Geographically Central America lies between Mexico and South America. The seven republics that make up the region are highly diverse in their ethnic and racial compositions. The blending of native American, European and African elements over four and a half centuries produced cultures reflective of the mixing of these peoples into the various multi-racial communities that currently inhabit isthmus. In 1998 the population of Central America was estimated at 33,000,000 persons. Around 66% are mestizos or of mixed racial origins. Central America’s mestizos are descended from the mixing of the three major ethnic/racial groups that settled in the region: native American or “Indian”, European and African.
Persons of native American ancestry are 18% of the population, those of European ancestry 9% and those predominantly of African heritage 4%-6% of the population (1.3 to 1.9 million persons). If we include mestizos among those with some African ancestry the percentage of persons with an African heritage would be much greater.
Looking at Central America we also see that 50% of the population is concentrated in the Pacific coastal lowlands, 40% in the central highlands, and 10% along the Caribbean coast. Ethnically mestizos live in the Pacific coastal and highland zones, native Americans in the highlands and more isolated Caribbean coastal areas, and blacks along the eastern coastal or Caribbean side of the isthmus.
This paper seeks to give a brief historical overview of the African heritage of Central America. Historians in the region, as well as in the United States and Europe, have often overlooked the contributions made by Africans to Central America’s history and culture. Among the Central Americans themselves historical emphases has often been placed on the European contribution to the region, and the mixing of that element with native American cultures. The African contribution to Central America has been largely left undiscovered. John Henrik Clarke in an introductory chapter on Latin-America in J.A. Roger’s World’s Great Men of Color (Vol. II) wrote “The part that Africans played in the making of South and Central America is still a neglected aspect of history”. I hope to correct this oversight.
A more in-depth investigation into these communities is still needed. It is hoped that this paper might be the catalyst that encourages scholars of the African Diaspora to investigate more fully this “undiscovered” part of the story of Africans and their descendants in Central America.
The Mexican historian Gonzalo Aguirre Beltran (the father of black Mexican history) referred to Mexico’s African heritage as the tercera raiz or “third root” of the Mexican people. The tercera raiz also extends south of Mexico into the republics of Central America. Along with native American and European elements, Central America’s tercera raiz has also left its imprint upon the ethnic and cultural landscape that makes up the various peoples and cultures of Central America.
The Pre-Colombian Age:
The focus of this paper is on the history of African settlement in Central America during the years after the Spanish conquests of the 15th and 16th centuries. However, African influence in the region before the Spanish conquest must also be considered. A growing body of evidence collected by archaeologists since the 1920’s strongly suggests an African presence in Mexico and Central America long before the arrival of Columbus. These Africans arrived not in bondage, but as merchants and traders who, like their European and Asian counterparts, came to the region to trade with the native population. Other historians have speculated that some could also have been refugees expelled after military defeats. Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon of Brandeis University writes in Before Columbus (1971):
“Long before the Vikings reached America around A.D.1000, Mesoamerica had long been the scene of the intermingling of different populations from across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Some of the most creative people came from the Near East; but no one group monopolized the scene. Caucasians from one end of Europe to the other came; Negroes from Africa; Mongolians of Chinese and Japanese types from the Far East….”
Gordon goes on to say that the results of this on-going “mingling” between these groups was “a galaxy of brilliant Mesoamerican civilizations, whose final phases are known to us as Inca, Maya and Aztec”. He continues by saying that these civilizations were not the creations of “savages who lifted themselves up by their bootstraps” but rather that they were “culminations of mingled strands of civilization brought to these shores by a variety of talented people from Europe, Africa and Asia”. What role did the African play in this early history of Mesoamerica?
On the Gulf Coast of Mexico there appears to have been from the earliest of times a great mix of peoples and races including Africans, Europeans and Asians. Around the Mexican towns of Veracruz, Tres Zapotes and San Lorenzo sculpted figures of peoples of various races have been found. These peoples eventually mixed together forming the various “native American” tribes of the region. From this area some migrated south into Central America and had an influence on the development of the Mayan Empire.
Jim Bailey writes in his Sailing to Paradise: The Discovery of the Americas by 7000 B.C. (1994) “While the impetus for much of this Mexican colonization will have come from the eastern Mediterranean, I think we must expect tropical West Africa to have provided some part of the leadership, or they would not have selected an area so climatically unlike Egypt and the Mediterranean yet so similar to the rain forests of the Guinea coast”. He goes on to say “This culture provided the all important foundations for the future Mexican civilization and for subsequent societies in Central America, especially the Toltec”.
The most substantial evidence of the great variety of peoples who settled in Mesoamerica during these early years is found in the large number of sculpted heads of stone and terra-cotta that have been discovered. Black Africans, along with white Mediterranean and Semitic types, are depicted among the pre-Columbian artifacts of the region.
