where did you get that chicken

[Tom]

Here's a neat story that I find almost funny, but true. The issue stands before history who was here first and there's a grreat many examples of how Native American people have been contacted by other peoples prior to "Old Christopher".
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070605/NEWS01/706050348/1001/NEWS

[Mousini78]

Sounds like someone made a Bojangles stop, huh??? Maybe that's why they serve both chicken and sweet potato pies?? A very interesting story....will stay tuned to see what happens on that...
Becky

[Wachinika]

Interesting, Tom!

In the early 70’s I took several courses in Oriental Art History taught by a professor who had lived in Japan for 5 years in the 50’s. He said there, National Treasures are documented and kept in the possession of private individuals. I believe it was in this manner that there was said to exist documentation of Japanese Pre-Columbian contact with South America.

Two people who worked on this theory were Betty Meggers and her husband, Clifford Evans, Jr., 1920-1981.

These theories of Pre-Columbian contact are referred to as Diffusionism, which seems to “ruffle a few (chicken?) feathers” of those called Isolationists. This is referenced in these JSTOR articles:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316(196601)31%3A3%3C334%3ADAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I

An overview of different Diffusionists work is here at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_contact

I find the similarities examined between Pre-Columbian pottery of the Southeastern U.S. and that of the Yucatan and South America of even greater interest. I believe I’d read a migration is looked at as the cause, and if not, then at least trade between the areas.

[rockhound]

I have seen a map of the Pacific that shows the routes of Asians and/or Polynesians island hopping and moving through the Americas. How do they know their route? They looked for traces of syphillis in remains that had a trail back to Asia...not kidding.