The bamboo raft as a key to the introduction of the sweet potato in prehistoric Polynesia

Journal of Pacific History

Volumn 36, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 51-76

  Langdon, Robert ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33744933474     PISSN: 00223344     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00223340120049442     Document Type: Article

References (156)

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5. Soetjami Dransfield, 'Bamboo taxonomy in the Indo-Malesian region', in Giles Lessard and Amy Chouinard(eds), Bamboo Research in Asia (Ottawa 1980), 121-30.
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11. James Hornell, 'South American balsas: the problem of their origin', Mariner's Mirror, 17 (1931], 337-50.
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14. James Hornell, 'Was there pre-Columbian contact between the peoples of Oceania and South America?' Journal of the Polynesian Society (hereinafter JPS), 54 (1945), 179-82.
15. Thor Heyerdahl, The Kon-Tiki Expedition (London 1950);
16. idem, 'The balsa raft in aboriginal navigation off Peru and Ecuador', Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 11 (1955), 251-64;
17. idem, 'Guara navigation off the Andean coast', Southwest Journal of Anthropology, 13 (1957), 134-43.
18. Richard Le Baron Bowen Jr, 'Eastern sail affinities', American Neptune, 18 (1953), 2.
19. G.R.G. Worcester, 'Four small craft of T'ai-wan', Manner's Mirror, 42 (1956), 303-6.
20. Clinton R. Edwards, Aboriginal Watercraft on the Pacific Coast of South America (Berkeley 1965), 94-101.
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23. Edward Doran Jr, 'Seaworthiness of sailing rafts', Anthropological Journal of Canada, 16: 3 (1978), 61-9.
24. Robert Langdon, 'The banana as a key to early American and Polynesian history', Journal of Pacific History, 28 (1993), 15-35.
25. Luis Cordero, Diccionario Quichua (Quito 1955)
26. quoted in Gerald Taylor, Diccionario Normalizado y Comparativo Quechua: Chatchapoyas-Lamas (Paris 1979), 137.
27. The form pinto, meaning caña or cane, appears in the first Quechua dictionary of 1560; another of 1608 has pintoc 'caña brava' (cited in fn 38). Terms for bamboo in modern Quechua dictionaries include: pintuj (Bolivia), pintoq (Cuzco-Collao, Peru), pintu (Lamas and San Martin, northern Peru], and pindu (Pastaza, NE Peru).
28. Howard P. McKaughan and Batua A. Macarava, A Maranao Dictionary (Honolulu 1967), pt 1, 59;
29. Richard E. Elkins, Manobo-English Dictionary (Honolulu 1968), 22;
30. Robert E. Sullivan, A Maguindanaon Dictionary (Cotabato City 1965), 92.
31. The inclusion in the Quechua alphabet of 'e' and 'o', but not 'b' was agreed to at the third Congreso Indígenista Interamericano in La Paz, Bolivia, in 1954. However, the two vowels only occur in borrowings from Spanish and in hispanicised Quechua words, such as 'Quechua' itself. See Jesus Lara, Diccionario Qhëshua-Castellano, Castellano-Qhëshua, 2nd edn (La Paz 1978), 32-6.
32. Langdon, 'The banana', 26.
33. Weiping Zhang and L.G. Clark, 'Phylogeny and classification of the Bambusoidea (Poaceae)', in Surrey W.L. Jacobs and Joy Everett (eds), Grasses, Systematica and Evolution (Collingwood 2000), 35-42.
34. See, e.g., the contributions by a variety of specialists in Henry F. Diaz and Vera Markgraf (eds), El Niño: Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the Southern Oscillation (Cambridge 1992).
35. For a simple account of the phenomenon, see M. Grant Ross, 'Oceanography', in 1984 Year Book covering the Year 1983: Annual Supplement to Collier's Encyclopedia. (New York 1983), 381.
