diffusionism

[The McDonald Family]

At 05:35 PM 12/21/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>Jeff writes:
>
>I dunno enough about the anthropology involved to have much of an
>opinion myself.  Anyway, your comments first, please!  (Are you
>trolling us, Linda?)
>
>What I'm interested in are stories that have been passed down about foreign
>visitors who arrived in pre-recorded times. There is one I've heard of a
>person who arrived in a "copper canoe". These oral tales are what I'd like
>to see (hear) resurrected. I had never heard of the theory of diffusionism
>before that Atlantic Monthly article. I'm hoping renewed interest in that
>theory will bring out some of these stories. Anyone have any to share with
>me? Private mail is fine if it doesn't seem CJ related enough.

Speaking from the perspective of a (hopeful) Anthropology major and major
History buff, the idea of pre-Columbian cultural contact doesn't seem
entirely unrealistic. For the past centuries our history books have been
focused upon the idea that Columbus was the first person to cross the
Atlantic. (Never mind the Pacific.) It wasn't until the discovery of the old
Viking settlement in Newfoundland that this theory was decisively proven
wrong. Most of the pro-Columbians have had to pare down their initial
position to the statement that Columbus was the man who established
permanent and wide-ranging contact between the Western Hemisphere and
Europe, which is sadly true. :(

I think it probable that there has been a much longer tradition of
transoceanic contact in the Pacific basin rather in the Atlantic basin --
the trade links spanning the north Pacific, from China at one extreme to the
Pacific Northwest at the other, are a matter of record. I seem to recall a
report that the sweet potato may have arrived in Polynesia and Asia prior to
the formal establishment of trade links between the Wester Hemisphere and
Asia via the Spanish galleon trade between Mexico and the Philippines. Can
anyone confirm this?

>Linda Fink   linda at fink.com
>http://www.fink.com/linda/teenagers/   http://www.fink.com/farm/5.html
>Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose panda hippo gnu deer.