Searching For Common Roots This is a personal view on a connection between Polynesia



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Ulu Lau


Searching For Common Roots

This is a personal view on a connection between Polynesia,

Pre-Columbian America, and the Book of Mormon.

© Pen Fiatoa Columbus, Ohio May 2006

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 3
CHAPTER 2: FACTS 9
CHAPTER 3: THE BOOK OF MORMON 39
CHAPTER 4: ASTRONOMY 73
CHAPTER 5: TOAGA 95
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 119
APPENDIX A: Word Comparison 122
APPENDIX B: References 142

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION


Albert Einstein: "The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead."
1. Why I’m writing this paper.
Polynesian migration was something I didn’t pay too much attention to growing up in American Samoa. I read a few articles about the subject, but cared less about how Polynesia was colonized. This debate was taking place in lecture halls and laboratories that were far removed from my normal layman’s world. I became very interested in this topic again when I came across some books in the Columbus City library, which were about Samoa. Most of the information I use as reference was from those books and many available in the public domain. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have an interest in this subject because of the claims by some LDS church leaders that Polynesians are descendants of a people whose story is recorded in the Book of Mormon.
"In these islands of Samoa, Thou hast remembered Thine ancient promise 'unto them who are upon the isles of the sea' (2 Nephi 10:21)." (Apia Samoa Temple - Rededicatory Prayer by President Gordon B Hinckley, 4 September 2005.)
"We thank Thee, that thousands and tens of thousands of the descendants of Lehi, in this favored land, have come to a knowledge of the gospel, many of whom have endured faithfully to the end of their lives." (Laie Hawaii Temple - By President Heber J Grant, 27-30 November 1919)
"...the Polynesian Saints are characterized by a tremendous faith. Why do they have this great faith? It is because these people are of the blood of Israel. They are heirs to the promises of the Book of Mormon. God is now awakening them to their great destiny." (Mark E. Petersen: Conference Report, Apr. 1962, p. 112)
The Book of Mormon is purported to be a translation by Joseph Smith of ancient records written by a people who migrated from Jerusalem to the Americas. It’s a religious article that’s accepted by LDS members as scripture including me, but it’s not seriously considered by others outside as a true history of the indigenous Americans. Despite being snubbed by many people including experts, I’m including it as an important part of this paper. True or not, the Book of Mormon is special to me and it’s an honor to write about it.

In 2003 I scoured the public library and the Internet for books and materials about Polynesia and Pre-Columbian America. In so doing I came across the text of the “Solo Ole Va” that was available online. I also found William Sullivan’s book “The Secret of the Incas.” (1) These two things inspired me to begin writing notes.