36. William H. Quinn., 'A study of Southern Oscillation-related climatic activity for A.D. 622-1900 incorporating Nile River flood data', in Diaz and Markgraf, El Niño,141;
37. Fred L. Nials, Eric E. Deeds, Michael E. Moseley, Shelia G. Pozorski, Thomas G. Pozorski and Robert Felman, 'EL Niño: the catastrophic flooding of coastal Peru', Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin, 50 (1979), 5: 5.
38. Interestingly, Quinn, 'A study', 126, reconstructed strong El Niño events for 1776-early 1778 and 1782-83, but not for 1780-81.
39. His reconstructions for that period were largely based on subjective statements by officials in South America. He evidently did not know of Mourelle's voyage. See also William H. Quinn and Victor T. Neal, 'El Niño occurrences over the past four and half centuries', Journal of Geophysical Research, 92 (1987), C13: 14,449-61.
40. Amancio Landín Carrasco, Mourelle de la Rua: Explorador del Pacífico (Madrid 1971), 273-95.
41. Allison C. Paulsen, 'The thorny oyster and the voice of God: Spondylus and Strombus in Andean prehistory', American Antiquity, 39 (1974), 597-607.
42. Thor Heyerdahl and Arne Skjölsvold, 'Archaeological evidence of pre-Spanish visits to the Galapagos Islands', Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, 12 (1956).
43. Thor Heyerdahl 'Túcume, a temple city', in Thor Heyerdahl, Daniel H. Sandweiss and Alfred Narvaez, Pyramids of Tucume (London 1995), 40.
44. Allison C. Paulsen, 'Patterns of maritime trade between South Coastal Ecuador and Western Mesoamerica, 1500 BC-AD 600', in Elizabeth P. Benson (ed.), The Sea in the pre-Columbian World (Washington 1977), 152-3.
45. Patricia Rieff Anawalt, 'Traders of the Ecuadorian littoral', Archaeology, 50 (1997), 6: 48-52.
46. Charles Heiser, 'New perspectives on the origin and evolution of New World domesticated plants', Economic Botany, 44(1990), 3 (supp.), 111.
47. D. Ugent, S. Pozorski and T. Pozorski, 'Prehistoric remains of the sweet potato from the Casma Valley of Peru', Phytologia, 49 (1981), 401.
48. Donald D. Brand, 'The sweet potato: an exercise in methodology', in Carroll L. Riley et al. (eds), Man across the Sea: Problems of pre-Columbian Contacts (Austin 1971), 361;
49. Ludovico Bertonio, Vocabulario de la Lengua, Aymara (Juli, Peru 1612; repr. Cochabamba 1984), pt 1, 113.
50. Anon., Arte y Vocabulario en la Lengua General del Perú llamada Quechua, cited in Brand, 'The sweet potato', 361-2.
51. Diego González Holguín, Vocabulario de la Lengua General de todo el Perú, llamada Lengua Qguichua, o del Inca (Ciudad de los Reyes [Lima] 1608), 31 (repr. Lima 1952);
52. Marin ell Park, Nancy Weber and Victor Cenepo S., Diccionario Quechua San Martín (Lima 1976), 56, 124.
53. Joan Corominas and José A. Pascual, Diccionario Crítico Etimológico Castellano e Hispánico (Madrid 1980-84), I, 81, 789;
54. II, 386;
55. V, 543.
56. See fn 23.
57. Lara, Diccionario Qhëshwa, 34, cites cusa, tucar and mujar for cosa 'thing', tocar 'to touch' and mojar 'to wet, moisten' respectively.
