Re: Diffusion chickens, sweet potato, maize, grourds and more coming

Yuri Kuchinsky (yuku@io.org)
31 Dec 1996 16:09:57 GMT

Domingo Martinez-Castilla (agdndmc@showme.missouri.edu) wrote about:

: Man Across the Sea (Carroll Riley et al., editors, U of Texas, 1971)

Domingo,

Thank you for providing some quotes from this useful volume.

: Let us see (some titles from said book...):

: - The Sailing Raft as a Great Tradition
: - Cultural Patterning ...[in] Pre-Columbian Ax and Adz Hafting
: - Pre-Columbian Chickens (it may come back)

But... the Chickenman ALWAYS comes back!!!

: - Near East and Mesoamerica similar concepts (temples, cosmic axis,
: navel of the world, burials, zero, urns, and such)
: - Quetzalcoatl: European or Indigene? (author says indigene)
: - A Transantlantic Stimulus Hypothesis for Mesoamerica
: - Coconut
: - Bottle Gourd (again)
: - Sweet Potato (idem)
: - Travels of Corn and Squash
: - Cottons

: etc.

: Allow me to quote from the last page of the Conclusions (unsigned, thus
: apparently written by the editors, clearly pro pre-Columbian
diffusionists) of : that book (remember it was published in 1971, on the
basis of a symposium held : in 1968), to see if this brings some sense to
the apparently never-ending : argument in this forum:

: "The present symposium, though it has not answered our questions, has by
: itself set up certain guidelines. It is clear that we must involve
several : disciplines --anthropology, botany, geography, history, and
certainly : paleontology and zoology. The experts in each field must
acquaint themselves : with both the data and the most current thinking
from the other disciplines. : Cross-disciplinary evidence must be closely
scrutinized and weighed with great : caution. Particularly, we must guard
against ideas so imbedded that they are : accepted as gospel without check
or challenge.

: "In comparing complexes, particularly where style, type, or other
variation in : form is involved, we are probably going to need much more
exact tools than the : subjective ones now generally used (...)

: "With such guidelines we should eventually be able to reach the point
where : given pieces of evidence can be generally accepted, rejected, or
at least : assigned a level of high or low probability.

: It could be interesting to find out what has been the progress in these
: issues, if any.

"Could be interesting", Domingo? Do you mean to say it's not _very
interesting_? Myself, I think it's _extremely interesting_, actually...

: If no progress has been made to the post-Pleistocene
: pre-Columbian diffusion, it could also be interesting to find out why
: (discounting of course very silly conspiracy theories).

Domingo, I hasten to assure you that A LOT of progress has been made. You,
and most others in these groups, don't have a clue how much progress has
been made... Myself, only recently I've gone into trying to find the
newest research, after familiarizing myself with previous research. Now,
I've tracked down much of it (yes, I have plenty up my sleeve yet, so,
fear and tremble, you miserable Isolationists!), and I'm constantly amazed
how much is known now _already_ about transoceanic contacts in earliest
antiquity. I will just give you some names of respected scholars. Their
work certainly did not yet get the publicity that it deserves. But I think
it's only a matter of time now... Stephen Jett, David H. Kelley, Paul
Tolstoy, and Carl Johannessen, of course. Only some of them... I think the
day is coming when the old paradigms will be overturned.

And, yes, let's get rid of those "conspiracy theories". I think that they
only provide a very simplistic explanation for some of these things. The
truth is much more complex...

So, Domingo, perhaps you too can help find this new research in those
rather obscure publications, and to inform the cybercommunity about it...

Holiday greetings,

Yuri.

--

            =O=    Yuri Kuchinsky in Toronto    =O=

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