I know, you're probably thinking this is just a clever attempt by some wacky Mormon to push his believes. It's true that I want to share my Mormon views, but I can assure you that my ultimate goal is seeking truths about my Samoan and Polynesian cultures which I hope to illustrate.
This is neither an archaeological treatise nor an LDS theological lesson. It’s a personal commentary on the germane information I compiled. To be honest with you, I’m a bit uncomfortable sharing this in public because I lack the technical expertise and writing ability to take on such an important task or the finesse to counter criticism that might follow. Deciding to make my thoughts public is a bit overwhelming. I mean, who am I? There are many LDS Church members who can write well about the LDS Church and professionals inside and outside the LDS Church who can speak well about science. Nevertheless, the impression of this information motivates me to pursue this project and share my personal opinion whatever the consequences.
I name this paper "Ulu Lau" because words like ululau are the kinds I've sought for comparison and analysis. The Samoan "ulu" means head, and "lau" is leaf. Combining the two words describes "the head leaf" as "ululau" or the newly budded leaf. Reversing the two words forms another Samoan word "lau'ulu" which is "hair" or "the leaf of the ulu plant." The ulu plant is one of the most valuable plants to the Samoans. It's precisely the dissection of words like these to find relationships and root meanings that I seek and try to make sense of.
My ultimately goal is to find out if the Samoan “Solo ole Va” myth provides any insight into the Polynesian migration topic. I want to find out if there are traditions from the Pacific and the Americas that shed light on the true essence of the Solo. It was time to search for answers.
The Solo and other references I came across have convinced me that there are connections between ancient Polynesia and pre-Columbian America. I think these connections are more convincing than what the experts acknowledge. While words in the Samoan and pre-Columbian languages are different, a careful comparison of those words suggestively reveal some common roots. The similarity of words was very interesting to me and it’s one of the highlights of this manuscript. Those words are listed in Appendix “A”.
Whatever your position is about Polynesian migration and Mormon theology, I hope that you’ll be patient and allow me to articulate my thoughts on these subjects. Open your mind to the possibility of a human history and stories about a past that is clouded in mysteries and often hidden by prejudices and ego. It’s only a few pages long.
2. The Debate - How did we get here? Where did we come from?
The common view that was taught during my high school years in American Samoa was that Polynesians came from the west. We also read about the Kon-Tiki expedition and its famous organizer, which I think was talked about to provide some balance to the discussion. Polynesian migration theories are based on Lapita and DNA studies. They garner more supporters in the scientific community and have become the gospel of Polynesian narrative. Against this force, I want to add my opinion and to present an alternative picture of the Polynesian migration. This is not an attempt to introduce a new theory, but to restate an old one from a slightly different bend. So, as the Celebrated American Chef Emeril Lagasse often says, "Let's kick it up a notch!"
As I said before, I was thrilled when I came across an online copy of the "Solo ole Va". This myth motivated me to search for more references. In the Columbus Ohio Main Public Library I came across William Sullivan’s book “The Secret of the Incas”. Sullivans book provided me with a unique way of looking at Polynesian migration and it became a key source in my search for root ideas between Samoan and pre-Columbian cultures. Sullivan's book was written about Andean cultures. The "Solo ole Va" is a Samoan myth from the central Pacific. Initially I didn’t have an opinion on a connection between these two sources. But as I read them over more, some patterns emerged that impressed on my mind connections between these two sources. My next goal was to search and illustrate these potential connections.
As much as possible, I’ll try to distinguish 'fact' from 'belief'. Even if you dismiss the Book of Mormon claims, there are still enough materials outlined that I hope will make a strong case for a migration into the central Pacific from America. I’m not a scholar, and I don’t have a strong grasp of the English and the Samoan languages. My book is based mostly on information that’s readily available in the public domain. If you want to research this subject further, I hope I’ve provided some materials to start your own search.
3. Solo Ole Va
The "Solo ole Va" is a Samoan story. It’s an old chant. It’s a myth about the origin of the Samoan people, as well as people known to the Samoans. I believe the Solo provides clues to the peopling of Polynesia. The "Solo ole Va" may provide an expanded meaning beyond its limited use in local Samoan customs. I think that we may fully appreciate the significance of the Solo to our understanding of Polynesian history if we go beyond the local imagery it depicts. It could represent something loftier and enlightening if we don’t look at it solely as savage chattering.
"Fraser, who in the late nineteenth century edited various of the traditions collected by Powell, has likened Ta'u, the principle island of Manu'a, to Delos, the island birthplace of Apollo in the ancient Aegean." (Freeman, p.133)
The quote above is from Derek Freeman's book "Margaret Mead and Samoa". It references the Manu'a islands, which is now part of American Samoa. His comment is based on the Solo. The Solo according to Freeman recounts the creation of Samoa. I can dissect from the Solo things that are uniquely Samoan, but my mind still wonders why some of it point to cultures and places far removed from its familiar surroundings.
Incidentally, "Solo ole Va" translates to "Poetry of the Separation"; "Solo" means chant or poetry, and "Va" means separation. Furthermore, the Solo has given me an insight to connections between the peoples of Polynesia, pre-Columbian America, and the Middle East.
Legends and myths were important to ancient Polynesians, and I intend to use them in this paper. They were recited during light moments of storytelling called “fagogo” and in more serious culture and religion occasions. Stories like the legends of Maui and Rata that are common throughout Polynesia, which were told to give courage to the primitive mariners who traveled the vast ocean. I think that knowing the Polynesians better requires an understanding of their myths and legends.