The massive sculpted heads of black Africans discovered near Vera Cruz (at Hueyapan) , Tres Zapotes and San Lorenzo represent some of the most compelling evidence of pre-Columbian African settlement in Mesoamerica. Other similar types of heads have been found as far away as El Salvador. Dating from some time after 1,500BC these heads were made by peoples of the Toltec and Olmec culture. Jim Bailey in Sailing to Paradise (1994) had this to say about the sculptures: “It is unmistakably African, the portrayal of a type completely unknown among Amerindians. Furthermore it is a realistic and self-consistent portrayal - not a fantasy that happens to look like an African in some ways. If it had been carved in Africa one would be completely unsurprised, but in fact it is one of seventeen colossal African heads made by the Toltec/Olmecs after 1500BC.” Other heads have been discovered in the Tabasco state weighing up to 20 tons and eight feet tall. Smaller heads and figures have also been found in the states of Oxaca and Michoacan.
Mr. Bailey goes on to say that “at Monte Alban, a great temple site in inland Mexico, there are carvings that portray distinctively African features and African dancing” and that further south in Guatemala the ancient Maya, who carved their Gods as bearded white men, made an exception in regards to their war god who was black and “had protruding lips after the African model”.
Throughout Central America archeologists have discovered sculpted figures, masks and heads that indicate an ancient African presence in Central America.
Guatemala: In the church at Esquipultas the “Black Christ” is venerated. Thousands of native Americans and mestizos travel from all parts of the country to this shrine. The fact that the image of Christ here is black is significant. Some Indians still refer in private to the “Black Christ” as “Ekchuah” the Maya god of “merchants and cacao planters”. “Ekchuah” was a black Maya god with “red lips”. A number of figures of people with African features have also been unearthed in Guatemala and can be traced to the ancient Maya.
The Latin-American archaeologist J.A. Villacorta wrote about black people living in pre-Columbian Guatemala. He claims that both “blacks and whites” lived in the area around Chichicastenango speaking different languages and of “Negro chiefs who appear in the role of conquerors”.
El Salvador: At Chalchuapa (near Santa Ana) an enormous African stone head was discovered near a coffee plantation. Attributed to the Olmec peoples of the Veracruz region of Mexico, this massive sculpted head weighs 40 tons and is nine feet tall. The four sides of the stone head are carved “in low relief” with images of fierce warriors. The Olmecs, who now appear to have had an African connection, were among the first people to settle in El Salvador 3,500 years ago.
Honduras: An ancient stone mask uncovered in Honduras depicts the face of a black African. Some archaeologists have also speculated that the African “tribe of Almamys” settled in Honduras during ancient times.
Costa Rica: J.A. Rogers in Sex And Race - Vol. 1 writes “The American Museum of Natural History in New York City contains several early idols. In the Central American division is a group of ancient Costa Rican divinities which are Negroid. One of them, the largest, being strikingly so.”
Panama: Peter Martyr, historian and friend of Columbus, wrote that the “first Negroes seen in the Indies” were encountered in Panama. He stated that when Balboa arrived in 1513 he found “Negro slaves in this province that live in regions only one days march from Quarequa, and they are fierce and cruel”. The Spaniard Gomara remarked in his writings that when he crossed the Panamanian isthmus “Balboa found some Negroes. He asked them whence they got there, but they could not tell, nor did they know more than this that men of colour were living near by, and they were constantly waging war with them”. He also mentions that the Cuarecas tribe had black slaves. The Spanish found skulls in caves in the Darien that were latter identified as belonging to persons of African origin.
Some native American tribes of the Darien (Panama) believe that when their ancestors arrived in the region it was inhabited by “small black men who soon afterwards, retired into the forests”. The Pajas and Tapalisas Indians of the Cuna Cunas believe their origins go back to “a man and two woman, one Indian and the other Negro, who lived on the banks of the Tataruma”.
How did these pre-Columbian Africans living in Panama get there? When did they arrive? Jim Bailey’s research suggests that they might have been among the survivors of a great fleet of “canoes” that was dispatched by the King of Mali Mansa Musa (1307-1332). King Mansa Musa was the most famous of the kings of the Empire of Mali. This empire was at its height under his rule. Mansa Musa once led 8000 of his subjects on a pilgrimage to Mecca and was known as the “King of the Gold Mines”. According to Bailey king Mansa Musa “dispatched a thousand canoes across the Atlantic to seek land beyond the ocean … they never returned”.
Harold G. Lawrence in the article African Explorers of the New World (1962) wrote “The Mandingoes of the Mali and Songhay Empires, and possibly others, crossed the Atlantic to carry on trade with the Western Hemisphere Indians, and further succeeded in establishing colonies throughout the Americas. Mali, the earliest of these two great empires, building on the ruins of ancient Ghana, rose to become one of the leading nations of the world.”
When Columbus set out for the “New World” he was informed during a stop in the Cape Verde islands that Africans had set out before him with large canoes heading west. When he landed on the island of Hispaniola he was again told by the natives that they had obtained gold from “black men who had come from across the sea - from the south and southeast”. These could have been some of the sailors and merchants sent across the Atlantic by Askia the Great king of Songhay Empire.
Blacks were also found living along the Amazon River of Brazil. Could these Africans living in Panama and Brazil before the European conquest have been the descendants of black people who had crossed the Atlantic Ocean 160 years or more before Columbus? Some scholars believe they are.
Early Years of Spanish Conquest:
From the earliest days of Spanish exploration in the “New World” persons of African origin were present. Pedro Alonzo Nino, considered by historians to be of African ancestry, sailed with Christopher Columbus as a navigator on his first voyage to the Americas in 1492. Columbus also had Africans with him on his second voyage in 1494.
