfourfold:Firstofall, the and performativeactofdivesti- Last oftheMohicanstoAvatar. representation fromTarzan tinually rehearsedin Western Natived theNative, atropecon- another way, thewhiteguyout- civilization” (158). To putthis paradoxically, theharbingerof the perfectprimitive, butalso, itself therolenotonlyofbeing itinerant whiteracereservedfor ventive andunnecessary. His non-white racesintobeingunin- “Heyerdahl’s theoryreducedthe the foreign,” Andersson writes. to afinalcolonialconquestof preferred primitiveaddedup white racewastheultimateand nal peoples. “To claimthata itive betterthananyaborigi- that aNorsemencoulddoprim- Heyerdahl wasdemonstrating purer, morenaturalmeans, the islandersfornotlivingby on FatuHiva, whereherebuked red onescould. Justashehad successfully thananybrownor Heyerdahl’s historiographic expedition anditsfol- to - Thor Heyerdahl 37 Museum in in Museum a splashy advocacy project inspired project inspired a splashy advocacy galleryits in displayed is it as Kon-Tiki the at Plastiki, Museum in Norway, and to see if there at least the Museum in Norway, Kon-Tiki Kon-Tiki story in spite of everything I’d learned, I asked myself, I asked myself, I’d learned, story in spite of everything Oslo, Norway. Spring 2014. (Photo by Scott Magelssen) Scott by (Photo 2014. Spring Norway. Oslo, Figure 9. Figure was burned at the con- but also the papyrus boat Ra II (the Tigris publicity event. The publicity event. - Gjøa. Museum has had over 17 million visitors (Kon-Tiki Museum 2014–15). Museum 2014–15). Museum has had over 17 million visitors (Kon-Tiki and Fram Fram

Museum was conceived

As I prepared for my trip to the museum I wondered what I’d encounter. I figured the As I prepared for my trip to the museum I wondered what I’d encounter. Norway is great for mar museum had a basic set of choices in how to commemorate the raft and its legacy: (1) They (1) museum had a basic set of choices in how to commemorate the raft and its legacy: culture-bearing race (probably not a could promote Heyerdahl’s racial theory of the white, were explaining Heyerdahl’s views on race , Kon-Tiki They could historicize the good idea); (2) fostering discussions about race in the even in his own time, grounded in outmoded theory, celebrate the present (a commendable goal for any history museum); or (3) they could choose to leave the more problematic racial theory out entirely. and human ingenuity and adventure part, itime history. On the banks On itime history. of Oslo Fjord on Bygdøy some of the mighti- Peninsula, est vessels are permanently dis- played in museums dedicated to Nordic prowess on the seas. one finds immaculately Here, as longships, Viking preserved well as polar explorer Roald Amundsen’s Nestled amongst the church- like exhibition buildings hous- ing the remains of mighty vessels which Museum, is the Kon-Tiki exhibits the considerably less Opened in mighty balsa log raft. 1950 before being relocated in the Kon- 1957 to its present site, Tiki by Heyerdahl and his fellow crew member Knut Haugland a highly decorated (Haugland, for its served as director of the museum resistance, war hero who’d fought in the Norwegian The museum It currently operates as a privately funded nonprofit institution. first 40 years). displays not only the Kon-Tiki, It also features an experi- clusion of its voyage as a protest against war in the Red Sea region). and displays ential Easter Island exhibit with walk-through simulations of underground tunnels, But the main devoted to Heyerdahl’s work as an environmental advocate and humanitarian. As of the beginning attraction of the museum has always been the artifact for which it is named. the Kon-Tiki of 2014, by Heyerdahl’s environmental work, involved constructing a vessel from 12,500 recycled plastic involved constructing work, by Heyerdahl’s environmental Pacific across the South for, like the raft it was winkingly named in 2010, bottles and sailing it - If even my dermatol n.d.). Heyerdahl Institute n.d.; National Geographic Thor (Plastiki 2013; with the Kon-Tiki ogist was conversant I decided I needed to to allow it a purchase on the popular imagination? what was continuing going to the Kon-Tiki find some answers by I bought a ticket to fly decades. of Heyerdahl had been tempered in the last celebratory framing to Oslo in March 2014. the front. But reminders that this was not the case were everywhere I looked. The Norwegian The Norwegian looked. were everywhere I this was not the case But reminders that the front. the set of stamps commemorating on a 2014 the Kon-Tiki put Heyerdahl and Postal Service my conversation with my project in polite When I brought up of his birth. 100th anniversary (my own beard had of corticosteroid my face with injections while she poked dermatologist video about just seen a documentary she told me she’d an episode of alopecia), fallen out in Plastiki David de Rothschild’s Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021 (Photo by Scott Magelssen) to theleftofmainentrance, andEaster Island Moai totheright.Spring 2014. Figure 10. The exterior of the Kon-Tiki Museum, with Con-Ticci Viracocha’s face 38 Scott Magelssen n 1934 Anthropologist Wendell Clark Bennett published his account of the excavation in which he found the 12. symbolizing Heyerdahl’sbeardedgod. Tiwanaku cultsiteinBoliviatheearly1930s. This figureadornedthesailofhisraft, forever the faceidentifiedbyHeyerdahlasthatofCon-Ticci Viracocha onastonestatuefoundin is framedontheleftbya10-foottallbasreliefofprimitiveescutcheon-shaped, beardedface, one storyhigh, thoughthebrick-redroofslopesgentlyupwardfromthere. The mainentrance Museum buildingis, bycomparison, fairlylow-slung:thefrontfaçadeofwhiteconcreteisonly A-frame structureshousingmastedvesselsofthegreatagearcticexploration. The Kon-Tiki water). Across thestreetisMaritimeHistoryMuseum, andnextdooraretall, yellow (tourists cangettothemuseumbywayofpeninsula, ortheycantakeaferryacrossthe human ingenuity? A relicofepicadventure? A symbolofcourage? Any andallofthesethings, if marked asasacredspace. Perhapstheymeditateonthe waytheKon-Tiki isamonumentto to simplysitandcontemplatetheraftinhushedadmiration, appropriate forwhatissemiotically larger cousin. Backuptop, severaltieredrowsof pewsoneithersideoftheexhibitallowvisitors and acollectionofsmallertaxidermysharksareposedcutting throughthewateraroundtheir ter oftheunderwaterscene, animmensefiberglasswhale sharklurksjustbelowthebalsalogs, pended fromdelicatewires, appeartoapproachthecuriousraft foracloserlook. At thecen- effects. Seaweedtrailsfromthemassivebalsalogs. Colorful southseafishandturtles, sus- view theraftfrombeneathinsub-marinediorama, evocatively lightedwithripplingundersea crew, allfloatingonaseaofbluetaffetaandcellophanewaves, thendescendasetofstairsto can admirethedeck, themastandsail, andabamboohutthatservedascabinforthesix-man restored raft. other interpretivedisplays, andfinallyupasetofswitchbackrampsbeforeencounteringthe must firstpassthegiftshop, wendthroughtheexhibitsdevotedtoRaIIandTigris, past

