Investigating How Traditional Cultures Expertly Navigate Using their Environment

December 21, 2023

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By University of York

An exploration of exceptional navigation feats by cultures around the globe has been carried out. These include seafarers in the Marshall Islands using wave patterns to traverse the Pacific and indigenous Alaskan communities utilizing stars to traverse the Yukon.

The research, conducted by the University of York and University College London, delves into what Western science can learn from unique, traditional navigation techniques, some as old as thousands of years.

The vital role of culture and its close ties to the environment in the art and science of wayfinding in intricate landscapes, devoid of paths or landmarks and where errors could spell disaster, is highlighted.

The researchers propose that these unique methods of navigation challenge pose valuable insights into cognitive science's understanding of navigation.

Dr. Pablo Fernandez Velasco, a British Academy postdoctoral fellow from the Department of Philosophy at the University of York and co-lead author of the study, remarked on the amazing navigation tactics outlined in their paper. He noted that these skills might appear implausible to those predominantly relying on GPS for navigation.

These critical techniques risk being forgotten in a tech-reliant world facing swift environmental changes due to climate change. This is particularly concerning for the culturally rich societies highlighted in the study vulnerable to sea-level rise, shifting landscapes, and changing weather patterns.

The study encourages a shift in perspective, urging Western science to view navigation as a dynamic, sense-involving, thought-provoking, and problem-solving task rather than just storing memories of locations.

Navigation techniques exercised by 49 communities within 30 countries are profiled in the review.

Co-lead author, University College London's Professor Hugo Spiers, expressed his delight at developing the first world map showing these traditional communities and diverse environments. He hopes the map will assist future researchers exploring this subject.

Navigational techniques of specialists within western culture and urban environments, like London taxi drivers who don't use GPS, are also discussed. These drivers must determine the shortest route between two destinations without GPS guidance across London's vast network of nearly 26,000 streets. They use two visualization techniques to achieve this - picturing London's map aerially and simulating in-street views of the route.

Dr. Fernandez Velasco emphasized how their findings across diverse landscapes from London's winding streets to Greenland's southeast coast consistently reveal the correlation between diverse landscapes and navigational cultures, often overlooked in cognitive sciences focused on navigation.

These insights could enrich current understanding of human behavior and aid in understanding, preserving, and adapting these rich navigational cultures that play a significant role in connecting communities to their local environments.

The findings have been published in the Trends in Cognitive Sciences journal.

Journal details: Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Source: University of York.