Re: Amerindian navigators and Eurocentrism in scholarship

[WWallace@freedom.org (William Wallace)]

On Mon, 08 Sep 1997 01:00:35 GMT, matts2@ix.netcom.com (Matt
Silberstein) wrote:

>In sci.anthropology yuku@globalserve.net (Yuri Kuchinsky 17784) wrote:

>>Greetings, all,

>>I just wonder.

>>Why is it so difficult for a number of scholars in these
>>newsgroups to accept that the Native South Americans were skilful
>>navigators in precolumbian times? Why so much evidence presented
>>to this effect so far has fallen on such deaf ears?

>It is not the abilities that have been questioned, it is the
>accomplishments. The only evidence that I have seen is sightings of
>rafts near the coast. That does not provide any evidence for
>navigation abilities nor navigation accomplishments.

	It is also of interest that using rafts clearly demonstrates
naval skills so primitive that they are the only examples of their
use. 

=====
Any sufficiently convoluted argument can be made to appear to be science
as the layman equates incomprehensibility with science.