pacific storytelling

[Richard LaFortune]

our elders have always said that the Yupiit have been
back and forth to Hawai-i for thousands of years. 
That's why our dance styles (essentially,
storytelling) as well as our spiritual traditions are
similar.
-R

--- "McMillan, Carol" <CMcMillan at WVC.EDU> wrote:

>    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
> 



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