58. D.E. Yen, The Sweet Potato in Oceania (Honolulu 1974), 337.
59. J. Alden Mason, The Ancient Civilizations of Peru (London 1983), 123, 201.
60. Roland B. Dixon, 'The problem of the sweet potato in Polynesia', American Anthropologist, n.s. 34 (1932), 40-66;
61. Jon Hather and P.V. Kirch, 'Prehistoric sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) from Mangaia Island, Central Polynesia', Antiquity, 65 (1991), 887-93;
62. Jacques-Antoine Moerenhout, Voyage aux îles du Grand Ocean (Paris 1837), I, 177;
63. Germain Fierens, 'Reko Pakumotu' (Anaan vocabulary copied by Alphonse Pinart, 6 Oct. 1877), Ms P-N 24, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
64. U.P. Hedrick (ed.), Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World (New York 1972), 314-15.
65. John Reinold Forster, Observations Made during a Voyage round the World (London 17 78), 277-8.
66. Michael E. Hoare (ed.), The 'Resolution' Journal of Johann Reinhold Forster 1772-1775 (London 1982], 476.
67. Berthold Seemann, The Botany of the Voyage of HMS 'Herald'... during the Years 1845-1851 (London 1852-57), 310;
68. idem, Flora Vitiensis: A Description of the Plants of Viti or Fiji Islands (London 1865-73), 170.
69. John Crawfurd, 'On the migration of cultivated plants in reference to ethnology', Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, 4 (1866), 328.
70. O.F. Cook, 'Peru as a center of domestication', Journal of Heredity, 26 (1925), 98-9.
71. N.I. Vavilov, Origin and, Geography of Cultivated Plants (Cambridge 1992), 313, 348, 399.
72. Georg Friederici, 'Zu den vorkolumbischen Verbindungen der Südsee mit Amerika', Anthropos, 24 (1929), 441-87.
73. Dixon, 'The problem of the sweet potato'.
74. S.K. Lothrop, 'Aboriginal navigation off the west coast of South America'.
75. Roland B. Dixon, 'The long voyages of the Polynesians', Proceedings, American Philosophical Society, 74 (1934), 173.
76. A.M. Tozzer, 'Ronald Burrage Dixon' [obituary], American Anthropologist, n.s. 38 (1936), 292.
77. Kenneth P. Emory, 'Oceanian influence on American culture: Nordenskiold's view', JPS, 51 (1942), 129.
78. Bob Krauss, Keneti: South Seas Adventures of Kenneth Emory (Honolulu 1988), 83-4, 88, 401.
79. Herbert E. Gregory, Report of the Director [of the Bishop Museum] for 1933 (Honolulu 1934), 7.
80. Kenneth P. Emory, Stone Remains in the Society Islands (Honolulu 1933).
81. Idem, Tuamotuan Stone, Structures (Honolulu 1934).
82. J.C. A[ndersen], review of the two aforenamed works, JPS, 43 (1934), 220-3.
83. Emory, Stone Remains, 48.
84. Idem, Tuamotuan Stone Structures, 22-3.
85. Peter H. Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa), Vikings of the Sunrise (New York 1938), 96, 232, v.
86. Peter H. Buck, An Introduction to Polynesian Anthropology (Honolulu 1945), 11.
87. K.P. Emory, 'Visit in Honolulu of scientists in Franco-Belgium [sic] ethnological expedition to Easter Island', JPS, 44 (1935), 66-7.
88. Henri Lavachery, 'Thor Heyerdahl et le Pacifique', Journal de la Société des Oc'eanistes, 21 (1965), 151-9.
89. Peter H. Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa), Report of the Director [of the Bishop Museum] for 1936 (Honolulu 1937), 8.
90. Alfred Metraux, Easter Island: A Stone-age Civilization of the Pacific (London 1957), 12;
91. idem, Ethnology of Easter Island (Honolulu 1940), 272-308.
92. Metraux, Ethnology, 290, 416, 153-4.
93. James Hornell, 'Was there pre-Columbian contact':
94. idem, 'How did the sweet potato reach Oceania?' Journal Linnean Society, Botany, London, 53 (1946), 41-62.
