It's pretty much accepted that Polynesians did have contact with the Americas - that's how sweet potatoes got across Polynesia before Europeans got to the Americas.
Linguistically there are clear relations between the Peruvian name for sweet potato and the Polynesian names for sweet potato.This has been thoroughly debunked. Not the sweet potato part, but the human contact part. Sweet potatoes predate humans in Southeast Asia by millennia, and current theory is that seeds were carried by birds or currents.
It's pretty much accepted that Polynesians did have contact with the Americas - that's how sweet potatoes got across Polynesia before Europeans got to the Americas.
There's possible but contested evidence that there were chickens in South America before Columbus, too.
The issue was not that the Polynesians did Discover and arrive in the Americas. The issue was that no trade network was established with people in south east Asia that would of led to continuous contact and trade (that we know of).
This would of led to Spanish arriving and encountering Polynesian and East Asian ships traveling across the pacific back and forth. Which would be competing for trade with Inca.
While it is only speculation but possible Polynesians did arrive and either traded or established settlements that were conquered or integrated into other tribes along the pacific South America coast
Thanks!There's a good chance they did, or at least it's pretty well-accepted that the sweet potato got to Polynesia long before either Polynesia or America was visited by Europeans. The only alternative explanation is that it got across the ocean itself, but with what we know about Polynesian navigational techniques nowadays it seems at a minimum you have to consider it very likely that Polynesians reached the Americas, probably somewhere on the Pacific Coast of South America and returned to share their experiences
It's just...it didn't actually mean that much for either side. Especially considering the inwards turn of many Polynesian societies (e.g., the ending of voyages from Hawai'i or Aoteorea to more central Polynesian regions), America was too far away from Polynesia for regular contact, neither side had all that much to share in terms of biology (except for that tell-tale sweet potato and maybe chickens), and in general there just wasn't any reason for sustained and substantial contact.
It matters a great deal WHEN contact occurs. Current research suggest the Marquesas were colonized between 900-1000 AD, which means contact with the Americas could not have taken place much earlier before the Columbian Exchange. Sweet potato dispersion is also contested. Some claim the plant dispersed without humans before Polynesian colonization.
If the Long Pause was avoided, Polynesians could theoretically arrive in the Americas centuries BC, that would be an early enough POD for Polynesian maritime package, their chickens and pigs to make a real impact. Better food means greater population resilience after epidemic, sailing means technology transfer between North and South America. Perhaps there would have been a Bronze Age.
If Polynesians simultaneously established contact with East Asia it would be a whole new world.
What If
Not if, When
There's also the strange case of Polynesian DNA among the Botocudos tribe. Which is very strange because the Botocudos were on the other side of the continent
Even language, wow. ThanksLinguistically there are clear relations between the Peruvian name for sweet potato and the Polynesian names for sweet potato.
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While there is the 2018 study showing a 100,000 year divergence and it was local I would argue that such specimens were likely hybrids or rather descend partially from local ipomea spp that share relations with sweet potato and were further diluted with American sweet potato genes over the centuries.
It's more likely the Polynesians themselves get colonized. Buffing coastal powers like the Chimu and giving them a relatively nearby target like Galapagos means they'll likely get at least economically dominated, if not militarily dominated.So you're saying that possibly Polynesia and South East Asia could compete in the colonization of the Americas. That's really cool
Thoroughly debunked? Hardly. The study you're referring to provided a conclusion which was questionable at best, ie that sweet potatoes were found in Polynesia 100,000 years ago.This has been thoroughly debunked. Not the sweet potato part, but the human contact part. Sweet potatoes predate humans in Southeast Asia by millennia, and current theory is that seeds were carried by birds or currents.
Speaking of Srivijaya, the Juan Fernandez Islands had a species of native sandalwood, and Hawaii had an even bigger sandalwood industry. Could be a useful trade good to encourage more cross-Pacific connection.![]()
The Malagasy arrived on Madagascar with iron making, rice and mung beans. So could their Polynesian cousins do the same? What if say the Cook Islanders established contact with Srivijaya, or vice versa, and iron making spread throughout Polynesia?
Not that I know of, and the deforestation issues that plagued Polynesia would just be even worse. But iron tools and other goods could be imported from Southeast Asia, New Zealand, or South America, which incidentally gives a solid incentive for trade between various islands.D the Pacific islands have the resources to make iron?
There is quite a bit of conjecture that there was trade with Polynesian areas at different times, the Polynesian genetics are in the large gene pool of Native Americans in the Western Americas (IIRC I could be wrong).The issue was not that the Polynesians did Discover and arrive in the Americas. The issue was that no trade network was established with people in south east Asia that would of led to continuous contact and trade (that we know of).
This would of led to Spanish arriving and encountering Polynesian and East Asian ships traveling across the pacific back and forth. Which would be competing for trade with Inca.
While it is only speculation but possible Polynesians did arrive and either traded or established settlements that were conquered or integrated into other tribes along the pacific South America coast