[Aztlan] Meso trade in Hawaii

[Michael Finley]

Don't know what 'news article' you might have seen --- but quite 
possibly it had to do with  the long-standing debate about the spread of 
the sweet potato from the Americas (it is native to South America, was 
known pre-Conquest in the Caribbean and Mexico) to Hawaii and elsewhere 
in Polynesia. The presence of the sweet potato in Polynesia is regarded 
by some as the best evidence of  pre-European trans-pacific contacts, 
though the seeds remain viable for long periods in salt water, so 
"natural" dispersal is quite possible.

Here's a link to a brief and reasonably objective account of the 
"mystery of the sweet potato" from BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1984421

And some information about evidence of trans-oceanic contacts generally 
(see "Unsubstantiated claims of Pre-Columbian transoceanic contacts" 
about half way down the page:

http://www.angelfire.com/zine/meso/

Michael Finley

Snizek, Thomas Michael wrote:

>Greetings all.
>
>Some time in the past couple of years I read an on-line 'news'
>article about archaeological evidence of trade between mesoamerica (I think it was Aztec) and Hawaii.
>
>Try as I might I can not find any reference now.
>Did I dream it up or was it some sort of hoax that has now
>vanished in the mist?
>
>Any help in this area would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks
>
>Tom Snizek
>Arkansas Tech University 
>
>
>
>
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