95. Arnold Jacoby, Señor Kon-Tiki (London 1968), 211, 270-1.
96. See, e.g., Kenneth P. Emory, 'East Polynesian relationships: settlement pattern and time involved as indicated by vocabulary agreements', JPS, 72 (1963), 78-100;
97. idem, 'A re-examination of East Polynesian marae: many marae later', in R.C. Green and M. Kelly (eds), Studies in Oceanic Culture History (Honolulu 1970), I, 73-92;
98. idem, 'Easter Island's position in the prehistory of Polynesia', JPS, 81 (1972), 57-69;
99. idem, reviews in American Anthropologist, 70 (1968), 152-4
100. and International Science, 138 (1962), No. 3543, 884-5.
101. Metraux, Easter Island, 63, 238.
102. Raymond Firth, 'Prehistoric America and Polynesia', Nature, 171 (1953), 713.
103. Samuel H. Elbert, 'Internal relationships of Polynesian languages and dialects', Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 9 (1953), 147-73.
104. E.g., Roger Green, 'Linguistic subgrouping within Polynesia: the implications for prehistoric settlement', JPS, 75 (1966), 6-38:
105. idem, 'The immediate origins of the Polynesians', in Genevieve A. Highland et al. (eds), Polynesian Culture History: Essays in Honor of Kenneth P. Emory (Honolulu 1967), 215-40;
106. D.S. Walsh and Bruce Biggs, Proto-Polynesian Word List I (Auckland 1966);
107. Andrew Pawley and Kave Green, 'Lexical evidence for the proto-Polynesian homeland', Te Reo, 14 (1971), 1-35;
108. Ross Clark, 'Language', in Jesse D.Jennings, The Prehistory of Polynesia (Canberra 1979), 249-70. In the three last-cited works,kumala 'sweet potato' is reconstructed as Proto-Polynesian, the language ancestral to all Polynesian languages!
109. Horatio Hale, United States Exploring Expedition ...: Ethnography and Philology (Philadelphia 1846), 143.
110. See Heyerdahl and Skjölsvold, 'Archaeological evidence of pre-Spanish visits to the Galapagos Islands'.
111. Carlyle S. Smith, 'A cultural sequence derived from certain ahu,' in Thor Heyerdahl and Edwin N. Ferdon Jr (eds), Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific: Volume I: Archaeology of Easter Island (Santa Fe, New Mexico 1961), 181-219.
112. Thor Heyerdahl, 'General discussion', in Heyerdahl and Ferdon, 'Reports', 493-526.
113. For Golson's career to this time, see M.P.K. Sorrenson, Manifest Duty: The Polynesian Society over 100 Years (Auckland 1992), 100, 106-10, 145.
114. Emory, reviews, American Anthropologist, and International Science (see fn 79).
115. Roger Duff, review, JPS, 73 (1964), 78-83.
116. J. Golson, review, Oceania, 36 (1965), 38-83.
117. Betty J. Meggers, review, American Journal of Archaeology, 67 (1963), 330-1.
118. For a review by another Americanist, see G.H.S. Bushneil, Antiquity, 37 (1963), 72-5.
119. K.R. Howe, 'Maori/Polynesian origins and the "new learning'", JPS, 108 (1999), 311;
120. idem, Where the Waves Fall: A new South Sea. Islands history from first settlement to colonial rule (Honolulu 1984), 17.
121. Matthew Spriggs, 'Recent prehistory (the Holocene)', in Donald Denoon (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders (Cambridge 1997), 64.
122. See also Peter Bellwood, Man's Conquest of the Pacific (Auckland 1978), 362-3;
123. Patrick Vinton Kirch, Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: an introduction to Hawaiian archaeology and prehistory (Honolulu 1985), 65;
124. Geoffrey Irwin, The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific (Cambridge 1994), 100;
125. Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Easter Island: archaeology, ecology and culture (London 1994), 48.