In 1502 Portuguese slave ships brought the first of their “human cargo” to the Spanish island of Hispaniola (Haiti & Dominican Republic). These Afro-Hispanics, who were born in Spain (mainly in Seville) were Spanish speaking and of the Roman Catholic faith. A Royal Ordinance proclaimed by Queen Isabella in 1501 had given sanction to the introduction of African slaves into the Spanish colonies of the “New World”. In 1510 larger numbers of slaves arrived with the introduction of 250 Afro-Hispanics from southern Spain to work the gold mines of Hispaniola.
In 1517 the Spanish Crown took the final steps in its full adoption of African slavery by authorizing that native Americans be substituted by Africans for purposes of slave labor. The Dominican missionary Bartolome de las Casas had been appointed the previous year “Protector of the Indians” and recommended the Crown replace native labor with African labor in the mines of Spanish America. This resulted in a sharp increase in the numbers of Africans being brought to the Spanish colonies. Over the next two centuries more then 3,650,000 Africans are forcibly transported to Latin America (including Central America) from Africa and southern Spain.
During the early years of Spanish settlement in Central America the lack of available labor proved to be a problem for Spanish land owners. Slavery had come to be thought of as an essential element in the development of the Spanish Empire. At first, native Americans were forced to labor for the Spanish through a system called the encomienda. The encomienda was used as a form of “christianizing” slavery with the idea that in return for their labor, natives would receive the “benefits of Christianity”. Within a generation unusually high rates of death and disease eliminated the native as an important factor in the encomienda system. A Royal Ordinance issued in 1512 sought to protect the natives from harsh treatment. Another ordinance proclaimed in 1542 (The New Laws) attempted to end the forced laboring of native Americans under the encomienda. Such laws protecting the natives were not always well enforced and the native population in Central America continued to decline during the 16th and 17th centuries.
With the elimination the encomienda, an increase in the arrival of slaves from Africa took place in Central America during the decade of 1540’s. Africans were brought to the Caribbean and Central America from several western and central African regions. Many were brought from Senegal, The Gambia, the Guinea and Gold Coasts, Nigeria, the Congo basin and as far south as Angola. During the 16th and 17th centuries thousands were transported from these regions to the islands of Hispaniola, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Spanish planters tended to favor the Yoruba speaking Africans of western Nigeria and many were “imported” from this region. From Hispaniola, Cuba and Puerto Rico, African slaves were transported to ports along the North Coast of Honduras and from there sold to Spanish miners and planters living and working in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
The first group of black slaves to arrive in what would latter be the United Provinces of Central America landed near Puerto Cortez (Honduras) with Gil Gonzalez de Avila in 1524. Over the next century more Africans than Europeans would arrive in Central America. By the time Central America received its independence from Spain in 1821, a process of assimilation had taken place. This resulted in the racial and cultural absorption of the majority of Africans into the mestizo population. The importation of African slaves into Central America declined during the 18th century. Native and mestizo labor began to replace the slave labor that had been so important to the Spanish miners and planters during the 16th and 17th centuries. A growing miscegenation between the races resulted in a steady cultural and racial amalgamation that was nearly complete in Central America by the time of independence. This amalgamation process had taken place slowly, over a three hundred year period starting in the 1520’s.
Long before the abolition of slavery in Central America (1823) many Africans and Afromestizos had become “free men and women of color”. This status had been achieved either through desertion or “individual liberation”. In addition to this, the children of African slave fathers and native American mothers were deemed free by Spanish colonial authorities. As a result, more than a few African male slaves took native “common-law wives” in an effort to gain for their descendants the freedoms that had been denied them. Because of a great shortage of European women immigrants to Central America during the 16th and 17th centuries, Spanish men often took African and native American women as their common law wives. These African and native American women are the “first mothers” of over 65% of today’s Central American population.
In the introduction to the chapter on Latin-America in the book Great Men of Color (1947) John Henrik Clarke comments on the life of the African slave in Latin-America “…the slave master did not outlaw the African drum, African ornamentations, African religion, or other things dear to the African, remembered from his former life”. John Hope Franklin writes in From Freedom To Slavery (1969) about the Spanish attitude towards African slaves. “There was generally a greater respect for Negroes as human beings then there was in English America. The willingness of Spaniards to intermarry with Negroes is ample proof of this” and “There existed all through Spanish America an inclination to merge the blood of the Spaniard with the blood of the Negro -on a respectable basis- that, in the long run, had a profound effect on the institution of slavery itself”. It seems that the results of this “inclination” was that the African population of colonial Central America essentially “melted into” the mestizo mainstream over several generations creating the “tri-racial” population (known commonly as mestizo) that is found throughout much of Central America today. It should also not be forgotten that slavery in Spanish America was at times just as brutal as anything found in the British colonies, and that thousands and thousands of Africans died in the mines and on the plantations of Latin America during the years of the slave trade.
The exceptions to the above examples of Afro-Hispanic amalgamation in Central America are the two Afro-Amerindian population groups known as Garifuna and Miskito, as well as the Creole English speaking Afro-Antillean communities scattered along the eastern coastline of Central America. These groups live culturally separate lives from the mestizo majority and are also ethnically different than the mixed descendants of Africans from the colonial era.