The museumsitsastone’sthrowfromthefjord, onthebanksoppositeOsloCityCenter purposes, and he could have also mistaken a representation of a large nose-ring for a beard (Andersson 2014). Amerindians before European contact, it could be that Bennett labeled the statue “bearded” just for identification that Bennett himself saw significance in the beard. While there were, despite Heyerdahl’s claims, some bearded simply as the “Small bearded statue” (Bennett 1934:441; see also Andersson 2010:217n37). It’s not entirely clear statue Heyerdahl claimed was Chief Con-Ticci (the Kon-Tiki museum mislabels the date 1943) and described it I As thecenterpieceofpermanentexhibition, theKon-Tiki isarrangedin-situ:visitors 12 To therightstandsanexampleofmoai, themys- in theinnermostsanctum. One anticipation forthesacredobject museum, buildingsuspenseand ous cavernsandcorridorsofthe deeper andintothevari- covery, callingforpenetration typical narrativeofexoticdis- museum rehearsesanarche- tured movementthroughthe dramaturgy ofthevisitors’struc- bition space. To besure, the Kon-Tiki not getaglimpseoftheactual peopling ofthePacific. Island playedinthewestward tion tofantasizethepartEaster charged Heyerdahl’simagina- terious monolithicfiguresthat Once inside, thevisitordoes until wellintotheexhi- Thor Heyerdahl 39 accessed by a ramp ramp a by accessed Kon-Tiki, Kon-Tiki, raft in the innermost gallery, away away innermostthe in gallery, raft Kon-Tiki Kon-Tiki Museum. (Photo by Cecilia Løyning Stokkeland) Løyning Cecilia by (Photo Museum. Kon-Tiki the at Museum, with the with Museum, Kon-Tiki Kon-Tiki

Figure 12. The 10-meter fiberglass model depicting the whale shark the crew encountered on the voyage, in voyage, the on encountered crew the shark the whale depicting model fiberglass 10-meter The 12. Figure underwateran beneath exhibit Kon-Tiki the of map Visitor 11. Figure from the visitor entrance. The whale shark display is shown directly below the below directly shown is display shark whale The entrance. visitor the from of the raft’s starboard side. (Photo by Scott Magelssen) Scott by (Photo side. starboard raft’s the of Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021

40 Scott Magelssen of Polynesianculturaloriginsfromscratch, basedonhisprescientobservations Here, themuseumtellsHeyerdahl’sownversionofevents:hecameupwithwholetheory Polynesia firstoccurredtoHeyerdahl, onepanel, titled “An ideacomestolife,” says, his 1948bookandotherwritings. Regardingthemomentideaofwestwardmigrationto ect frominceptiontocompletion. The textofthedisplayshewstoHeyerdahl’snarrativesfrom with thevoyageinglassvitrines, aswellinterpretivepanelstellingthehistoryofproj- this nature. found theretoday. At leastthere’snothinginthisroomthatwouldsuggesttothemanythingof go toprovethatwhitesupermencolonizedthePacificlongbeforebrown-skinnedislanders visitors willlikelynotinterpretthespectacleasatestamenttolengthsracialtheorist the commentsfromseveralnationsinmuseum’svisitorlogbookareanyindication. Typical a determinedindividual, driven byscienceandadventure, persistentinhissearchforthetruth, mention ofthebearded, white, godlikemenfromtheEast. The manthe museumpresentswas white, norwasthereany accountingofHeyerdahl’sdiffusionisttheoryorigin, noranexplicit the raft’sstory. Nowhere doesthemuseummentionHeyerdahl’sconvictionthat Kon-Tiki was not exactlytomysurprise, wasthattheKon-Tiki diorama, dideveryexperiential exhibit, andreadeverylabel. What Ifound, tomydismay, but fessional lighting. daily inthecinemaatnoon. Everythingisartfullyarrangedand tastefullyilluminatedwithpro- throughout showfootagefromtheexpedition, andtheOscar-winning documentaryisscreened from Polynesia” attheendofhisjourney)(Kon-Tiki Museum2014b). Video screensandkiosks Johannesgrowsabeard, too,large raftmadeofbalsawood.” andmeetsa “really cuteladycrab ( the storyofIndianChiefKon Tiki, who hadsailedfromSouth America toPolynesiaona a Polaroidofanapparentlybeardedterracottafigure, “Hereadandread, andfinallyhefound tell youastoryaboutmyfriend, Thor, andtheboattripwewentontogether,” and, holdingup acter ofJohannestheCrabnarratinginamorekid-friendlyway, withtextlike: “I’m goingto interpretive panelsatkneeheightarestorytellingforchildren, withthecartoonchar ventured withtheirleadertothrowthemselvesatthe “mercy ofthesea.” Rightbelowthese dictions regardingtheirimminentdeathsmusthavebeenatremendousstrainonthecrew” they during therainyseasontosecurebalsalogs, andhoweventhough “living withexperts’pre- war heroes, howdespiteprotestsandinthefaceofreasonheventuredintodangerousforest experimental maritimearchaeology.” would havetodoithimself. Hedidnotknowitthen, buthehadjustintroducedtheconceptof opposition hefaced, thewalltextcontinues, hedeterminedthatinordertoprovehistheory “he academics inNew York City;howtheywouldn’tevenreadhisthesis. Onlyemboldenedbythe of study. The nextpaneldescribesthecoldreceptionwithwhichHeyerdahl’sideasweremetby labels stretchtogivehim(“Thorstudiedzoology”), thoughHeyerdahlneverfinishedhiscourse Lie norHansGüntherfigureintotheaccount. idea wouldoccupyHeyerdahl’smindfortherestofhislife. (Kon-Tiki Museum2014a) [was] inhabitedbypeoplewhohadcome, notfromthe West, butfromtheEast? This ues foundinSouth America. Couldsciencebewrong? Was itpossiblethatEastPolynesia had alsonoticedthatthestonestatuesonislandaremarkablesimilaritytostat- that hisancestor, Tiki, hadcometoFatuHivafromalargecountry beyondthesea. Thor the island. This caught Thor’s attention. Oneoftheeldersonislandhadtoldhim work. OnenightLivremarkedthattheoceanwavesalwaysstruckeasternshoreof the PacificOcean. Thorstudiedzoology, andthecoupleconductedcomprehensivefield- In 1937–38 Thor HeyerdahlandhiswifeLivspentayearontheislandofFatuHivain The wallsaroundtheKon-Tiki I spenttwodaysintherelativelysmallmuseum. Ivisited everydisplay, gazedintoevery And thereverentnarrationgoesonfromthere:howhehand-pickedhiscrewofdecorated display are dedicatedtoarrangementsofartifactsassociated Noteworthyalsoisthescientificpedigree Museum chosethethirdoption intelling

