I've been reading Guns, Germs, and Steel which talks about the various factors that contibute to the way human societies develop and it uses Polynesia early on as a prime example of these factors in action and now my curiosity has been piqued
by SendPonies
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jared diamond’s work is solid but if you want to go deeper, i’d recommend “the polynesian world” by tc mckenna – it’s way more comprehensive on the actual cultural development and navigation techniques. patrick kirch has some great stuff too, especially his books on hawaiian archaeology that really dig into how these societies actually functioned day-to-day.