I’ve been listening to sea shanties over the last couple months, and got curious if Russian sea shanties would be similar to the ones ancient Romans would have used, if they used them at all. Would Polynesian sea shanties have similarities despite being across an entire continent with a different culture?
You may be interested in the answer I wrote yesterday about the origins of sea shanties, which come from a fairly specific cultural context and have been shaped by forces and ideas far removed from their original maritime setting. Work songs are common to many cultures around the world, but "sea shanties" as we know them today are in many ways quite distinct from other sea-related work songs. It's also worth noting (as I mention in that answer) that sea shanties were very dependent on the task at hand, and the tasks at hand on an Ancient Roman ship vs a Polynesian canoe vs a British merchant ship would have been very different.