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Excellent article by Stuart J. Fiedel from 2002.
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nice article -
Does anyone else wonder about the opening statement?
Was the land bridge even thought about as a possibility in 1590?
Ever since José de Acosta’s prescient speculation, in 1590, that Native Americans were descended
from “savage hunters” who had followed game animals across a land bridge from northeastern Asia
into northwestern America (Acosta 1604),
Bruce
In life there are losers and finders. Which one are you?Comment
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Apparently Jose's hypothesis was way before its time Bruce, but according to this link to Wikipedia he did make that suggestion. Who woulda thunk that? Smart guy!
Last edited by Kyflintguy; 03-05-2017, 10:03 PM. -
Columbus died thinking the Americas was connected to Asia. Vespucci was the explorer who kind of figured out that what they had found was simply too big (and lacking Chinese or Arab merchants or evidence of them) to be part of Asia. But the belief held that California was an island, and as they sailed up the coast they thought that it might have connected to a remote part of Asia at some point, and essentially they were correct. It would be another 100 years or so before they discovered Alaska and the connection to Russia.
I think Archaeologists read too much into de Acosta's writing. He was sent to the Americas and tasked with coming up with a plausible reason for these unknown people to be there, and create a moral high ground for slavery and forced conversion. If they were a lost tribe of Israel, or some forgotten descendants of the Garden of Eden, you couldn't steal their cool stuff and kill them. If they were savages in need of salvation, then you could treat them like Africans were treated without interference from Rome.
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