Latin-American historian F. D. Parker in The Central American Republics (1964) suggests that “For every seven indigenous persons who contributed their blood to the amalgamated stream there were two Africans and one European”. This 20% African contribution to the mestizo peoples of Central America has often been overlooked by students and historians of the African Diaspora.
~~~~~~~~~
References
Bailey, J. Sailing to Paradise. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Brauer, J. On Your Own in El Salvador. Charlottsville, VA: On Your Own Publications, 1995.
Bennett, L. Jr. Before the Mayflower. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973.
Bergman, P.M. The Chronological History of the Negro in America. New York: Mentor Books, 1969.
Box, B. Mexico & Central America Handbook. Bath, England: Footprints Handbooks, 1996.
De Jongh Osborne, L. Four Keys to El Salvador. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1956.
De Mestas, A. El Salvador Pais de Lagos y Volcanes. Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispanica, 1950.
Eilenberg, D. Central America. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Franklin, J.H. From Slavery to Freedom. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1969.
Gordon, C. Before Columbus. New York: Crown Publications, 1971.
Herring, H. A History of Latin America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972.
Humphrey, C. Honduras Handbook. Chico, CA: Moon Publications, 1997.
James, P. E. Latin America. New York: The Odyssey Press, 1959.
Kanellos, N. Chronology of Hispanic-American History. New York: Gale Research, 1995
Keller, N. Central America. Hawthorn, Australia: Lonely Planet Publications, 1994.
King, J. P. The World and Its Peoples - The Caribbean Region and Central America. New York: Greystone Press, 1965.
Nyrop, R. Guatemala A Country Guide. Washington, DC: American University/U.S. Government, 1984.
Parker, F. The Central American Republics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
Perrottet, T. Insight Guides - Belize. London: APA Publications, 1997.
Price, R. Maroon Societies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1979.
Ramey, C. Central America On the Loose. New York: Fodor’s Travel Publications, 1993.
Rogers, J.A. Sex and Race (Vol. I). St. Petersburg, FL: Helga M. Rogers, 1940.
Rogers, J.A. Sex and Race (Vol. II). St. Petersburg, FL: Helga M. Rogers, 1942.
Rogers, J.A. Sex and Race (Vol. III). St. Petersburg, FL: Helga M. Rogers, 1944.
Rogers, J.A. World’s Great Men of Color (Vol. II). New York: Simon & Schuster, 1947/1996.
Rudolph, J.D. Honduras A Country Guide. Washington, DC: American University/U.S. Government, 1984.
Van de Grift Sanchez, N. Stories of the Latin American States. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1941.
White, A. El Salvador. London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1973.
Woodward, R. L. Jr. Central America A Nation Divided. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Let me immediately admit that I did not read the whole thing. Nevertheless, I have two observations. First is lack of clarity. Second is lack of substance.
Regarding lack of clarity:
Quote:
Persons of native American ancestry are 18% of the population,
This is worse than false. It is unintelligible. Does he mean that 18% are of pure aboriginal DNA. Surely not, since the native population fell by 95% within two generations of Columbus, and was replenished by Europeans and Africans. Does he mean that 18% have detectable Native American DNA admixture? Surely not, since virtually every Latin American has some detectable abodriginal admixture, even in the Caribbean where the natives were exterminated by 1650. Why are we forced to guess what he means? I suggest that the author himself gave insufficient thought to what he was trying to communicate.
Quote:
those of European ancestry 9%
Same observation but even worse.
Quote:
those predominantly of African heritage 4%-6% of the population
At least here we have the adverb "predominantly." Does this mean more than 50%? Who knows?
Regarding lack of substance:
The author goes on and and on about how his topic (African influence in Mesoamerica) has been neglected by prior scholars, and that he will rectify the situation. And then he proceeds to quote from about 30 of the prior scholars that presumably neglected the topic but without contributing a single shred of original research of his own.
Is this an undergraduate term paper? If so, the student desperately needs some helpful guidance.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Mon 26 Dec 2005 13:25 Post subject: AFROCENTRISM
Hi:
Every time same guy bring the topic of Africans in pre-contact Americas I feel the smell of Van Sertima's ideas. The guy born in the Guyana feel so envious of Native Americans culture that decide to simply still it for his cause. And many believe him. Read this article, please:
Robbing Native American Cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs
by Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Bernard Ortiz de Montellano, and Warren Barbour
Something that irritates me evry much are the claims of pre-columbian contact of people of the Old World with Native Americans. The reason is they are not truth but only a collection of fantasies on which people has believe for too long. They have even build churches about these ideas, like the Mormon church.
The facts are:
(1) The only people that, is documented, landed in the Americas before Columbus were the Vikings. And they arrived here only after getting in touch with the Inuits that were living in Greenland already. Besides them there is not the slightess evidence of pre-Columbian contact between the old and the new world.
(2) Hiperdifussionism, the idea of pre-columbian contacts around the world, is roothed in Nazi believes of the Atlantida and other "founding civilizations" of the myth. It is part of the core of teosophist ideas as well.
(3) There is the idea that Native Americans are inferior people so they need TEACHERS to create a civilization. That's why many RACISTS believe Natives received foreigners that help them.
