I sent an email to manhattan and he said to repost regarding the Pacific Islanders’ ability to use their testicles to navigate in the Pacific ocean. Please check out this webpage about navigation:
Here is one part of that page showing clearly that this post is not just plain silliness. It is possible that just because very few people know about something it does not make it impossible or unbelievable. Manhattan, thanks for allowing me to repost.
There is more information about my question that can be found here:
http://www.commonreader.com/cgi-bin/rbox/ido.cgi/excerpts/5/5862-1ex.html
Another quote from the above page:
You’ll learn a few tricks to impress your friends: navigation and distance using birds, telling the time with your fingers, using bees to find water, why there are sixty seconds in a minute, finding remote islands with your testicles—all the neat tools your long-lost ancestors used before they became civilized.
Probably not what you were looking for, but it’s hard to leave this citation out of your quest:
[Female Navigation (Testicular Navigation) (From an Ocean Kayaking site)](http://home.ican.net/~735769/inverbon.htm#Female Navigation)
Your own site has this cryptic reference on a different page: 4.0 Hstory and Context in section 4.1.2 Polynesian “Mapping”, we find
(bolding mine)
For an alternative (or more mainstream) perspective, this site mentions two recent voyages, one by an elder, one by a recently trained youth, who accomplished long Pacific voyages without assistance (and with no mention of testicular aid). Polynesian Navigation
Given that the two references to testicular navigation are both found on the same site, (a site with a definite tilt to “self discovery” and a paucity of supporting evidence for that phrase), I have the feeling that the whole concept is one that was mentioned in passing somewhere and was included simply to add the appearance of “touching the wisdom” of older non-European societies. (The phrase may have been nothing more than the Polynesian equivalent of “gut feeling” or “flying by the seat on one’s pants.”) If there is more to it, you might write to the author of the article to find what information he has.
Actually, to “fly by the seat of one’s pants” does not at all mean to “wing it” or to proceed by guessing.
When turning an airplane, it’s necessary to bank at a correct angle so that the plane doesn’t “slip” sideways. All modern planes have instruments of varying sophistication to tell the pilot whether he needs to increase or decrease the bank angle. But an experienced pilot can detect the proper bank angle by feeling the distribution of pressure the seat exerts on his ass as the plane turns (an indication of both the turning rate and the bank angle).
So it’s actually a rather complex method, involving both flying experience and knowledge of the correct way to maneuver.
Insider, yeah I got to agree that your repost was a bit cryptic without the link to your original post. Plus it might have been a bit more reader-friendly if you had cited the section in the report you did link to, since it was a pain to have to scroll down through that whole thing looking for the reference.
However, I did find your original post with your original question. I have seen references to testicular navigation in the Pacific, and I’m sure they were fairly mainstream sources. I think something like National Geographic or Smithsonian magazine. I searched the archives of PBS and Discover magazine without being able to find mention of the topic.
The links you posted, and other sites I’ve searched on Polynesian navigation do mention the importance of being able to detect and interpret subtle wave and swell patterns. From what I recall, the gonadal navigation aids were involved in that aspect. If the navigator stood in the bow of his canoe and let everything hang loose, and observed his paired pendulums for awhile he could detect slight patterns in waves and swells which might otherwise be missed.
This isn’t the article I remember reading, but I did find another one on[Infotrac** at my local library.
Title: The soft, warm, wet technology of native oceania. (sea navigation)
Author: Harriet Witt-Miller
Source: Whole Earth Review, Fall 1991 n72 p64(6).
It confirms that testicles were used as navigational aids, and agrees with what I recalled, that they helped detect swells. There is one difference in the details, though. According to the article, the navigator sits cross-legged on the bottom of the canoe and feels the swell with his testicles.
It’s a long article, but in the middle it talks about the feel of being tugged around in the seat, and how that relates to what the plane’s doing. It’s somewhat like feeling yourself moving around in a car in a high-speed banked turn, except than in a car it’s usually not an important feedback.
Originally posted by tomndebb
City Gent, I’m curious: Are you a pilot? Have you ever attempted to keep your plane out of a spin by following this procedure?
I am not a pilot, at least not of a plane big enough to ride in. I have taken a few flying lessons and am familiar with aerodynamics, being an aerospace engineer. However, my information about flying by the seat of the pants is purely academic, not from real life.