Genetic analysis of their modern descendants shows that people from the Pacific Islands and South America interacted long before Europeans arrived.

A provocative new study argues Polynesians and Native Americans made contact some 800 years ago. That date would place their first meeting before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and before the settlement of Easter Island (Rapa Nui), which has been suggested as the site of such an initial encounter.

Researchers, published in Nature, sampled genes of modern peoples living across the Pacific and along the South American coast and the results suggest that voyages between eastern Polynesia and the Americas happened around the year 1200, resulting in a mixture of those populations in the remote South Marquesas archipelago. It remains a mystery whether Polynesians, Native Americans, or both peoples undertook the long journeys that would have led them together. The findings could mean that South Americans, hailing from what’s now coastal Ecuador or Columbia, ventured to East Polynesia.

“It is fascinating new evidence,” says Pontus Skoglund, who leads the ancient genomics lab at the Francis Crick Institute and wasn’t involved in the research. Skoglund was particularly intrigued by the evidence that Native Americans would’ve encountered Polynesians before they encountered Europeans, contrary to what some previous studies have shown. “This suggests that the Native American ancestry is not due to events in more recent colonial history where trans-Pacific travel was documented.”

If Native Americans had reached these remote islands by around 1200 they likely did so by following the prevailing currents and winds. In 1947, explorer Thor Heyerdahl famously demonstrated that it was possible to travel the Pacific by drifting on winds and currents on a raft when his famed Kon-Tiki journeyed more than 4,300 miles from South America to Raroia Atoll. Those islands lie in the same region that the genetic study suggests as the likely point of contact between Polynesian and Native American peoples.

Paul Wallin, an archaeologist at Uppsala University, Sweden who wasn’t involved in the research, thinks this study may confirm a Native South American contact into the Pacific. “ the same area DNA studies of sweet potato have indicated, this early mix may explain the existence of sweet potato in East Polynesia,” Wallin says. The date is so early that the Native South Americans may have come to the South Marquesas just before the Polynesians did, he adds.

David Burley, an archaeologist at Simon Fraser University not involved in the study, finds the explanation of Polynesians visiting America far more likely. “A North American group from Colombia making it to the southern Marquesas and interbreeding with Polynesians seems a stretch,” he says. “Polynesian seafarers had well developed maritime technologies and were quite capable of reaching the Americas. Not sure that is at all the case for Colombia.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/native-americans-polynesians-meet-180975269/

Interesting stuff. All other DNA studies to date have come to the opposite conclusion, that there was no admixture between these groups.

party_pants said:

Interesting stuff. All other DNA studies to date have come to the opposite conclusion, that there was no admixture between these groups.

Wouldn’t that go against human nature

Cymek said:

party_pants said:

Interesting stuff. All other DNA studies to date have come to the opposite conclusion, that there was no admixture between these groups.

Wouldn’t that go against human nature

It would suggest that they were not in regular contact, or in large enough numbers to count as a migration. At least until now that has been the generally accepted model.

party_pants said:

Cymek said:

party_pants said:

Interesting stuff. All other DNA studies to date have come to the opposite conclusion, that there was no admixture between these groups.

Wouldn’t that go against human nature

It would suggest that they were not in regular contact, or in large enough numbers to count as a migration. At least until now that has been the generally accepted model.

Also from the same article.

Previous studies that sought to untangle the history of Polynesian settlement haven’t been conclusive. A 2017 Current Biology study (co-authored by Pontus Skogland) sampled human remains dating from before Europeans reached the island in 1722 and found only Polynesian DNA. However, the study included only five individuals, meaning other ancestries might have been present on the island but not represented in the group. A 2014 paper sampled 27 modern inhabitants and found that they had a significant amount of Native American DNA (about 8 percent). It concluded that Native Americans may have journeyed, alone or with Polynesians, to Easter Island before 1500—before Europeans ventured there.

PermeateFree said:

party_pants said:

Cymek said:

Wouldn’t that go against human nature

It would suggest that they were not in regular contact, or in large enough numbers to count as a migration. At least until now that has been the generally accepted model.

Also from the same article.

Previous studies that sought to untangle the history of Polynesian settlement haven’t been conclusive. A 2017 Current Biology study (co-authored by Pontus Skogland) sampled human remains dating from before Europeans reached the island in 1722 and found only Polynesian DNA. However, the study included only five individuals, meaning other ancestries might have been present on the island but not represented in the group. A 2014 paper sampled 27 modern inhabitants and found that they had a significant amount of Native American DNA (about 8 percent). It concluded that Native Americans may have journeyed, alone or with Polynesians, to Easter Island before 1500—before Europeans ventured there.