—

neither Henry - Thor Heyerdahl 41 voyage, voyage, - which steers the visitors through a spectacular array of Heyerdahl arti Museum, Museum critics Tony Bennett and Timothy W. Luke, after Michel Foucault, high- after Michel Foucault, Luke, W. Timothy Bennett and Tony Museum critics 13

book, the one with the glossy new front cover sporting the movie poster, are available movie poster, the glossy new front cover sporting the the one with book, (that Heyerdahl would have perceived his whole crew as representatives of the Caucasoid have perceived his whole crew as representatives (that Heyerdahl would

S More recently, performance scholar Jill Stevenson has pushed further the conception of the performance scholar Jill More recently, “the freedom to see what they want is the contention that the exhibits simply give visitors visitors who believe that the evolutionary think- (Chang 2009) [...] For creationist to see” the Creation Museum’s science has misled and corrupted society, “secularized” ing of As a visitor to the Kon-Tiki Museum, what I left with was an impression of the exhibit as of the exhibit left with was an impression what I Museum, to the Kon-Tiki As a visitor as museums have long held a place in the popular perception As I have argued elsewhere,

relationship between museum practices and the meaning with which visitors leave. Stevenson the meaning with which visitors leave. relationship between museum practices and between the exhibit space and the beliefs argues that meaning at museums is a co-production in other words, “event’s dramaturgy,” The and values the spectators bring to the encounter. (2013:38). by means of the visitor’s beliefs at play in the exchange “can only be fully realized” Kentucky an evangelical institution in Northern Stevenson’s example is the Creation Museum, where dino- an earth over six thousand years old, that tells the story of an earth only a little The Creation Ark with our ancestors in Genesis. saurs shared the Garden of Eden and Noah’s including slick Museum uses the same techniques as high-end mainstream science museums, associate these conventions Visitors and animatronic dinosaurs. interactive exhibits, signage, Therefore they trust the institu- sensorially with authority and responsible curatorial practices. grounded in a style that equips learners with informa- because such practices are usually tion, “[C]entral to the Creation Museum’s tion at their own pace and according to their own choices. argues Stevenson (quoting Kenneth Chang), performance,” light the hidden structuring and policing of visitors’ bodies and behavior through visible and light the hidden structuring and policing as Luke puts “[H]istory exhibitions,” Luke 2002). invisible power relations (see Bennett 1995; the case with This is certainly (2002:3). being seen” “formalize norms of how to see without it, the Kon-Tiki visitors draw Heyerdahl the man accumulates mythic weight as facts and informational panels. which by the time it is reached will be charged nearer and nearer to the relic at the center, though it is representative of one of Heyerdahl’s even with the fullness of his life’s legacy, earliest exploits. 13. 2014). 2007; 2004b; 2004a; (2002; Magelssen ee an exercise in willful forgetting. Here, Thor Heyerdahl is not a racial theorist bent on proving theorist bent on proving is not a racial Thor Heyerdahl Here, in willful forgetting. an exercise America, and South culture to Central from the East brought white race that a pre-Columbian - is one of inspira Thor Heyerdahl story of the museum’s Instead, and Polynesia. Easter Island and a worker for world peace moreover, but, by science and adventure, of a man driven tion, Heyerdahl’s alarm at evidence of Panels and text drawing attention to environmental causes. decades of the Kon-Tiki world’s oceans within just a few short human pollution of the cultures working together on the comprised of several nationalities and his emphasis on teams Ra II navigation of the after completing its and his burning of the Tigris type not withstanding), of progressive think- human conflict present him as a model as a protest against Valley Indus as well as Heyerdahl’s original raft, souvenirs and balsa miniatures of the At the gift shop, ing. Kon-Tiki though American Indians in the too, Heyerdahl’s other titles are for sale, Many of for purchase. is notably absent. Pacific reify narratives and meaning through not only the visual which cement and sites of authority, the exhib- but through curating the visitors’ movements through display of their collections, arrangement of their and the spatial the order, its and carefully choreographing the pacing, encounters. and who braved danger against the better judgment of doubters to go where the established the established of doubters to go where the better judgment danger against and who braved not dare. scholars would Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021