I saw a speech on television given by the Hungarian Ambassador Andras Simonyi in which he talked about the contribution of Rock and Roll in liberating Communist Hungary. He was then the Hungarian Ambassador to the US when he gave that talk. Mr. Simonyi explained that while his government sanctioned revolutionary lyrics, it failed to realize the importance of the music to their cause. Their music sets the tone and was a hidden motivator. The music was as powerful as the words. Likewise the myths and legends of the Polynesians should provide other doors to their society. They needed to be fully study as much as scrutinizing pieces of pottery.
Both pre-Columbian Americans and Polynesians shared the myth about the return of a white god. That was fulfilled, however mistakenly, with the arrival of Europeans. I wonder who really benefited more from that encounter. Was it the Spaniards who expanded their empire, or the Native Americans who were once again reminded, by way of the conquistadors, of their special relationship to God? The truth about the Spaniards was soon revealed, but the timing of their arrival and subsequent events should provide Native Americans affirmation of their true relationship to something great. After all, it was their myth.
For people like the Samoans who lack a written language, I feel it’s important to also use their myths to examine their relationships to other cultures.
I have compiled a list (Appendix A) of words that look similar, in meaning and spelling, between the languages of the Americas, Southeast Asia, Egypt and Samoa. I’m convinced that these words have a common origin and their similarities aren’t just statistical aberration. I’m not sure how these similarities came about, but it’s becoming clear to me that the arrival of the Europeans in the South Pacific wasn’t the first time foreign visitors influenced the Pacific and its inhabitants. The European arrival was just another layer in the myriad of pass arrivals that made up the people of Polynesia.
4. Why include the Book of Mormon?
As I wrote down my notes, something else started to come into focus that indicates to me a possible connection between what I was reading and the contents of the Book of Mormon. Although this conclusion is of a personal matter, it’s hard for me to ignore the inference this evidence provides.
I didn’t set out to prove the claims of the Book of Mormon, but to learn more about my Samoan culture. However, my progress into this project had nonetheless provided for me a very interesting observation of relationships between the recorded traditions of seemingly different cultures and those found in the Book of Mormon landscape. Without minimizing the importance of faith in religion, I present these facts as a possible support to the Book of Mormon. I wish these notes will kindle further interests in this subject. Please read and decide for yourself. I hope you enjoy it.
5. What about race?
Before we move on, I want to clarify something about the references to race in this manuscript. The characterization of Thor Heyerdahl included accusations of him being a racist. This impression maybe wrongly attributed to Thor, I think, because of his association of physical appearance with culture advancements in both Polynesia and the Americas. I’m troubled by that part of Heyerdahl's views. However, I think that some of the accusations against him are unfair and divert attention from his main point - there are many evidences (including race) that connect the people of pre-Columbian America to Polynesians.
Everyone knows that race plays a major role in human relationships. I can’t avoid race in this paper and be true to the topic. Racism is an ugly part of human history, and I think it’s unwise to ignore it. That’s history. I just hope in our time that we do better in race relationship – to deal with it openly and honestly in our communities.
"Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man--this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position...Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal." (Abraham Lincoln, Speech, Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858)
The danger in my view is when people try to use race to advance an agenda that belittled a certain race based solely on looks. I notice in Polynesian studies the attempt by some experts to equate the starting of pottery making in the Pacific to outside influence. I believe that the decorative-pottery scattered throughout the Pacific islands originated from the dark skinned Melanesians and not some advancement brought in by lighter skinned migrants.
In the case of Egypt and of the Middle East in general, I notice that black authors emphasize the "black" element (2) from the south as the source of Egypt's advance civilization, and white authors seem to emphasize the "white" influence (3) from the north. I think that the truth about Egypt's history is far more complicated than the explanations provided by those different authors. It's very likely that Egypt's diversity made it one of the great ancient civilizations.
I think that social condition isn’t a result of skin color, but rather a condition of the environment that influences people in many complicated ways. I suspect that that includes adaptation of existing resources to maximize survival. The developmental apex for a society can be different from other groups based on their needs and adaptation to their environments. That’s what I think.
"The 'master race' claims are sheer poppycock, used by characterless men to further their own interests. There has never been a monopoly of mastery in human achievement by any one nation. To claim so is simply to allow the lawless nationalism to run wild. The 'master race' doctrine of the late war was an ugly delusion, conceived by the powers of evil, whose prince is Satan, the devil." LDS Elder John A. Widstoe, in 1946 (4)
While I’m uncomfortable using race and skin color to demonstrate my case, I feel that I must do so to be true to the discussion. We are emotionally affected by our experiences, and even with our best intentions we are bound to offend someone. The truth is that our ancestors were prejudice – maybe more than we are today. In primitive situations that our ancestors dealt with, sometimes in insufferable conditions, survival depended on brute force and raw emotion. It’s evident from traditions in Polynesia today that warriors defined social norms and dominated much of the cross-culture attitudes in early Polynesia. In that primitive setting, group identification played a major role in inter-culture relationships and survival.
Notes for Chapter 1 (Introduction):
1. (a) The Journal of the Polynesian Society; Volume 6 1897; Volume 1, No. 1; Folk-songs and myths from Samoa; by John Fraser; p 19-36

