Re: Amerindian navigators and Eurocentrism in scholarship

[yuku@globalserve.net (Yuri Kuchinsky 17784)]

Jeffrey L Baker (jbaker@U.Arizona.EDU) wrote:
: On 9 Sep 1997, Yuri Kuchinsky 17784 wrote:

: > The fact is that the Natives had those skills. This is beyond doubt.
Even : > the brutal Spanish colonialists accepted this! And what our
enlightened : > professors object to? That in my post I gave no footnotes
-- and therefore : > this didn't happen! What kind of logic is this? Whole
reams of footnotes : > have been posted already -- did they pay attention.
Noooo!  : >

: When has anyone on this group ever said the natives didn't have very
: advanced capabilities.

Well, they're saying that the Natives didn't have these skills to build
ships and to navigate the ocean. This is false and diminishes Amerindian
achievements. 

	...

: You are continually arguing that one group or another developed part of
: all of the above based upon contact with chinese or polynesians or some
: other group. 

Yes, I believe that there was cooperation and sharing across the ocean. 
The exchange went both ways. This was a multicultural exchange. But you
propagate a myth of cultural uniqueness. So what is exactly your point?
Trying to change the subject?

The problem with your point of view is that in order to maintain your
false myth of uniqueness, you have to portray the Natives as less advanced
than they in fact were! So in fact you're diminishing their cultural
accomplishments.

Besides, in order to explain the numerous cultural parallels you will have
to resort to some sort of an updated version of the Psychic Unity of Man
theory, which is nothing but mumbo-jumbo. 

: > When did they begin? This is more difficult. I'm reading now EASTER
: > ISLAND: THE MYSTERY SOLVED, 1989, by Heyerdahl. All kinds of primary
: > sources and beautiful illustrations of relevant artifacts are given there. 
: > There's no doubt in my mind now that there were links between S. America
: > and Easter Island very early on, in pre-Inca times. The evidence given in
: > this book is plentiful and rock solid. It's a fascinating story of unusual
: > and talented people who lived on this isolated island from very ancient
: > times. So read this book if you want to know more. 

: If Heyerdahl gives primary sources, why don't you look at them and cite
: the primary sources rather than citing Heyerdahl?

He gives plenty of primary sources. And, in case you didn't know, he
organized the first modern achaeological excavations there in 1955. So he
himself happens to be a primary source. And then he organized another set
of excavations in 1986. 

The great achievements of Heyerdahl in advancing archaeological knowledge
in this area can be doubted only by those who are completely clueless
about this whole issue.

Regards,

Yuri.

Yuri Kuchinsky in Toronto -=O=- http://www.io.org/~yuku

It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than
to put out on the troubled seas of thought -=O=- John K. Galbraith