(4) Africans, particularly African South of the Sahara, reached levels of developed that were very backwards in comparison to the Native civilizations of the Americas. There is no comparison possible.
(5) There were many things that were never invented in the Americas and that people of the old world have. If there were contact then why does things did not appeared in the Americas? For example: Iron, string musical instruments, the wheel for charts, large size ships, cow, sheeps and pigs, etc.
(6) There is not genetic evidence of contact. And most of the claim of plants reaching the old world before Columbus are absolutely false.
Afrocentrism is just pseudoscience. Read "No out of Africa".
Native Americans deserve to be admired by their achievements, not people from other continents.
There is a site that explain matters better than me. Please follow the links,
Posted: Mon 26 Dec 2005 13:59 Post subject: Re: AFROCENTRISM
oevega wrote:
(4) Africans, particularly African South of the Sahara, reached levels of developed that were very backwards in comparison to the Native civilizations of the Americas. There is no comparison possible.
I agreed with everything except this. Not all native cultures were as architecturally or mechanically advanced in the Americas, and there were Sub Saharan cultures that were well developed. So you can compare them. But , what is clear is NEITHER cultures had the maritime traits and location to achieve such a voyage and there is no evidence of contact.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Mon 26 Dec 2005 14:08 Post subject: Re: AFROCENTRISM
Salsassin wrote:
oevega wrote:
(4) Africans, particularly African South of the Sahara, reached levels of developed that were very backwards in comparison to the Native civilizations of the Americas. There is no comparison possible.
I agreed with everything except this. Not all native cultures were as architecturally or mechanically advanced in the Americas, and there were Sub Saharan cultures that were well developed. So you can compare them. But , what is clear is NEITHER cultures had the maritime traits and location to achieve such a voyage and there is no evidence of contact.
Hi,
I admire the scuptures of the Nok culture and also I know about the great wall of Nigeria. I am also interested in the South of Sahara link to modern art through Picasso's paintings.
However, many Africans from Africa complain those real cultural contributions are forgotten because many people preffer to study fantasies.
And yes, there were people with very minor material culture in the Americas. I know. Not all of them reach the heights of the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas, but they are also interesting people.
Posted: Mon 26 Dec 2005 16:35 Post subject: Re: AFROCENTRISM
Salsassin wrote:
NEITHER cultures had the maritime traits and location to achieve such a voyage and there is no evidence of contact.
This is certainly accurate in the sense that no civilization from outside the New World (African, European, or Chinese) had the massive impact implied in some of the articles. Nevertheless, if there is one thing that we can be sure of, it is that people (especially merchants and explorers) do get around and always have.
Neutron activation analysis has conclusively demonstrated that Paleolithic flints used to kill wooly mammoths 13 kya in what is today northern France, were mined in what is today Turkey.
Although cotton is an old-world plant (and we can trace the development of the cotton growing/spinning/weaving industry from its earliest beginnings), Cortez's men found an advanced cotton growing/spinning/weaving industry already in place in New Spain. Indeed, the Spanish soldiers switched from their Spanish-issue iron body armor to the Aztec-issue quilted cotton body armor because it was militarily more effective against enemy weapons.
Similarly, the production of laquer ware is a complex process entailing many counter-intuitive steps to reach the final product. Its long-ago invention and slow development in China has been documented in detail. And yet, lacquer ware was also being produced in Aztec New Spain when the Spaniards arrived. Like the cotton industry, laquer ware also appears suddenly in the precolumbian Mexican archeological record without the long slow development found in China. In fact, Aztec traditional lacquer ware displays distinctive ancient traditional Chinese designs.
My point is that the lack of evidence makes it unlikely that there was massive precolumbian influence on the New World from outside. But to say that nobody ever stepped out onto the beach after a long ocean voyage to make a couple of bucks selling pots or cloth is also unlikely.
Posted: Mon 26 Dec 2005 17:06 Post subject: Re: AFROCENTRISM
fwsweet wrote:
Although cotton is an old-world plant (and we can trace the development of the cotton growing/spinning/weaving industry from its earliest beginnings), Cortez's men found an advanced cotton growing/spinning/weaving industry already in place in New Spain. Indeed, the Spanish soldiers switched from their Spanish-issue iron body armor to the Aztec-issue quilted cotton body armor because it was militarily more effective against enemy weapons..
Similarly, the production of laquer ware is a complex process entailing many counter-intuitive steps to reach the final product. Its long-ago invention and slow development in China has been documented in detail. And yet, lacquer ware was also being produced in Aztec New Spain when the Spaniards arrived. Like the cotton industry, laquer ware also appears suddenly in the precolumbian Mexican archeological record without the long slow development found in China. In fact, Aztec traditional lacquer ware displays distinctive ancient traditional Chinese designs.
I'll look up your lacquer claims and if you have sources, please privide them. I find it ironic though that the word lacquer does not come from Chinese but from sanskrit 'laksa'.
My point is that the lack of evidence makes it unlikely that there was massive precolumbian influence on the New World from outside. But to say that nobody ever stepped out onto the beach after a long ocean voyage to make a couple of bucks selling pots or cloth is also unlikely
Probably some stragglers have landed off and on, but no evidence has been found of contact as of yet.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Mon 26 Dec 2005 17:45 Post subject: Parallel invention
fwsweet wrote:
...