http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_6_1897/Volume_6,_No._1/Folk-songs_and_myths_from_Samoa,_by_John_Fraser,_p_19-36/p1


(b) The Secret Of The Incas; Myth, Astronomy, And The War Against Time; William Sullivan; Crown Publishers, Inc., 1996
2. The African Origin of Civilization - Myth or Reality, Cheikh Anta Diop, Lawrence Hill Books, 1974
3. The Book of Hirum, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, HarperCollins Publishers, Hammersmith, London, 2003
4. Widtsoe, John A. Evidences and Reconciliations, pp.3-4.
CHAPTER 2: FACTS – Just the facts, Jack
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "All history becomes subjective; in other words, there is properly no history, only biography."

I wasn't sure if I should include this section since I know very little about archeology or anthropology, and know even less about biology. However, I felt that it would be useful to have this section despite my limited knowledge. Even if all I do is restating statements by others and adding my short comments. If the reader wants to pursue this subject further, I'm hoping this would make a good starting point.
Polynesian migration, with or without religious reference, can be a touchy subject and often get mired in controversies. Did Polynesians travel to the middle Pacific from the East or West? Did they arrive there accidently or did they plan? Did they drift haphazardly or did they use masterful navigation? The answers to these questions are still being debated today and are narrowed down to a few theories. I’ll try to point out the three that I think are significant in discussing Polynesia. I feel that the truth of how the Polynesians arrived in the middle Pacific is a mix of many views. It would also be helpful if we give the Polynesians credit for their seafaring abilities. They were cabable sailors who traveled the Pacific Ocean in all directions. That ability allowed the Polynesians to interact with people at the extreme ends of the Pacific very successfully.
A westward movement of people along the equatorial region from the Americas would be natural considering the natural flow of ocean currents and the importance of mysticism and religion to ancient mariners who were very aware of the movements of stars and planets. Any Polynesian migration theory must also involve their traditions. We shouldn’t dismiss anything because it might seem fantastic.
A theory involving primitive sailors traveling from South America to the eastern Pacific islands using simple wooden rafts and little knowledge of navigation can be made without elaborate presuppositions. Thor Heyerdahl demonstrated that people can travel from South America to eastern Polynesia with his floating Kon-Tiki. However, floating boats were not how the Polynesians did their traveling. They found pieces of evidence proving that Polynesians were capable of doing much more than floating on rafts. The Polynesians were capable of traversing great distances in all directions between the great landmasses encircling the Pacific Ocean. I think their story must not be confined to neatly fitted events, but should involve other pieces that may first seem unrelated.
When Europeans first set sight of the Pacific islands and their inhabitants, I’m sure one of questions they first asked was how the people got there. The islands dotting millions of square miles of ocean were so remote. The Polynesians settled a triangular area in the Pacific Ocean with its vertices at New Zealand, Hawaii, and Easter Island. There are two main views concerning origin of the Polynesians. One of them was first advanced by Captain James Cook, which proposed that Polynesians migrated eastward from Southeast Asia.
The other view suggests a westerly migration of Polynesians from the Americas. The group who promotes this idea includes Thor Heyerdahl. Thor proved using a wooden raft he named Kon-Tiki that simple boats used by Peruvian natives were sufficient to take people from costal Peru to remote islands of eastern Polynesia.
The current score board favors the eastward migration. Except for the presence of sweet potatoes, most of the archeological findings point to an eastward migration. Current Lapita research strongly suggests the peopling of Polynesia from the west as well. Scientists refer to a people who share common traits based on artifacts scattered around the Pacific islands “Lapita”. This society existed mostly on the western part of Oceania. (1) Despite this solid support for an eastward migration, there are still some unanswered questions that need clarification. What’s the explanation for the similarity between the indigenous names of the sweet potato in South America and Polynesia?
