Thor Heyerdahl chose ther title Kon-Tiki for his book because it is the name of the raft that they use for their journey. Kon-Tiki is the name of a mythical Peruvian sun-god. Thor Heyerdahl believes that Kon-Tiki led the Peruvians to the South Sea Islands and now he becomes a part of their journey. Thor Heyerdahl is a Norwegian biologist. While studying animals in the South Sea Islands, Thor becomes interested in Polynesian folklore. He hears a legend about how the islands were settled by an ancient Peruvian race. He becomes very interested in this theory, and he decides to focus his studies on the South Sea Islands' primitive races. The more he researches the theory, the more he thinks that the legend is true.

Most people do not believe this theory because the Peruvians would have had to travel 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean to reach...