Also:

As part of their new study, Ioannidis and colleagues sampled DNA from 166 inhabitants of Easter Island. They determined that admixture between Native American and Polynesian peoples didn’t occur here until around 1380 though the island was settled by at least 1200, perhaps by a Polynesian group that hadn’t had any contact with Native Americans.

“The surprising thing is that the Rapa Nui admixture happened later, although the cultural impact might have been stronger there than in other parts of East Polynesia,” Paul Wallin says. He stresses that it’s too early to make too many sweeping conclusions about this phase of the island’s history. We know South Americans and Polynesians have a shared history on the Pacific Ocean. The exact wheres and whens are mysteries still to be solved.

PermeateFree said:

PermeateFree said:

party_pants said:

It would suggest that they were not in regular contact, or in large enough numbers to count as a migration. At least until now that has been the generally accepted model.

Also from the same article.

Previous studies that sought to untangle the history of Polynesian settlement haven’t been conclusive. A 2017 Current Biology study (co-authored by Pontus Skogland) sampled human remains dating from before Europeans reached the island in 1722 and found only Polynesian DNA. However, the study included only five individuals, meaning other ancestries might have been present on the island but not represented in the group. A 2014 paper sampled 27 modern inhabitants and found that they had a significant amount of Native American DNA (about 8 percent). It concluded that Native Americans may have journeyed, alone or with Polynesians, to Easter Island before 1500—before Europeans ventured there.

Also:

As part of their new study, Ioannidis and colleagues sampled DNA from 166 inhabitants of Easter Island. They determined that admixture between Native American and Polynesian peoples didn’t occur here until around 1380 though the island was settled by at least 1200, perhaps by a Polynesian group that hadn’t had any contact with Native Americans.

“The surprising thing is that the Rapa Nui admixture happened later, although the cultural impact might have been stronger there than in other parts of East Polynesia,” Paul Wallin says. He stresses that it’s too early to make too many sweeping conclusions about this phase of the island’s history. We know South Americans and Polynesians have a shared history on the Pacific Ocean. The exact wheres and whens are mysteries still to be solved.

I wonder if had a cultural/racial bias/bases in say being taboo to breed with people not of your own tribal group and over time this idea diminished and people intermixed and had families

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

PermeateFree said:

Also from the same article.

Previous studies that sought to untangle the history of Polynesian settlement haven’t been conclusive. A 2017 Current Biology study (co-authored by Pontus Skogland) sampled human remains dating from before Europeans reached the island in 1722 and found only Polynesian DNA. However, the study included only five individuals, meaning other ancestries might have been present on the island but not represented in the group. A 2014 paper sampled 27 modern inhabitants and found that they had a significant amount of Native American DNA (about 8 percent). It concluded that Native Americans may have journeyed, alone or with Polynesians, to Easter Island before 1500—before Europeans ventured there.

Also:

As part of their new study, Ioannidis and colleagues sampled DNA from 166 inhabitants of Easter Island. They determined that admixture between Native American and Polynesian peoples didn’t occur here until around 1380 though the island was settled by at least 1200, perhaps by a Polynesian group that hadn’t had any contact with Native Americans.

“The surprising thing is that the Rapa Nui admixture happened later, although the cultural impact might have been stronger there than in other parts of East Polynesia,” Paul Wallin says. He stresses that it’s too early to make too many sweeping conclusions about this phase of the island’s history. We know South Americans and Polynesians have a shared history on the Pacific Ocean. The exact wheres and whens are mysteries still to be solved.

I wonder if had a cultural/racial bias/bases in say being taboo to breed with people not of your own tribal group and over time this idea diminished and people intermixed and had families

Most of the studies I am aware of were sort of looking at things the other way, did Polynesians reach South America and migrate there in any large numbers, and was there admixture of their DNA in the local South American population. This study seems to be looking at it the other way, did South Americans reach eastern Polynesia. It is possible that some did, but in small numbers. If there were two distinct groups lining on EI without intermixing it should be apparent in the archaeology, which I don’t think it does.

party_pants said:

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

Also:

As part of their new study, Ioannidis and colleagues sampled DNA from 166 inhabitants of Easter Island. They determined that admixture between Native American and Polynesian peoples didn’t occur here until around 1380 though the island was settled by at least 1200, perhaps by a Polynesian group that hadn’t had any contact with Native Americans.

