Polynesians to New World first?
- Thread starter tozgood
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sydhe
King of Kongs
Sounds reasonable. I've never figured out why scientists thought the Polynesians went almost all the way across the Pacific and stopped at Easter Island.
plarq
Crazy forever
North American Indians, Mesoamerican, and Andean Incans, have genetic heritage of Altai and Tibet people, to a less extent Polynesians.
Maimonides
Emperor
Not too suprising. The Vikings did it before Columbus, too. The Polynesians could travel amazing distances across open sea.
The article says that they still haven't linked any human DNA to Polynesia, yet, though. Nevertheless, I wouldn't be suprised to learn that they made it all the way across the Pacific.
The article says that they still haven't linked any human DNA to Polynesia, yet, though. Nevertheless, I wouldn't be suprised to learn that they made it all the way across the Pacific.
Are the Polynesians not human?!
Maimonides
Emperor
Of course they are... I have no idea what you're talking about
Again, the article in the OP says that they haven't linked any human DNA, yet. Just chicken DNA.
Again, the article in the OP says that they haven't linked any human DNA, yet. Just chicken DNA.
Well, isn't Easter Island kind of the New World anyways?
But I can see how they got there and stopped. The expeditions weren't coming from a centralized location like with later European empires, each new island was colonized by the residents of the last. And having gotten to Easter Island they were unable to sustain the levels of technology that they needed in order to move on to South America, not for very long.
But I can see how they got there and stopped. The expeditions weren't coming from a centralized location like with later European empires, each new island was colonized by the residents of the last. And having gotten to Easter Island they were unable to sustain the levels of technology that they needed in order to move on to South America, not for very long.
I suppose one could make a stretch and say that the word "Aztlan" existed 4-5 thousand years ago, and "Aztlan", or some variation of it, was mis-spelled/corrupted into "Atlan", and given the Greek "tis/tos" ending. (Atlantos/Atlantis)... Of course, that's a long shot.
Elta
我不会把这种
This has been belived for sometime as it is because there has been sweet potatoes in polyensia since the 1300(ish) and it is a new world crop...whilst all the other crops appear to be from southeast asia .
Drewcifer
Agent of Karma
Indeed, the sweet potato is the thing that makes it seem plausible. It was domesticated in the Andes but had made it through polynesia to the Philipines prior to Columbus' expeditions. I suppose it is possible one could have washed across to Easter Island but I don't think that is very likely.
It is a historical marker of sorts, the last evidence of a now forgotten event.
It is a historical marker of sorts, the last evidence of a now forgotten event.
West 36
Can count up to 4
How about hunter-gather Asians migrating over the Bering Strait, wouldn't they have been first? Yeah, I went there. Um, anyway, more interesting ideas about other cultures reaching the Americas before Europe: Those big Olmec heads are said to resemble Caucasion and Negroid faces, which leads people believe that perhaps Phoenicans made it there, also, I read some early explorers found a colony of black people there, and at some point I heard that Mali may have known something about the Americas. Finally, apparantly Roman coins have been found in South America, true?
TheLastOne36
Deity
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i remember reading a similar article. They said that some native americans near Los Angelas have similar tools and canoes to the polynesians. If this is repeat info from the article my apologies as i haven't read it yet.
North King
blech
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Easter Island is the most isolated island in the world. Add to this that there are lots of islands to its west, and few to its east, and it is a logical stopping point.
No, it's firmly in Polynesia.
They deterioriated a lot over time, but they had a few centuries of high technology. More against them is the notion that they would bother to make the journey. Population pressures were never particularly high on Easter Island for most of its history, and when they were, the civilization simply collapsed.
An extremely long shot. No ships of the ancient world were equipped for consistent trans-Atlantic voyages. Sure, Thor Hyerdahl managed to do it. He also had the benefit of knowing for sure where he was going, and going to and from a modern civilization. The idea that people crossed the Atlantic and left no record except for some "Atlantis"-"Aztlan" connection is ridiculous--especially given that the Aztecs rose to prominence millennia after this legend came about in the Old World.
There are also African yams, which was much more widely known in Polynesia.
Or sailing down the coastline.
They don't. Bone analyses of Olmecs show that they're simply stylized versions of the local's faces.
Which is preposterous. They did not have the oceanfaring technology to do so, and if they had, they most likely would have written down their journeys somewhere.
Which is probably about as credible as the El Dorado myth.
The Malians were not great seafarers, and if they did know about it, it is strange that their greatest wanderer, Ibn Battuta, never even bothered to head that way.
Which can be easily explained by hoaxers or random shipwrecks. The Romans, meticulous record keepers, NEVER mentioned the Americas.
The likelihood of consistent pre-Columbian contact is very near zero. If there had been any kind of contact, then the massive exchange of organisms which did occur (the Columbian Exchange) should be in evidence long before it actually was. Why is it so hard to accept that Columbus was the first one who really opened up the Americas?
Elta
我不会把这种
Actually Easter Island is considered one of the three corners of the polynesian triangle ....allthou that just may have been your way of wording it.
The African Yams are presumed to be from southeast east asia also (in a way) southern Maylay sailors colinised Madagascar-they mixed with african people and are suth africas so called "colored people"
It is likely that the yams reached southeast asian via stops in the indian ocean islands - Polynesian Languages are very simmalar to Southeast asian languages - within 7 -12 phonemes ussualy it has ben confirmed that they are at least in the same large language group.
North King
blech
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Austronesians make up the current inhabitants of Madagascar, this much is correct. However, the yam was domesticated in West Africa, and "colored people" in South Africa refers to a very mixed, nearly arbitrary group; certainly not entirely Southeast Asians.
That's because Austronesians, who originated near Taiwan according to linguistic evidence, branched both into the mainland and the islands. This is also well known.
I think the oldest human skeleton found in Brazil is of a woman of negroid complexion, more coherent with a polynesian than with an amerindian.
I suppose the current theory is that those first inhabbitants either vanished on their own or were eliminated by the more numerous and advanced asian immigrants that became the pre-columbian brazilians.
I suppose the current theory is that those first inhabbitants either vanished on their own or were eliminated by the more numerous and advanced asian immigrants that became the pre-columbian brazilians.
Harbourboy
Deity
I think that given the vast amounts of time involved, it seems more likely than not that several different groups of people reached the American continent long before Columbus or the Vikings.
North King
blech
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Why? Seafaring technology was not very sophisticated for much of human history, and what, exactly, would be the motivation for someone to sail into the middle of the ocean in search of a continent they never knew existed? The Vikings were sailing along in the areas which they were used to, and they were following momentum; Columbus was following a completely insane conviction that the world was narrow enough that the ocean between them and China could be traversable with their sailing technology (it wasn't). It's just so improbable: how many people these days just abandon everything they have to sail towards the Pacific in search of continents that might happen to be there? And before you say that's because we know it's the entire world: so what? So did they, as they conceived it. Look at the maps of the time, and they rarely have this nonsense of terra incognita or white space that we often put in imitations: they usually have the entire map rather imaginatively filled in. Sure, they were eager to try out new routes to places they already knew, but did they expect to find new lands? No.
Gilder
Deity
Oh, an article like this pops up every week or so that some odd people got to the New World first. This week it's the Polynesians.
