Polynesians in America: Pre-Columbian Contacts with the New WorldTerry L. Jones, Alice A. Storey, Elizabeth A. Matisoo-Smith, José Miguel Ramírez-Aliaga The possibility that Polynesian seafarers made landfall and interacted with the native people of the New World before Columbus has been the topic of academic discussion for well over a century, although American archaeologists have considered the idea verboten since the 1970s. Fresh discoveries made with the aid of new technologies along with re-evaluation of longstanding but often-ignored evidence provide a stronger case than ever before for multiple prehistoric Polynesian landfalls. This book reviews the debate, evaluates theoretical trends that have discouraged consideration of trans-oceanic contacts, summarizes the historic evidence and supplements it with recent archaeological, linguistic, botanical, and physical anthropological findings. Written by leading experts in their fields, this is a must-have volume for archaeologists, historians, anthropologists and anyone else interested in the remarkable long-distance voyages made by Polynesians. The combined evidence is used to argue that that Polynesians almost certainly made landfall in southern South America on the coast of Chile, in northern South America in the vicinity of the Gulf of Guayaquil, and on the coast of southern California in North America. |
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
Ch03 Myths and Oral Traditions | 25 |
Ch04 A LongStanding Debate | 37 |
Ch05 The Artifact Record from North America | 71 |
Ch06 The Mapuche Connection | 95 |
Ch07 Identifying Contact with the Americas | 111 |
Ch08 A Reappraisal of the Evidence for PreColumbian Introduction of Chickens to the Americas | 139 |
Ch10 Words from Furthest Polynesia | 194 |
Ch11 Human Biological Evidence for Polynesian Contacts with the Americas | 208 |
Ch12 Rethinking the Chronology of Colonization of Southeast Polynesia | 223 |
Ch13 Sailing from Polynesia to the Americas | 247 |
Ch14 Summary and Conclusions | 263 |
References | 277 |
351 | |
About the Contributors | 355 |
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Common terms and phrases
ancient DNA Anderson Anthropology archaeological record Arenal artifacts Asia Asian barbed boat bottle gourd breeds cal A.D. charcoal chicken bones Chile Chilean Chumash Chumashan coast coastal colonization commensal context cultural diffusion dispersal distribution domestic early East Polynesia Easter Island Ecuador El Arenal European evidence excavations figure find first Gabrielino genetic Green Gulf of Guayaquil Haplogroup Hawai’i Hawaiian Heizer Heyerdahl historical hooks human identified influence interaction introduction of chickens Jones and Klar Kirch landfall Lapita layer linguistic Mangareva Mapuche Marquesas material Matisoo—Smith migration Mocha Island models mtDNA North Oceania Oceanic ofthe origin Pacific Peru plank canoe plants Polynesian contact populations possible pre—Columbian radiocarbon dating Rapa Nui region result sailing rafts sample Santa Barbara Channel seafaring settlement sewn—plank canoe shell fishhooks similar South America southern California species specific Storey studies suggested sweet potato tion tolei traits transoceanic voyages Weisler winds World Zealand