Crossing the Pacific

[McMillan, Carol]

   As a biological anthropologist by training, and being wary of the
European penchant for wanting to have "discovered" everything, and
having read that even geneticists now say that the aboriginal peoples of
Australia had to have had boats at least 40,000 years ago, and having
looked at the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) vs. other Pacific
Islanders, and hearing about the Hawaiian sailing canoes that have
recently traveled to Alaska and returned, (and . . . and . . . ) I
believe it's time for us all to admit that indigenous people have been
traveling by sea for many thousands of years, back and forth between
continents.  I'm growing a bit weary of all the who-came-first debates.
Perhaps it's all worth it if European and European-decent scholars in
general become less ethnocentric in their world views.  (I'm Scottish, I
can say that.)  Maybe the debate shouldn't be about who had the
technology and ability to cross large bodies of water, but who was
motivated to do it in order to rape/pillage/plunder vs. those who went
to trade and/or visit with others.  That focus might put Columbus and
others into categories more appropriate to their conduct.

Sorry, I just had to weigh in here.

Carol McMillan