Similarly, the production of laquer ware is a complex process entailing many counter-intuitive steps to reach the final product. Its long-ago invention and slow development in China has been documented in detail. And yet, lacquer ware was also being produced in Aztec New Spain when the Spaniards arrived. Like the cotton industry, laquer ware also appears suddenly in the precolumbian Mexican archeological record without the long slow development found in China. In fact, Aztec traditional lacquer ware displays distinctive ancient traditional Chinese designs.
...
Hi Frank,
The laquer thing might just be another case of parallel invention. There is not need of contact to explain it use in the Americas. Other well known American inventions that developed without external help are:
* The zero, known in the Americas a thousand years before the Indians of India "invented" it.
* Paper, know since classical mayan times and before.
* Convex mirror used to start fires in Inca ceremonies; invented by the Greeks as well.
* Hidraulic toys, invented in the old world by the an Alexandrian inventor around the 3 century B.C. They were known in the Americas by 2000 years B.C.
* The magnetic compass, known by the Olmecs before the chinese.
* Honey bee production, known in the american.
* Nordic spa, known by the Aztecs.
* Jerogliphic writting, known by the Mayans.
* Inflatable boats and raft sea sailing known by the Mantenos of Ecuador.
Etc. etc.
There are quite a lot of parallel inventions in the Americas. Many of them happened in here BEFORE than in the old world. And some inventions, like the "bolas" where only invented in the Americas.
The link suggests that cotton seeds could have floated to the New World on their own, thus spawning the weaving industry without human transmission. Sure. (sarcasm) Just like maize, beans, peanuts, tomatoes, potatoes, and chocolate floated the other way. My point is that, by astonishing coincidence, all the examples of such "natural" diffusion always flowed from lands where people had seaworthy boats to lands where they did not. Sorry. Occam's razor says that such coincidences are more simply explained by some guy trying to make a living selling stuff.
Salsassin wrote:
(regarding laquer)I'll look up your lacquer claims and if you have sources, please privide them. I find it ironic though that the word lacquer does not come from Chinese but from sanskrit 'laksa'.
I do not know if the Mexicans or Chinese used that word. My source is the photographs of lacquer ware following page 352 of Menzies's book. No matter how off-the-wall Menziess claims are, the photos are not faked.
Sorry, a text search finds no instances of the word "lacquer" on either of those sites. What I am supposed to look at here?
Salsassin wrote:
Probably some stragglers have landed off and on, but no evidence has been found of contact as of yet.
It depends on what you demand in the way of evidence. Given the continent-spanning flint industry (mined in Turkey, used in ice-Age France), and the obvious fact that the agricultural revolution flashed around the globe within a millenium of its invention--after 200 millennia when no one ever thought of it--I do not demand a whole lot of evidence for the occassional "straggler." On the contrary, I would demand a great deal of evidence that there were no stragglers.
Last edited by fwsweet on Mon 26 Dec 2005 19:18; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Mon 26 Dec 2005 18:15 Post subject: Re: Parallel invention
oevega wrote:
The laquer thing might just be another case of parallel invention. There is not need of contact to explain it use in the Americas. Other well known American inventions that developed without external help are: zero, paper, concave mirror to start fires, hydraulic toys, etc.
Yes, but they all have precursors in the New World. We are looking at artifacts that are complex and require many steps in their production. For vrtually all of these, you can trace their slow invention and developmental stages from ancient times. But lacquer ware appears abruptly in the archaeological record with no earlier development. This abruptness and lack of developmental stages are what make it look looks like diffusion to me.
Look at it from the other side. Chocolate became a smash hit in Europe when it was first introduced. What makes us think that they did not have chocolate all along? Why do we think that Europeans did not develop maize independently? The answer is that we can see all the slow halting tedious steps in the invention of maize spanning many centuries in the New World. There are no precursor steps in Europe. It just pops up from one day to the next. Find me some New World precursors of lacquer ware and I shall eat my words.
Do not misunderstand, I am not claiming vast migrations nor bearded bearers of ancient wisdom. These notions are silly, easily disproved, and more than a little racist. I am just saying that there have always been what Jaime calls "stragglers." Do not lose sight of the fact that the most important infomation you need to reproduce someone else's invention (such as agriculture itself) is the knowledge that it has been done.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Tue 27 Dec 2005 13:58 Post subject: Re: Parallel invention
Quote:
[quote="fwsweet"]
oevega wrote:
The laquer thing might just be another case of parallel invention. There is not need of contact to explain it use in the Americas. Other well known American inventions that developed without external help are: zero, paper, concave mirror to start fires, hydraulic toys, etc.
Yes, but they all have precursors in the New World. We are looking at artifacts that are complex and require many steps in their production. For vrtually all of these, you can trace their slow invention and developmental stages from ancient times. But lacquer ware appears abruptly in the archaeological record with no earlier development. This abruptness and lack of developmental stages are what make it look looks like diffusion to me.
Hi Frank,
I don't have a direct proof of the ancient origin of the Mexican lacquer of maque. I know the earliest record so far I know is from Mixtecs times, around 1.000 AD. However, lacquer is not "high tech" but just the use of natural pigments. Remember than pre-hispanic people were masters in using natural resources and knew lots of techniques the people of the old world also discovered in parallel. For example in paintings, resines, coating, estucos, etc.