42 Scott Magelssen 15. or Stevenson, it’s the “blend” that allows visitors to be manipulated by the tactics of the Creation Museum. By 14. Southern ConetoEasterIslandPolynesiacanletdowntheirguard. something awryinthebigmapsofPacificOceanwithleft-pointingarrowsfrom Heyerdahl wasbasicallyright. Thus anystudentsofhumancivilizationwhomightsense that thejuryisstilloutonwhetherHeyerdahlgotitwrong, wecanrelaxandassumethat telling thestraightstory. Surely, logicfollows, ifthemuseumisconfidentenoughtoadmit Polynesia differentlythanHeyerdahldidin1947, themuseumsignalstovisitorthatitis Pacific fromthecoastofPeru, theycouldhavedoneitjustlikeHeyerdahlandhiscrew. who, againstalloddsandnaysayers, provedthatifneolithichumanshadwantedtoconquerthe sion theory. The continuedpoweroftheraftisrootedinitsfunctionassymbolaman Americas, merelythatheprovedthepossibility,- themuseumlaysnoclaimtotruthofdiffu Heyerdahl’s expeditionprovedthatPolynesiawaspeopledviawestwardmigrationfromthe port totellastorythatresistsmainstreamnarrative. Inessence, bynotexplicitlyarguingthat of auniversebillionsyearsold(Man’s Word), theKon-Tiki um’s narrative(God’s Word) asaresistancetothemainstreamscientificviewofevolutionand (Stevenson 2012:103). goers willarriveatthesespaceswiththeirbodiesopentothevenue’srhythmicpossibilities” take meaningfrom” amuseummuchastheywouldperformanceofplay, “many museum- tution’s spaces. BecausevisitorstotheCreationMuseumexpectbe “confronted by” and “to form theintendednarrativesofmuseumbyengaginginacomplicitmannerwithinsti- blending” (2003) ies bydrawingonthefoundationalworkofGillesFauconnierandMark Turner on “conceptual Stevenson discussesthemannerinwhichthisprocesstakesplacecognitivelyvisitors’bod- interpretive textsuggeststhatmaybeHeyerdahlwasontosomethingafterall: one ofthelastpanels, “What reallyhappenedtoCon-Tiki Viracocha” theEnglish-language

It’s aningeniousbluff:bymakingnosecretofthefactthatwethinkaboutmigrationto Unlike theCreationMuseum, however, inwhichmostvisitorsalreadybelievethemuse- (Stevenson 2012:95) ized creationistnarrative, themuseumtransformsbeliefintoembodiedexperience. strategies forsustainingthosefeelingsaftertheyleave. performative displayssupplythemwithfeelingsofstabilityandcertainty A science “ambulatory the progressive visitors perform structure of the Experience Walk of ‘living in’ as part the bible/ aging ‘a by the conscious visitor performance of the meaning of the place’ (1995:16),” Stevenson argues that Drawing on Tracy C. Davis’s confront the museums’ that “‘visitors assertion ideology spatially’ while also encour - museum verify the authority of the biblical account”rial rhythms of the natural history (Stevenson 2002:105). tion displays, and quotations from scientists”) and blending these with biblical narrative, “the traditional mate- incorporating the perceived authoritative museums (“dioramas, tropes from natural history dinosaurs, excava- F terous theory that the Caucasians voyagedterous theory to the New World and from there on to Polynesia). soothe the reader relationship into a trusting with the pages to follow (in which Heyerdahl will argue the prepos- (in Heyerdahl [1971] 1979:7). of the Inca, and that the “Inca, and Mayas Aztecs had descended from the pyramid builders of ancient Egypt” says an editor’s note to the reader, that Heyerdahl that the Maori advanced peoples are the theory descendants South America. time, DNAstudiesfromEasterIslandandtheMarques IslandsshowtracesofDNAfrom mon withpeoplefromeastern Asia thanwiththepeopleinSouth America. At thesame study fromthelate1990sshowedthatinhabitantsofPolynesiahadmoreincom- Virachocha [sic]actuallysailedacrossthePacificandsettledinPolynesiaornot. ADNA We willprobablyneverestablishwhethertheSouth American IndianchiefCon-Tiki similar red herring appears in the preface to Heyerdahl’s Early Man and the Ocean. blend” (Stevenson 2012:105). 14 andthatofSimonShepherd(2004)whowritesmuseumvisitorsper Indeed Heyerdahl never is meant to made such a ridiculous claim. The half-truth Byconstructingamateriallyreal- Museum doesnotexplicitlypur 15 Butthere’smore. In It is erroneous to believe,

—

as well -

­

- Thor Heyerdahl 43 Museum is using the same ’s east-to-west voyage, riding the Humbolt Current from Callao, Peru to to Peru Callao, from Current Humbolt the riding voyage, east-to-west ’s Kon-Tiki

- exhibit materially realizes the visitor’s belief and transforms that belief into embod In addition, DNA studies of pre-Columbian chickens in Chile show that they are DNA studies of pre-Columbian chickens in Chile show that they are In addition, the sea did For ancient man, Heyerdahl[’s] assessments were correct. On this matter,

of Asiatic origin. DNA testing of sweet potatoes from both areas shows that the plant DNA testing of sweet Asiatic origin. of the word for sweet potato in eastern More interestingly, America. originated in South This American language Quechua. is a loanword from the South “kumara,” Polynesia, shared meals, both sides of the ocean met, proves beyond any doubt that people from and communicated. Museum 2014c) (Kon-Tiki It was a means of transportation. not represent a barrier. the Kon-Tiki Like the Creation Museum, Loanword. DNA testing. sensorial markers of authority used by mainstream educational institutions to convey curatorial sensorial markers of authority used by mainstream educational institutions to convey will probably never “We And the phrase responsibility and to instill in visitors a sense of trust. being equipped with all the evidence we have at hand signals to the visitor that she is establish” both inside Heyerdahl’s racial theory, and the choice of conclusion to draw is hers to make. In letting the belief stand, remains unremarked. and nearly everywhere outside the museum, ‘the freedom to see what they want to see’” the “simply give visitors that it will per Stevenson, Kon-Tiki exclaims one comment in the to finally see the rafts!!!” “So happy to be here and ied experience: Raroia, and towed from there to Tahiti. The map also depicts sites where Heyerdahl found archaeological archaeological found Heyerdahl where sites depicts also map The Tahiti. to there from towed and Raroia, America. South from Polynesia to supportingevidence botanical and theoryhis migration east-to-west of Thor of behalf on Hjelmtveit Gerd and Litteratur courtesy1956; [1950] Gyldendal of Heyerdahl (From Heyerdahl’s heirs) Figure 13. The map of map The 13. Figure Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021

