Polynesia is that part of the central Pacific bounded by New Zealand, Hawai'i, and Easter Island, which is about 2,500 miles west of the Chilean coast. That would seem too far for even experienced Polynesian seafarers to cross open ocean, but this book's premise is that such crossings were not uncommon in pre-Columbian times. The idea dates back nearly 200 years, to the first suggestions of similarity in such features as culture, myth, language, fishhooks, boat design, and foods like sweet potato and chicken between coastal North and South America and parts of Polynesia. Based on a 2010 symposium, the dozen topical chapters review such similarities from archaeological and other data sources. Ranging from DNA studies of excavated chicken bones through statistical analyses of human crania (complementing other DNA work) to simple statements of similarity, the reported evidence supports connections between Polynesia and the Americas that suggest significant pre-Columbian contact. Negative views are not well represented, which violates one of the central principles of science, that hypotheses must survive falsification testing. Nonetheless, as reported in the multiauthored summary, the work presented here indicates that this theory is undergoing a strong revival. Recommended. All levels/libraries.

Choice Reviews

These conclusions have been based on fresh discoveries using newest techniques along with re-evaluation of longstanding but often-ignored evidences. This is a definitive and comprehensive publication.

Current Science

Polynesians in America, stemming from a symposium held at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archeology in St. Louis in 2010, addresses from fresh perspectives the question of contracts between Polynesia and the New World. The authors bring a range of mostly new archaeological, linguistic, ethnographic, and biological evidence to bear on the topic.

California Archaeology