126. Matthew Spriggs and Athioll Anderson, 'Late colonization of East Polynesia', Antiquity, 67 (1993), 210.
127. Quinn and Neal, 'El Niño occurrences over the past four and a half centuries', 14,450-1;
128. Quinn, "A study of the Southern Oscillation', 123, 126, 130.
129. John Callander, Terra Australis Cognita, or Voyages to the Terra Australis (Edinburgh 1768), II, 685-9.
130. W.W. Bridges, HMS Chanticleer, Callao, 1 Dec. 1870, to Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station, in Captains' Letters, Adm 1/6155, AJCP mf 3327, Canberra, National Library of Australia.
131. Langdon and Tryon, The Language of Easter Island, 59-62.
132. R. Langdon, 'The soapberry', JPS, 105 (1996), 185-6.
133. Roger C. Green, 'Rapanui origins prior to European contact: the view from Eastern Polynesia', in Patricia Vargas Casanova (ed.), Easier Island and East Polynesian Prehistory (Santiago, Chile 1998), 87-110;
134. idem, 'A range of disciplines support a dual origin for the bottle gourd in the Pacific', JPS, 109 (2000), 191-7.
135. Langdon and Tryon, The Language of Easter Island, 8, 6.
136. Green, 'Linguistic subgrouping within Polynesia', 17.
137. Robert Langdon, The Lost Caravel (Sydney 1975), 254-66;
138. E. Thorsby et al. (including Jean Dausset), 'HL-A, blood group and serum type polymorphism of natives of Easter Island", in Jean Dausset and Jacques Colombani (eds), Histocompatibility Testing 1972 (Copenhagen 1973), 287-302;
139. idem, 'Groupe HLA et polymorphisme des indigènes de l'Ile de Pâques', including an appendix by Dausset, 'L'hypothèse du Pr. Langdon', in J. Dausset et al., Nouveau Regard su l'Ile de Pâques (Corbeil 1982), 213-30.
140. Roger C. Green, 'Subgrouping of the Rapanui language of Easter Island in Polynesian and its implications for East Polynesian prehistory', in Claudio Cristino et al. (eds), First International Congress: Easter Island and East Polynesia ... 1984, vol.1, Archaeology (Santiago 1988), 37-57.
141. Robert Langdon, 'When the blue-egg chickens come home to roost: new thoughts on the prehistory of the domestic fowl in Asia, America and the Pacific Islands', Journal of Pacific History, 24 (1989), 164-92.
142. Langdon, 'When the blue-egg chickens', 184.
143. Robert Langdon, 'New World cotton as a clue to the Polynesian past', in Jukka Siikala (ed.), Oceanic Studies: Essays in Honour of Aame A. Koskinen (Helsinki 1982), 179-92;
144. idem, 'Manioc: a long concealed key to the enigma of Easter Island', Geographical Journal, 154 (1988), 324-36;
145. idem, 'The capsicum, an American condiment with a place in the Polynesian (re)past', in Tom Dutton et al. (eds), The Language Game: Papers in Memory of Donald C. Laycock (Canberra 1992), 227-34;
146. idem, 'The banana";
147. idem, 'New light on Easter Island in a "censored"' Spanish report of 1770', Journal of Pacific History, 30 (1995), 112-20;
148. idem, 'The soapberry'.
149. Green, 'Rapanui origins';
150. idem, 'A range of disciplines'.
151. Green, 'A range', 191
152. Roger C. Green, A Review of the Prehistoric Sequence of the Auckland Province, 2nd edn (Dunedin 1970), 24 (first edn 1962).
153. Robert Laiigdon, 'Some iconoclastic thoughts about those Polynesian rat bones at Anakena', Rapa, Nui Journal, 9 (1995), 77-80.
154. See also note 112 and André Valenta, 'La théorie du Pr Langdon confirmée scientifiquement par le système HLA: Pascuans et Polynésiens ont depuis 5 siècles des ancêtres Basques', La Dépêche de Tahiti, 11 June 1985, 1, 15;
155. Robert Langdon, The Lost Caravel Re-explored (Canberra 1988), 199-221;
156. idem, 'The significance of Basque genes in Easter Island prehistory', Rapa Nui Journal, 9 (1995), 9-15;