On the topic of how America was peopled, the once prevailing idea of a land bridge connecting Siberia and America has recently come under heavy scrutiny. The challenge proposes that the peopling of America was not from a single source, but it involves the movement of people from several areas around the world. These new ideas make Polynesia a potential source of migration into America.
Incidentally, there are now evidences that show conclusively of contacts between the peoples of Polynesia and Pre-Columbia America. The experts have found physical artifacts that provide insights into the pre-European societies of Oceania and nearby Southeast Asia. It’s no longer a question of whether a contact was made, but how the contact was made.
The traditionalists are saying that it was probably the Polynesians who migrated into the (2) Americas, but only to a small area in South America. I’m a fan of cultural diffusion and I think the colonization of the central Pacific from either side was broader. The diffusionist view in my opinion provides a better picture of how ancient people populated the Pacific.
1. Physical evidence
I’m quoting below a part of Jose Miguel Ramirez's article that mentions an axe (y3) of Polynesian made. While there is some agreement amongst the experts of a pre-Columbian America-Polynesia contact, the consensus is that the Polynesians were the ones who migrated into the Americas.
"Many mata'a have appeared in Mapuche collections, sometimes associated with other Easter Island artifacts (stone polished adzes 'toki' and stone pillows 'ngarua') of suspicious origin, and there are at least three of them found in archaeological sites but they all lack firm provenience. The next reference is the Mapuche word for the old stone polished axes, 'toki,' a word that was widely spread from Southeast Asia as far as the Mapuche area in South America (Imbelloni, 1928). 'Toki' in Chile were functional axes (mainly adzes in Polynesia), the title for the warrior chiefs and their symbols of rank (tokicura, an adze-like stone pendant). There is even a reference for a Maori chant when cutting trees with toki which, as it has been said, was textually preserved in a Mapuche tale (ibid, 1931)."
While this quote doesn’t provide certainty to the migration debate in my opinion, the appearance of two Samoan words "to'i" (axe) and "aluga" (pillow; pronounced "alunga") establishes the connection of Samoa in the middle Pacific to the eastern Pacific islands. Unfortunately for my side, this fact seems to show that it was the Polynesians who migrated into the Americas. Also in the central Pacific, the existence of pottery pieces that resemble those found in Melanesia and beyond provides more support for an eastward migration into the central Pacific. Our knowledge of pre-European Polynesia is fashioned the Lapita researchers.
While these Lapita findings have overwhelming support in the scientific community, there are others who challenge them. Some of those Lapita conclusions unfortunately produce more questions and contradictions. Why for instance don’t we find in the Samoan culture evidence of pottery making? If pottery making was part the Samoan society, its influence should be evidenced in their traditions. The Samoan language and traditions reference farming, "umu" (traditional cooking), fishing, boat building, bird hunting, "tapa" making, and tattooing. There’s very little reference to pottery making in the Samoan culture that I’m aware of.
According to news reports (January 2008), archaeologist David Burley and his team confirmed that they have discovered, in Polynesia proper, the oldest Lapita pottery in the islands of Tonga. According to David, the small fishing village of Nukuleka was established 2900 years ago in Tonga and has been confirmed as the first settlement in Polynesia. If this is true, this confirms that Tonga was peopled earlier than Samoa by the Lapita people. Saying that this new finding provides the only explanation of how Polynesia was peopled is an assumption in my opinion. The fact that Tonga was peopled first makes the argument that a non-Lapita people moved into Polynesia even more viable. The Lapita people aren’t necessarily Polynesians.