44 Scott Magelssen sponsorship dealsthatwouldcompromiseits “scientific integrity.” Solsvik expounded:alwaysmindfuloftheseriousprofile experiment, Heyerdahlavoided he alsosetlimitstowhatproductsorideaswouldallow be associatedwiththeraft. the potentialforfinancialreturnsthatwouldcomewithbranding thename, but, saysSolsvik, Reidar Solsvik, Archive Manager/ResearcherattheKon-Tiki Museumduringmyvisit. interpretive staffonthe “front lines” (HandlerandGable1997:121). Iarrangedtospeakwith of theirmuseum’ssubjectthantheotherwisecelebratoryaccountdeliveredtoguestsby torial andprogrammingstaffwhoworkbehindthescenesholdamuchmorecomplicatedview Handler andEricGableonColonial Williamsburg, though, thatoftenthehistoriansandcura- content, atourismcommodity, andanexportindustry. IknewfromthewritingsofRichard opinion thatHeyerdahl’swholestoryhadbeenwhitewashedintopalatableentertainment star-struck admiration, andpraiseforthemuseum. hearts, andsmileyfacesadorningthecommentssuggestedtheyregisteredsimilarenthusiasm, the manylanguages, muchlessallthe Asian andCyrilliccharacters, buttheexclamationmarks, Frio! “Amazing Museums!” “Hola! Visitando desdeMéxico. Meencantalaciudadysugente. Que he ismyhero, it’sgreattobehere!” “3-12-14 HerefromCaliforniaUSA,” writesMichelleC. visitor logbook. “Thank you 18. material attributed to Reidar with him on 21 March Solsvik is from 2014. my personal interview 17. 16. investors whohadfinancedtheproject. and sellproductsassociatedwiththevoyagetomakesomeof themoneybackforprivate voyage. We talkedaboutHeyerdahl’ssavvyspellingofKon-Tiki sothathecouldcopyright lar withthewarinPacific, andthenacquiredahousehold name, Tiki, thankstoHeyerdahl’s started withrummydrinksservedinCaliforniathe1920sand’30s, butbecamemorepopu- to-open exhibiton “Tiki” culture, thecocktailloungecrazewithallthingsPolynesian, which same peoplethatmadetheoriginalone.” planks areoriginal. The steeringoarisalsoreconstructed, but, Solsviknoted, was “made bythe for thedeck, thehutisnew, asisthebambooinmainstructure, butsomeofthesupport fairly convincedthatoneofthecross-legswasputbackoutplaceduringrestoration. As original. Butthereplacementlegs, headded, arenotvisibletovisitors. Solsvikallowedhewas disapproval whileIscribbledmynotes. balsa logsandsouvenirhuntersmadeoffwithvariouschunksofthevessel. Ishookmyheadin only didtheropessufferfromsewageandoilinfjord, butvandalscarvedtheirnamesinthe suffered furtherdamagewhenitwasmooredforayear(1947–48)atdockinOsloFjord. Not when theraftwastowedawayfromreefofRaroiaatollwhereithadrunaground, andit landing though itisdifficulttogaugeexactlyhowmuchofreconstructed. TheKon-Tiki tated replacingparts. NotalloftheKon-Tiki isoriginaltotheexpedition, explainedSolsvik, play inthemainexhibitionwasentirelyoriginal, orwhetherrestorationsandrepairsnecessi-

So fartheexhibitsandvisitors’endorsementshaddonenothingtodisabusemeof Solsvik wentontotellmeaboutthecurrentrenovationsmuseum, includingasoon- Solsvik continued. The sail, themast, thelogs, andallthecross-legs, savethefronttwoare I beganwithwhathopedweresoftballquestions. IaskedSolsvikwhethertheraftondis- product endorsements. By way of example, Solsvik told me Heyerdahl had an early member of the team sacked money back. But, maintained Solsvik, he always chose the side of science before compromising the project with documentary. He didn’t necessarily want a worldwide copyright on the name, just a way to make some of the S nounced closer to “chiki.” Con All olsvik explained that Heyerdahl sought out a Hollywood company to sell tie-ins (“artifacts”) associated with the J Muybuenmuseo. Gracias, Paola” (Kon-Tiki Museum2014d). Icouldn’tbegintoread is the Westernized spelling of the South American word, and hadn’t beennearlyasdisastrousthephotosmakeitlook. The greaterdamagecame

—

Long livethe 17 The sonofabusinessman, Heyerdahlanticipated ‘dreamers’!” Min Yin writes, “Since mychildhood, Ticci is the South American word, and pro- 18 Solsvikalsoremarkedon ’s crash 16

Thor Heyerdahl 45 purchased a little over half of of half over little a purchased Times York New days,” cut in Solsvik. Heyerdahl’s theories were not problematic in Heyerdahl’s theories were not cut in Solsvik. these days,”

