Subject:      Re: trans-Pacific contacts
From:         yuku@io.org (Yuri Kuchinsky)
Date:         1996/08/14
Newsgroups:   sci.archaeology,alt.archaeology

ARTICLE 36 OF 49

Will Flor (willf@rrgroup.com) wrote:
: Yuri Kuchinsky wrote:

: > This is "generally believed" only in the world of Jeffrey, surely...

: I'm afraid not, Yuri - it is most certainly generally beleived by many
: others, including myself!  Could you post some evidence of pre-Columbian
: transmission of the sweet potato?  I'd be genuinely interested.

Will,

Glad to oblige.

From Needham, TRANS-PACIFIC ECHOES:

"...in the case of the sweet potato (_Ipomoea batatas_) it is ... fairly
sure that there was a connection between S. America and Polynesia, though
whether the Peruvians took it, or the Polynesians came and fetched it,
remains quite unknown. But the transfer is accepted on all hands." (p. 61)

A wealth of material on this and other issues can be found in Riley, C.
L., et al, eds, MAN ACROSS THE SEA; PROBLEMS OF PRE-COLUMBIAN CONTACTS,
Univ. of Texas Press, Austin, 1971, p. 343. (Cited by Needham.)

Of all the plants found on both sides of the Pacific, and in Polynesia,
the sweet potato is the best indicator of contacts. (Bottle gourd perhaps
comes next.) But many other plants are being studied in this regard by
ethno-botanists.

In the ATLAS OF WORLD MYTHOLOGY by Campbell, look up v. 2, pp. 12-17.

Best wishes,

Yuri.