The Mexican lacquer was made this way:
Quote:
pre hispanic lacquer
The lacquer which is applied to the wooden base is created from naturally occurring minerals and soils. The base layer is created from the powdered minerals calcium carbonate and magnesium. The minerals are extracted from the earth and powdered using a baking and grinding process. The resulting black powder is known as the tepútzchuta or the tizate. In order to apply the tizate to the wood it necessary to mix it with natural oils. When combined with the oils, a polymerization process occurs which gives the lacquer its protective qualities of hardness and resistance to water.
The oils used are obtained from plants, seeds, and insects. Again, the production of these oils is a highly specialized task requiring special knowledge of the local natural resources. The quality of the tizate and oils is critical to the end appearance of the lacquer and this is what can define the difference between a high quality lacquered product, such as those sold at worldexperience.com, and lesser quality finishes.
In short, it does not seem very "high-tech" to me. It is just a technique a intelligent people can discover.
Finally, I hope new archaeological evidences solve that "mistery".
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Tue 27 Dec 2005 22:22 Post subject: LACQUER MISTERY
fwsweet wrote:
But lacquer ware appears abruptly in the archaeological record with no earlier development. This abruptness and lack of developmental stages are what make it look looks like diffusion to me.
Hi Frank,
Perhaps this solves the mistery of lacquer. The Chinese and Mexican lacquer are completely different substances that had to be, by force, discovered independently. This is a key paragraph I found,
Quote:
While the Chinese influence didn't bring lacquer to Mexico,
it did introduce new designs and applications. Resin-based lacquers, from sumac,
which the Chinese used, weren't available, because sumac doesn't grow in Mexico.
But Michoacán, one of the three states in Mexico which does feature lacquer (the other two are Chiapas and Guerrero), uses maque, a lacquer made from bug juice. And so the furniture made possible by the introduction of steel tools brought over from Spain, influenced by European designs, and enhanced by the Oriental styles of lacquer, synthesized.
Posted: Tue 27 Dec 2005 22:43 Post subject: Re: LACQUER MISTERY
oevega wrote:
Perhaps this solves the mistery of lacquer.
Okay. I am convinced. Consider me as eating my words. I thought that lacquer ware was a lot more complicated to make than that, and also that it was dependent upon the same raw materials. Also, I never thought of the possibility that those Chinese designs were simply post-Columbus copies of Chinese designs brought over by Spanish.
(I am still suspicious about that cotton, though.)
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Tue 27 Dec 2005 23:01 Post subject: Re: LACQUER MISTERY
fwsweet wrote:
(I am still suspicious about that cotton, though.)
Hi Frank,
The cotton mistery is easier to solve. Actually it is very well documented and the oldest cotton textiles worldwide are from the Americas. This is an extract in a paper of "the hall of maat"; a skeptics site.
Actually I am very proud about cotton The first textiles come from the Chinchorro culture in Chile, the same culture that produced the first mummies worldwide.
Regards,
Omar Vega
Quote:
New World cotton
There are four species of cultivated cotton in the world. African cotton (Gossypium herbaceum]) and Asian cotton (G.arboreum) have 13 large chromosomes (AA). The New World species G. hirsutum and G. barbadense originating in South America are diploid and have 26 chromosomes (13 large and 13 small chromosomes- AADD). Because no AA monoploid cotton is found in the New World and no DD monoploid cotton is native to the Old World, the New World tetraploid cottons must have arisen from a hybridization of a New World species (DD) with an Old World species (AA) leading to a doubling of the chromosome number (Baker 1970: 57-61). The essential question is how and when this hybridization took place. Van Sertima (1976: 180-191; 1992) argues based on Stephens (1966), that cotton seeds would not float and retain their viability long enough to cross the Atlantic or the Pacific, although they could make journeys of up to 1000 miles. He then argues that the "seeds of the African diploid cotton could not [emphasis original] have drifted by themselves across the ocean but had to come to the New World in the hands of African men.... that African man, bearing cotton, made a drift journey to the Americas in the fourth millennium B. C. (Van Sertima 1976: 190)." (2)
If we are to consider diffusion, the temporal sequence is again important. The earliest archaeological cotton (G. arboreum) textiles in the Old World were found in the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley about 2000 B.C. (Sauer 1994: 100). The earliest cotton (G. Herbaceum A) in Africa was found in Afyea, Egyptian Nubia dated at 2500 B.C. Cotton seed and lint hairs intermediate between those of wild forms and those of cultivated species were found, but there was no sign of weaving at that time (Zohary and Hopf 1993: 128). In the New World, the oldest tetraploid G barbadense (AADD) cotton textiles were found in Quiani, Chile, a Chinchorro site that was dated to 3600 B.C. (Sauer 1994:101). Junius Bird found evidence for the long use of cotton textiles at Huaca Prieta, Peru dated at 2500 B.C. (Hutchinson 1962; Phillips 1976). In the case of tetraploid G.hirsutum (AADD), the oldest archaeobotanical remains begin about 3500 B.C. in the Tehuacan caves (Sauer 1994:103; Wendel 1995:362-363). Phillips (1976) and Wendel, Brubaker, and Percival (1992) point out that this cotton was fully domesticated and does not represent the earliest domestication of G. hirsutum. Thus, the domestication of New World cottons took place before domestication of Old world cottons militating against human diffusion as a vehicle for hybridization. Baker (1970: 61) points out that wild tetraploid G. hirsutum has been found in islands in the Caribbean and the Yucatan, and that tetraploid G. barbadense is found on the coasts of Ecuador and Peru as well as the wild form of the Galapagos islands. Baker concludes that, "all of this evidence suggests that man had nothing to do with the origins of tetraploid cotton, but that he domesticated hirsutum and barbadense separately in the New World." Although Van Sertima relied heavily on Stephens, he does not quote Stephens' (1971: 407) conclusion that, "Because of the possibilities of natural and accidental dispersal, one is forced to the conclusion that the geographical distribution of the "wild" forms of cotton per se cannot be used critically as supporting evidence for early transoceanic cultural contacts. Archaeological evidence of spindle whorls, cordage, fabrics, or any other artifact indicating the use [emphasis original] would be far more satisfactory." No such artifact has ever been found.