the reports Heyerdahl radioed from the voyage. Solsvik also showed me the original logbook that the museum museum the that logbook original the me showed also Solsvik voyage. the from radioed Heyerdahl reports the family. the from acquired just had for securing a sponsorship with a company that made radio communication devices, taking a stand against spon- against stand a taking devices, communication radio that made company a with sponsorship a securing for else- anecdote this corroborated not have (I research the of integrity the compromise would that deals sorship Newspaper American North the with agreement an including press, with the deals seek did Heyerdahl where). The articlessell to Alliance (NANA) journey. the of out came that I gave him a slow, grim nod of, what, agreement? Sympathy? I wanted to maintain the rap- agreement? Sympathy? what, grim nod of, I gave him a slow, controversial aspects associated “but one of the more I ventured, “This is a sensitive topic,” “Controversial Between the 1950s and 1970s, for instance, Heyerdahl actually helped positively change for instance, Between the 1950s and 1970s, port it seemed we had established from this shift in the tenor of our conversation. After cov- of our conversation. established from this shift in the tenor port it seemed we had and and new programming, the museum including new acquisitions ering developments in steered the conversation to a point I with experimental archaeology, the current state of affairs the questions I’d come here to address. where I could broach is his diffusionist theory of migration...” Thor Heyerdahl with the fortuitous historicity of the 1947 expedition and how it, along with concomitant claims to concomitant claims along with how it, 1947 expedition and historicity of the the fortuitous his He shared angst. out of the postwar helped pull a generation across the US, UFO sightings - of increasing bureau possible in this age is no longer testing” “replica that such own regrets risks off on the kind of authorities to sign to get national it would be impossible where cracy, everything is standardizing the European Union Now that . took with the Kon-Tiki Heyerdahl age of experimen - a golden he rued, diameter of the cucumber, of bananas to the from the curve tal archaeology has ended. his own time, he explained. They had only been called into question within the last decades, question within the last decades, They had only been called into he explained. his own time, change he chalks up to the negative influence of to a dispositional in Solsvik’s opinion, due, research “postmodern tarnishing has been the result of Heyerdahl’s Continental philosophy. “whip- in who believed he maintained, in the 1980s and 1990s, theorists like Jacques Derrida” of Solsvik then proceeded to lay out a kind ping oneself for the sins of former generations.” from which I gleaned that Heyerdahl’s defense, prepared set of statements in Heyerdahl’s question before and that the museum anticipated motives and legacy had been brought into the critiques. that period, during They went, rest of the world. how indigenous people were viewed by the people with knowledge and who deserved equal from being the underdogs to exotic to finally referred to Heyerdahl helped change the way they were rights with nonindigenous people. Solsvik argued, In point of fact, of peoples. from brown and black people to proper names wrote that this expedition was not about , in American Indians in the Pacific Heyerdahl himself, stories from indigenous people and to try to find a “take the His basic method was to race. Solsvik told of Polynesia were Caucasian, As to whether the original inhabitants grain of truth.” from the Africans they were Caucasian but rather me that Heyerdahl did not necessarily think I nod- on. and that he was much more explicit about this in his writings later Berber culture, didn’t think the original inhabitants of Polynesia that Heyerdahl but this last item, ded again, Since my conversa- contradicted everything I had come to know about him. were Caucasian, lay hands on. I have gone back over every one of Heyerdahl’s accounts I could tion with Solsvik, that the expedition was not about race was one The closest I could find to Solsvik’s contention pota- “[W]e did not mean to eat llama flesh or dried kumara : of Heyerdahl’s asides in Kon-Tiki it to prove that we had once been Indians ourselves” for we were not making toes on our trip, Atlantic and the as to whether those who voyaged across the Pacific, But, ([1950] 1956:33). or he Solsvik either didn’t have the whole story, Africa, were non-Caucasians from before that, whether on his own authority or in his role was deliberately giving false testimony by omission, as representative of the museum. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021

46 Scott Magelssen in Western EuropeandNorth America by thelatenineteenthcentury” (Holton2004:176). In peoples wereculturallyandracially inferior[...was]ingrainedinpopularcultureandsciences undergirded Heyerdahl’sKon-Tiki expeditionwasbecause “[t]he convictionthatindigenous own researchandwithmystudents. about representingallhistoricalevents, andaquestiontowhichIcontinually return, bothinmy do themuseum, thefeaturefilm, theenvironmentalist spin-offs)?It’saquestionweshouldask porary culture? What doesitmeantoperformhistorybyonly includingthefeel-goodparts(as original? And howdowetalkaboutthewaysHeyerdahland his raftarerepresentedincontem- performing? CanweeventalkaboutKon-Tiki duction ofaneventthatneverhappened. Ifitisnotperforming thepast, whatistheKon-Tiki Heyerdahl continues: would beallthatCentral America couldreceivewiththe African currentinprehistorictimes.” Columbian Americas: “There isapopularbuterroneousbeliefthatblackpeople, ifanything, against limitingone’sconclusionsthatonlyblackseavoyagerscouldhavemadeittothepre- Arabs whooccupiedthenorthwestcornerofcontinent. Inthesamesectionhecautions describes uptothatpointastheblue-eyedandblondpeoplesamongBerbers, Caucasoid to whomHeyerdahlisreferringarenotblackpeoplefromsub-Saharan Africa, butwhathe Aztec historybegin” (Heyerdahl1952:345). Butinthispassagethelostorventuresome Africans coast, would[...]belikelytodrawnawayfromtheOld World andendupwhereMaya “Venturesome explorers, orlostweatherdrivencraftofftheCanaryIslands West African couldn’t easilyconveyvesselsfrom Africa totheCaribbeanandCentralSouth America: he said, whatvisitorsrememberfromthemuseum tion reallyseemedtobeindicativeoftheexperiencemuseumoffered. Time andtimeagain, shows takecenterstage. And somethingthatSolsviktoldmetowardtheendofourconversa- periphery, whiletheartifacts, fiberglasscastingsofEasterIslandmonoliths, andsoundlight Tiki performed. And theindigenouspeoplesofSouth America andPolynesiadisappearintothe research, construction, andnavigationstoodinforthenarrativeofwhitedominanceKon- Heyerdahl asanadventurerandactivisterased Thor Heyerdahltheracialtheorist. The rigorof infused hiswholelife’sworkandhundredsuponofpagespublishedmaterial. Thor a lotofworktodivertanddistractthepublicfromHeyerdahl’s “White God” theorythat a singleraceofwhitegods. Kon-Tiki wasOdin. starting point:theCaucasusregionfromwhichcontinentsradiate. The culturebearerswere the earth’sculturehadsprungfromsamesource, proceedingoverlandandseafromasingle later on?No. Untiltheveryendofhislife, Heyerdahlpursuedevidenceforhisconvictionthat Had hebeenanymoreexplicitthattheneolithicseafarerswerenotCaucasianinhiswritings rather thanoneman’sproblematicandoutmodedengagement withhumanhistory. ful enoughtomaketheKon-Tiki storyaboutengagementwiththeexoticdenizensofPacific a merefootnotetothestoryofexpedition, buthereitoffers apowerfulthrillfactor, power dren yearslatertosee Holton figuresthatthereason nooneeverreallybattedaneyeattheracialideologythat One maylookeastornorth Heyerdahl doeswonder, inAmericanIndiansthePacific, whetherthe Atlantic currents I leftmyconversationwithSolsvikthedistinctimpressionthatmuseumhaddone the Incaandpre-Incaalikearestrictlynativesof America. (345) ancestry fundamentallyautochthonoustoitsdomain. FromaPolynesianpointofview aboriginal Americans, thoughitisaknownfactthatno American tribeornationhasan diverging ethnicgroupswhichwereathomeintheNew World beforeColumbusas one’s eyestotheirexistence. Inthepresentworkitwillbesafetoreferallwidely gin oftheCaucasian-likeelementinaboriginal America; itisincautiousonlytoclose What tomakeofallthis? The Kon-Tiki

