Re: maize in ancient india: strong transpacific links are indicated

Yuri Kuchinsky (yuku@io.org)
27 Dec 1996 20:15:48 GMT

Fcattus (fcattus@aol.com) wrote:
: Carl Johannson's "Maize sculptures" from India are images of fat,
: hand-grenade-like objects in the hands of several sculpted figures. They
: struck ME immediately as depictions of pomegranetes (sp?!), when he showed
: me 8x10 photos.

John,

He deals with this objection in the article.

I don't know which photos you've seen, and if they are the same photos as
those published in Economic Botany. In my estimation, the chances that
these "objects" are pomegranates are less than 1 in 1000. Pomegranates
are _never_ bent along its axis. They are spherical. These "objects"
(corn-cobs to anyone who is not looking to deny the obvious) are _not_
spherical, and most of them are bent in a special way, the result of
uneven drying of the corn-cob, as Johannessen suggests.

: He replied that this was because of my "prejudice."

I suppose prejudice has never been uncovered in academic debates,
especially in those cases where important assumptions underlying great
many academic careers are at stake?

: Maybe
: so---but 2 can play that game: Why does he (and Yuri and others) see them
: as "smoking guns" rather than as depictions of a typical South and SW
: Asian luxury fruit well-suited to the hands of dignitaries, gods, etc.?
: Especially in the (non)light of South Asian history and cuisine in which
: maize does not seem to have made a dent?!
: --John R. Cole

You're wrong on this. You probably never read this article. Johannessen
deals with this. There are many unusual varieties of corn in Asia that
point to the antiquity of this crop there. (More info to come.) All kinds
of circumstantial evidence is available from historical sources to provide
additional weight to Johannessen's thesis.

Regards,

Yuri.

--

            =O=    Yuri Kuchinsky in Toronto    =O=

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