A University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo professor is collaborating on a groundbreaking study into the heart of Marshallese seafaring and the human brain.
This August, UH Hilo anthropology professor Joseph Genz and an international crew of scientists will study Indigenous sailors who will set sail aboard a trimaran. Researchers will analyze the documentary-filmed voyage to examine how traditional wave-piloting techniques can deepen our understanding of spatial awareness and possibly neurological disease.
“The most exciting aspect of this project for me is the applied nature of research on traditional navigation to the medical field—mariners’ knowledge of Marshallese seascapes, geographies of the coral atolls of the Marshall Islands, and orientation during inter-island voyaging has the potential to provide culture-specific insights into detection of early onset Alzheimer’s Disease,” said Genz.
How navigators move, see, think
The project brings together experts in physics, neuroscience, philosophy, oceanography, anthropology and computer science. At its core: two master navigators from the Marshall Islands who rely on feel and sight to read ocean swells, allowing them to sense islands beyond the visible horizon.
Genz, whose work has long focused on the revival of Marshallese navigation, said the research could lead to earlier detection of Alzheimer’s, a disease that affects spatial orientation. He first connected to Marshallese voyaging 20 years ago through a canoe-building program. He never imagined that journey would one day link to neuroscience research.
Fellow researcher and UH Hilo alumna Jerolynn Myazoe, a Marshallese anthropologist, studied under Genz and is a key partner in the project.
The team will use mobile eye-tracking and 360-degree motion capture to document how navigators move, see and think while sailing. The results could not only preserve these ancient skills, but help heal a community deeply impacted by U.S. nuclear testing and displacement in the mid-1900s.
“[This] invokes a model of knowledge co-production and empowers the Marshallese community,” Genz said.
The collaborative project brings together researchers from UH Hilo, University of Stirling in Scotland, University College London and Harvard University.
—by Susan Enright
For more go to UH Hilo Stories.