—

is thewhalesharklurkingbeneath

—

or evenforalocalevolution Museum visitorsencounterarestorationofrepro- as aperformative “reconstruction” withoutan

—

and whattheycomebackwiththeirchil

— Kon-Tiki. The whalesharkwas

when searchingfortheori - - - Thor Heyerdahl 47 Museum 9, 2:237–48. 9, 349, 6246 (349, July):354–55. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of of the Anthropological Papers . London: Expedition. and the Kon-Tiki Thor Heyerdahl Age: Atomic A Hero for the London: Routledge. London: Routledge. Politics. Theory, The Birth of the Museum: History,

34, 3:359–494. History 34, Natural 30 June:D4(L). London: Routledge. 311–22. edited by Henry Bial, 2nd Edition, Studies Reader, Performance (T147):15–40. Basic Books. York: New Complexities. .Kon_Tiki. www.amazon.com/Kon-Tiki-Across-Pacific-Thor-Heyerdahl/product-reviews/0671726528/ State & Local History. Local History. Peter Lang. (March):71–75. Paragrana Paragrana “Performing the Past: Living History as Cultural Memory.” 2000. Marvin. Carlson, , Times New York Creationism Meet but Don’t Mesh.” “Paleontology and 2009. Kenneth. Chang, In The “Performance Studies: Interventions and Radical Research.” (2002) 2007. Dwight. Conquergood, 3 TDR 39, Thing in the Postmodern Museum.” 1995.“Performing and the Real C. Tracy Davis, Press. University Yale CT: New Haven, Indian. Playing 1998. Philip J. Deloria, Hidden Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s We Way The 2003. Turner. and Mark Gilles, Fauconnier, www.goodreads.com/book/show/790171 Accessed 27 March 2015. “Kon-Tiki.” 2015. Goodreads.com. Nashville, TN: American Association TN: American Association for Nashville, of Living History. World The Machines: Time 1984. Jay. Anderson, Association for State & American TN: A Living History Reader: Nashville, 1991. Museums. Jay. Anderson, 2010. Axel. Andersson, Fortid folket.” Thor Heyerdahl och det mystiska resan in: Den unge “Resan ut, 2011. Axel. Andersson, 25 November. with author, Personal correspondence 2014. Axel. Andersson, Century B.C. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Fifth in Scenic Conventions Greek 1962. Peter. Arnott, Science Origins.” American “New Mystery for Native 2015. Michael. Balter, References Accessed 27 March 2015. Customer Reviews. the Pacific in a Raft,” Across “Kon-Tiki: 2015. Amazon.com. Bennett, Tony. 1995. 1995. Tony. Bennett, “Excavations at Tiahuanaco.” Clark. 1934. Wendell Bennett, isn’t careful, its silence on the subject of Heyerdahl’s racial views could be interpreted as con- on the subject of Heyerdahl’s racial views its silence isn’t careful, the heartwarming and the story, tell only part of To 19th-century views. tinued complicity with peacenik and environmentalist activism Heyerdahl’s Yes, is not satisfactory. inspirational part, way to honor the good work But a cover up is not a responsible are and ought to be lauded. time that popular culture puts the It’s activism and environmentalism. Heyerdahl did for peace uncomfortable part of the the hero to bed and owns up to the more narrative of Heyerdahl put forward this public con- that can the places Museums are have done. most scientists as story, way. versation in a responsible and discerning - he wasn’t saying any because racism, shocked by Heyerdahl’s the world wasn’t other words, had racist laws and policies efforts to dismantle At the same time, disagreed with. thing they discrimination including anti–racial on the global scene, happening for decades already been reviews reveals quickest of literature And even the charter. the 1945 United Nations language in found the racial of Heyerdahl’s theories printed considerations and popular that both scholarly reviewed American who Edward Norbeck, Anthropologist aspects preposterous. superiority from for many persons to avoid reading racism “It will be difficult wrote: Indians in the Pacific, wrote that the same book for The Observer reviewing And Geoffrey Gorer, (1953:93). his work” [...] read more like studies bearded culture-bearers “fair-skinned about the Heyerdahl’s sections contention that Heyerdahl’s Solsvik’s (1952:7). like serious archaeology” Atlantis or Mu than of If the Kon-Tiki wrong. is simply then, in his own time, theories were not controversial Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27September 2021

