Re: Amerindian navigators and Eurocentrism in scholarship

[Jeffrey L Baker <jbaker@U.Arizona.EDU>]

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

> : 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. 

They had the knowledge to navigate quite well. Ships known to have been
built were quite seaworthy, but there is no solid evidence that they
engaged in transoceanic voyages.

> 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. 

I don't buy any "Psychic Unity of Man" mumbo-jumbo. I don't think the
so-called "cultural parallels" are as significant as you (or Carter or
Heyerdahl) claim.

> : 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.

I'm not asking if he provides primary sources, I'm asking why you haven't
examined them and cited them instead of Heyerdahl.

> 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. 

He deserves credit for being the first archaeologist to excavate on Easter
Island. He deserves credit for demonstrating how the Easter Island natives
could have carved and erected the statues using "the primitive technology"
that was available to them.

This does not mean that we blindly accept everthing he did or said.

Einstein is considered to have been a great physicist. Some of his
theories have come under attack since he first published them (including
parts of his Theory of Relativity). As scientists we cannot blindly accept
statements made by any individual regardless of their stature in the
field.


Jeff Baker