In an earlier paper (Haslip-Viera, Ortiz de Montellano, and Barbour 1997), we presented extended evidence for the possibility of cotton seeds arriving to the New World without human intervention. However, work in the 1990's completely eliminated any possibility of human involvement in the hybridization of New World cotton. Wendel and co-workers (Wendel 1989, Percy and Wendel 1990, Wendel and Albert 1992) have proved that the hybridization of diploid AA African cotton and diploid DD New World cotton to produce the tetraploid (AADD) cotton took place one to two million years ago, even before the evolution of modern humans. The current picture is as follows. Six to eleven million years ago, long distance dispersal from Africa led to the evolution of the New World DD diploid species. These 13 species originated in Mexico and radiated from that locus. Some time later, African AA diploids dispersed to the New World. One to two million years ago, these diploids combined to form the tetraploid (AADD). Molecular data suggests that this hybridization occurred only once (Wendel 1995). New World AA diploids have obviously become extinct during the long interval prior to human domestication. The antiquity of this hybridization obviously falsifies Van Sertima's African voyage of the fourth millennium B.C. as well as Lathrap's (1977) African fishermen's trip about 14,000 B.C. As Reed (1977) pointed out, this also further weakens Lathrap's claims of diffusion of the bottle gourd.
Posted: Wed 28 Dec 2005 19:56 Post subject: Re: LACQUER MISTERY
oevega wrote:
The cotton mystery is easier to solve.
One to two million years, eh. Well, unless H. erectus was exporting technology (just kidding), I guess that shoots down cultural diffusion of cotton, too.
Along those lines, did you ever hear about the ancient Chinese anchors that they found on the sea bottom off San Francisco? They are large, doughnut-shaped carved stones--an ancient Chinese design for ships' anchors.
After they were spotted half-buried in the sandy bottom by weekend scuba divers, the ancient-design anchors were raised by underwater archeologists, who took them to the university museum lab for study. Several weeks later, the archaeologists announced the astounding find to the public in San Francisco newspapers.
A few days after that, a group of Chinese-American fisherman from San Francisco showed up at the lab to thank the scientists for having retrieved their lost fishing-boat anchors. It seems that they still use the same design.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Wed 28 Dec 2005 20:52 Post subject: Re: LACQUER MISTERY
fwsweet wrote:
One to two million years, eh. Well, unless H. erectus was exporting technology (just kidding), I guess that shoots down cultural diffusion of cotton, too.
Along those lines, did you ever hear about the ancient Chinese anchors that they found on the sea bottom off San Francisco? They are large, doughnut-shaped carved stones--an ancient Chinese design for ships' anchors.
After they were spotted half-buried in the sandy bottom by weekend scuba divers, the ancient-design anchors were raised by underwater archeologists, who took them to the university museum lab for study. Several weeks later, the archaeologists announced the astounding find to the public in San Francisco newspapers.
A few days after that, a group of Chinese-American fisherman from San Francisco showed up at the lab to thank the scientists for having retrieved their lost fishing-boat anchors. It seems that they still use the same design.
Hi Frank,
That's very interesting, indeed. Actually, I love the adventures of admiral Cheng Ho, who lead a fleet of Junks all the way down from China to East Africa. It is curious but admiral Cheng Ho was a Muslim, and probably part of the minority of Arab merchants that lived in China during the Sung, Tang and early Ming dinasties. There is no record he sailed to the Americas although his travels are very well documented.
And yes. It is a lot of fun for the archaeologist to destroy pseudo-historical theories. For me, I just hope one day people recognize Native Americans developed wonderful civilizations in the Americas by themselves. I admire them.
Well, Mongolians developed those cultures, of couse, but arrived to the Americas walking across the strait of Bering
People don't usually know that some of the oldest advanced cultures in the planet appeared in the Americas, and more precisely in the coastal areas of Peru and sourrounding countries (like nortthern Chile). We are talking about 8.000 years ago and more. Potatoes, maize, cotton and many other things is the legacy of those Peruvian cultures to the modern world. Some believe the origin of all the American civilizations is in there. I love those cultures !
'
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The first textiles come from the Chinchorro culture in Chile, the same culture that produced the first mummies worldwide.