48 Scott Magelssen Magelssen, Scott. 2010. “Performance asLearner-Driven Historiography,” TheaterHistoriography: Magelssen, Scott. Museums:UndoingHistory 2007.LivingHistory Through Performance. Lanham, MD: Magelssen, Scott. 2004b. “Performance Practices of[Living]Open-AirMuseums(AndaNewLookat Magelssen, Scott. 2004a. “Living HistoryMuseums andtheConstructionofRealthrough Magelssen, Scott. 2002. “Recreation andRe-Creation: On-SiteHistoricalReenactmentasHistoriographic Luke, Timothy W.2002. Kvam, Ragnar, Jr. 2005. ThorHeyerdahl: Mannenoghavet. Oslo:Gyldendal. Kon-Tiki Museum, The. 2014–15. Accessed 14November2014. www.kon-tiki.no/en/page/om_museet. Kon-Tiki Museum, The. 2014d. Kon-Tiki Museumvisitorlogbook. Kon-Tiki Museum, The. 20March, 2014c. “What reallyhappenedtoCon-Tiki Viracocha.” Kon-Tiki Kon-Tiki Museum, The. 2014b. Children’swalltext. Kon-Tiki Kon-Tiki Museum, The. 2014a. “An ideacomestolife.” Kon-Tiki Kirch, Patrick Vinton. 2012. AShark GoingInlandIsMyChief: The IslandCivilizationof Ancient Hawai’i. Juan, Jorge, and Antonio deUlloa. (1748)2011. Relaciónhistóricadelviajeala América Meridional. Madrid: Holton, GrahamE.L. 2004. “Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki Theory andtheDenialofIndigenousPast.” Heyerdahl, Thor, andOlleNordemar, dir. 1950. Kon-Tiki. Heyerdahl, Thor.1974b. Heyerdahl, Thor.1974a. Fatu-Hiva: Back toNature . London: Allen &Unwin. Heyerdahl, Thor. (1971)1979. “The BeardedGodsBeforeColumbus.” ReprintedinEarly Manandthe Heyerdahl, Thor.1952. Heyerdahl, Thor. (1950)1956. Kon-Tiki, Across thePacific by Raft. Translated byF.H. Lyon. New York: Heyerdahl, Thor.1950. Heyerdahl, Thor. 1941. “Did PolynesianCultureOriginatein America?” Science 1 International Heyerdahl, Thor. 1938. Påjaktefterparadiset:etårpåensydhavsø[InSearch ofParadise]. Oslo:Gyldendal. Hesselberg, Erik. 1950. Kon-Tiki andI.London: Allen &Unwin. Handler, Richard, andEricGable. 1997. inanOldMuseum:Creating TheNewHistory thePast atColonial Gorer, Geoffrey. 1952. “Magnificent Obsession.” ReviewofAmericanIndiansinthePacific: The Behind Theory Michigan Press. Critical Interventions, editedbyHenryBialandScottMagelssen, 208–18. Ann Arbor: Universityof Scarecrow. June):125–49.‘Skansen’ in American LivingMuseumDiscourse).” Theatre Studies24( History Performance.” Operation atPlimothPlantation.” Journal ofDramatic andCriticism17,Theory 1(Fall):107–26. Minnesota Press. Exhibit, walltext. Berkeley: UniversityofCaliforniaPress. 2011. Accessed 14October2014. https://archive.org/details/relacinhistr02juanguat. Antonio Marín. ColecciónJoséCeciliodel Valle, UniversidadFranciscoMarroquín. Posted14July July):163–81. Anthropological Forum 14, 2( Ocean: The Search for The Beginnings ofNavigation Civilizations. andSeaborne New York: Doubleday. Allen &Unwin. Pocket Books. (May):15–26. Williamsburg. Durham, NC:DukeUniversityPress. the Kon-Tiki Expedition. The Observer, 17August:7. Theatre Survey 45, 1 American IndiansinthePacific: The BehindtheKon-Tiki Theory Expedition. London: Expedition Kon-Tiki. Stockholm:Forum. Museum Politics: Power Plays attheExhibition. Minneapolis:Universityof Fatu Hiva: Back toNature. New York: Doubleday. (May):61–74. Sweden: Artfilm, DVD. Exhibit, walltext. Exhibit, walltext. Thor Heyerdahl 49 56, 1 56, http://ocean 2014. Accessed 8 October Arrived in Sydney.” Plastiki has 19, 1:92–94. 19, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Alabama of University Tuscaloosa: 122, 5:1416–30. 5:1416–30. 122,

Malloy, 1–9. Malloy, Michigan Press. University of .nationalgeographic.com/ocean/explore/plastiki/. American Antiquity (T213):93–113. University of Michigan Press. NC: Duke University Press. PMLA www.heyerdahl-institute.no/en/Company/News/Thor-Heyerdahl-to-be 19 December 2014. -remembered-with-four-stamps/. Routledge. London: 265–78. edited by Henry Bial, 2nd Edition, . Ann Arbor: . Making of Meaning and the Performance 2014. Simming: Participatory Scott. Magelssen, “Update: . n.d. National Geographic Expedition. Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki The Pacific: Review of American Indians in the 1953. Edward. Norbeck, Ann Arbor: Century. Twenty-First in the Performance Evangelical Sensational Devotion: 2013. Jill. Stevenson, Durham, Americas. Memory in the Cultural Performing and the Repertoire: Archive The 2003. Diana. Taylor, ‘Hemispheric’ Studies.” to ‘American’ Genre through Performance: From “Remapping 2007. Diana. Taylor, Accessed “Thor Heyerdahl to be Remembered with Four Stamps.” n.d. The. Thor Heyerdahl Institute, Studies Reader, In The Performance Ethnography.” “Performing (1986) 2007. Turner. and Edie Victor, Turner, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ethnology. in Polynesian Essays 1939. W. Robert Williamson, , edited by Scotte Magelssen and Rhona Justice- and Rhona Magelssen by Scotte edited HistoryIn Enacting , “Introduction.” 2011. Scott. Magelssen, Plastiki. 2013. Accessed 8 October 2014. http://theplastiki.com/. 2014. Accessed 8 October 2013. Plastiki. Routledge. London: . and Pleasure Body Theatre, 2004. Simon. Shepherd, 21 March. Norway, Oslo, Personal interview with author. 2014. Reidar. Solsvik, Faber & Faber. London: . in the Round Theatre Medieval 1957. Richard. Southern, TDR for Believers.” “Embodying Sacred History: Performing Creationism 2012. Jill. Stevenson, Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 by guest on 27 September 2021