“The surprising thing is that the Rapa Nui admixture happened later, although the cultural impact might have been stronger there than in other parts of East Polynesia,” Paul Wallin says. He stresses that it’s too early to make too many sweeping conclusions about this phase of the island’s history. We know South Americans and Polynesians have a shared history on the Pacific Ocean. The exact wheres and whens are mysteries still to be solved.

I wonder if had a cultural/racial bias/bases in say being taboo to breed with people not of your own tribal group and over time this idea diminished and people intermixed and had families

Most of the studies I am aware of were sort of looking at things the other way, did Polynesians reach South America and migrate there in any large numbers, and was there admixture of their DNA in the local South American population. This study seems to be looking at it the other way, did South Americans reach eastern Polynesia. It is possible that some did, but in small numbers. If there were two distinct groups lining on EI without intermixing it should be apparent in the archaeology, which I don’t think it does.

From the original post:
—-
David Burley, an archaeologist at Simon Fraser University not involved in the study, finds the explanation of Polynesians visiting America far more likely. “A North American group from Colombia making it to the southern Marquesas and interbreeding with Polynesians seems a stretch,” he says. “Polynesian seafarers had well developed maritime technologies and were quite capable of reaching the Americas. Not sure that is at all the case for Colombia.”
—-

I would have thought that more likely…

party_pants said:

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

Also:

As part of their new study, Ioannidis and colleagues sampled DNA from 166 inhabitants of Easter Island. They determined that admixture between Native American and Polynesian peoples didn’t occur here until around 1380 though the island was settled by at least 1200, perhaps by a Polynesian group that hadn’t had any contact with Native Americans.

“The surprising thing is that the Rapa Nui admixture happened later, although the cultural impact might have been stronger there than in other parts of East Polynesia,” Paul Wallin says. He stresses that it’s too early to make too many sweeping conclusions about this phase of the island’s history. We know South Americans and Polynesians have a shared history on the Pacific Ocean. The exact wheres and whens are mysteries still to be solved.

I wonder if had a cultural/racial bias/bases in say being taboo to breed with people not of your own tribal group and over time this idea diminished and people intermixed and had families

Most of the studies I am aware of were sort of looking at things the other way, did Polynesians reach South America and migrate there in any large numbers, and was there admixture of their DNA in the local South American population. This study seems to be looking at it the other way, did South Americans reach eastern Polynesia. It is possible that some did, but in small numbers. If there were two distinct groups lining on EI without intermixing it should be apparent in the archaeology, which I don’t think it does.

As the article says:

He stresses that it’s too early to make too many sweeping conclusions about this phase of the island’s history. We know South Americans and Polynesians have a shared history on the Pacific Ocean. The exact wheres and whens are mysteries still to be solved.

furious said:

party_pants said:

Cymek said:

I wonder if had a cultural/racial bias/bases in say being taboo to breed with people not of your own tribal group and over time this idea diminished and people intermixed and had families

Most of the studies I am aware of were sort of looking at things the other way, did Polynesians reach South America and migrate there in any large numbers, and was there admixture of their DNA in the local South American population. This study seems to be looking at it the other way, did South Americans reach eastern Polynesia. It is possible that some did, but in small numbers. If there were two distinct groups lining on EI without intermixing it should be apparent in the archaeology, which I don’t think it does.

From the original post:
—-
David Burley, an archaeologist at Simon Fraser University not involved in the study, finds the explanation of Polynesians visiting America far more likely. “A North American group from Colombia making it to the southern Marquesas and interbreeding with Polynesians seems a stretch,” he says. “Polynesian seafarers had well developed maritime technologies and were quite capable of reaching the Americas. Not sure that is at all the case for Colombia.”
—-

I would have thought that more likely…

The Polynesians might have brought back a few isolated individuals who settled in and intermarried into society. It is evidence of contact but not migration.

Maybe. It remains a moot issue.

dv said:

Maybe. It remains a moot issue.

Only in as much as to where they met up.

> sampled genes of modern peoples living across the Pacific and along the South American coast and the results suggest that voyages between eastern Polynesia and the Americas happened around the year 1200, resulting in a mixture of those populations in the remote South Marquesas archipelago. It remains a mystery whether Polynesians, Native Americans, or both peoples undertook the long journeys that would have led them together. The findings could mean that South Americans, hailing from what’s now coastal Ecuador or Columbia, ventured to East Polynesia.

Good.

Any peoples capable of founding settlements in Hawaii and New Zealand would be capable of sailing on brief voyages to South America. In the past, evidence for this has been slim.