Re: maize in ancient India: transpacific links (cont.)
JR Bauer (juli@uwm.edu)
Fri, 24 Jan 1997 23:12:11 GMT
If they had corn in India, why didn't they continue to grow it?
Juli
yuku@io.org (Yuri Kuchinsky) wrote:
>bruce w. ritchings (bwr@icbr.ifas.ufl.edu) wrote:
>: Hey Maize Folks,
>: Let's assume that these maize carvings in India are real. If
>: they date to somewhere around the first millenium, then they are much
>: more recent archeologically than the corncobs found in caves and such
>: from central and south America.
>This is correct, Bruce.
>: If this means that maize got across
>: the Pacific from East to West, who took it, and when, and how?
>These are important questions, definitely. Maize was domesticated in
>America and, it seems, was taken across the Pacific to Asia in ancient
>times.
>The importance of Johannessen's research is that it suggests that
>mythological and cultural elements migrated along with the seeds and were
>adopted in India. This means that a substantial number of people migrated
>from America to India -- otherwise it would have been impossible for
>those cultural elements to establish themselves in India.
>Who took it and when? Well, the first thing to consider is that quite a
>few links between India and ancient America have already been documented
>even before these maize findings. Of great importance among them are the
>similarities in calendars, day names, and zodiacs.
>Another important background consideration is the fact that we know that
>Indian culture and society had a period of expansion culminating at the
>time when the whole of Indonesia was Hindu, early in the 1 millenium. You
>can see on the map that Bali is quite far from India. So Indian culture
>was a maritime culture, and they were skilled in ocean travel.
>Generally, I believe there's a strong possibility that ancient native
>Americans possessed a sophisticated maritime culture that linked with the
>maritime culture of India, and that these cultural areas were exchanging
>information.
>Another very important consideration is to see the Indian links in the
>cultures of various Pacific islands -- there are plenty of those.
>: During
>: this time period, we know that the Polynesians were doing some serious
>: ocean travel in the Pacific,
>Well, the study of Polynesian navigation tells us that their sailing
>craft about 3000 years ago was likely already superior to what Columbus
>had.
>: but I don't think there's any evidence
>: that they went as far as India--or did they?
>Well, Indian influences made it all the way to Polynesia... This is
>generally accepted.
>: Who else had the skill to
>: do such travel at this time? Bruce Ritchings, University of Florida
>As I say, these are important issues that definitely need further
>research. We are not even close to having all the answers. Everyone is so
>busy slamming each other in these discussions that we simply don't have
>the time to formulate constructive and testable hypotheses to explain
>these findings... <grin>
>Best wishes,
>Yuri.
>--
> =O= Yuri Kuchinsky in Toronto =O=
> --- a webpage like any other... http://www.io.org/~yuku ---
>
>We should always be disposed to believe that that which
>appears white is really black, if the hierarchy of the
>Church so decides === St. Ignatius of Loyola
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