The scarcity of physical evidence pointing to the Americas as a place of Polynesian origin could change with a new emphasis from the scientific community. In Samoa there is an archeological mount that resembles the dirt-mounts in the Americas. We can try and connect that also to Asia, but wouldn’t it be just as probable that that construction shared a commonality with the American mounts?
Recent DNA studies of the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) and chicken bones recently discovered in South America have added more weight to the diffusion view. Those and the stone polished axes ('toki') found in the Mapuche area in South America are providing solid proof that Polynesians did ventured into the Americas. People going from the Americas into the Polynesian triangle would be just as provable using other evidences.
2. Biological evidence
"Analyses of Polynesian mitochondrial DNA variation, passed on only through the mother, have revealed three maternal lineages. Two are of South-East Asian origin and the third links back to the New Guinea-Island Melanesian region (Lum et al. 1994). This new research supports earlier studies summarized above by Serjeantson and Hill. Not all bearers of the Lapita culture moved to Polynesia. The genes of the 'stay at homes' can be found in coastal and island Melanesian groups who are genetically the descendants both of the pre-Lapita populations in the area and of the intrusive South-East Asian populations who also gave rise to the Polynesians." (Spriggs, p.99)
As convincing as this quote sounds, I think the final verdict on Polynesian migration using DNA is yet to be written. Ongoing genetic research, I believe, will yield more substantive evidence to provide answers to the question of Polynesian origin. (4) Genetic studies do show that there’s a discernible difference between Polynesians (Samoans, Tongans, Tahitians, Maoris [New Zealand], and Hawaiians) and Melanesians. The Melanesian origin of Polynesians using DNA has its share of criticism. I’m ignorant about the subject of DNA, so I won’t attempt to explain it. However, I want to make a few comments on what is being said by the experts. They are my opinions, but I’ll try to be as reasonable as I can.
According to some experts, pre-Polynesians came from three possible areas - Melanesia, Southeast Asia (Indonesia), and Asia (Taiwan). Biological studies involve the Y-Chromosome and mtDNA mapping. The experts are trying to relate the Y-Chromosome and mtDNA results from the above groups that in my opinion don’t mesh well.
The Melanesian-origin suggests that the Polynesian entity was locally formed with little outside influence. The Asian-origin view points to a group migrated from Asia into the Pacific by way of Taiwan.
The Southeast Asian-origin is the one best supported by DNA evidence and linguistic comparison. However, there's a question of how this migration was done from Southeast Asia into Polynesia. Melanesia sits between Southeast Asia and Polynesia. The easiest route for a people to migrate east would be going through the larger islands of Melanesia, the region whose inhabitants don’t share DNA with Polynesians.
The Lapita experts explain this lack of pre-Polynesian DNA presence in Melanesia with the "fast train" hypothesis. They assumed that "the pre-Polynesians moved rapidly through this part" and preferred taking the more arduous northern route through Micronesia and along the coast of the Asian continent.
Of these three ideas, the Southeast Asian origin offers the most plausible alternative because it’s supported more by mtDNA and linguistic studies. In these studies, mtDNA (5) closely matched several groups from America, Southeast Asia and Japan, and not North Asia. The people from Southeast Asia either traveled across the Pacific to America or they traveled up along the coast of Asia and down along the American western coast line, and down to South America. If the latter is true, these people would eventually take another leg journey to populate the central Pacific.
The results of genetic studies of lizards (6) and rats (7) confirm the "fast train" hypothesis, which may prove the colonization of Polynesia from the west. However, we can use the same findings to build a case for the colonization from the East.
3. Language - Similar Words
"Archaeologists, linguists, and geneticists have been struggling to understand the origins of the bold seafarers who settled the remote Pacific Islands. Now some scientists are converging on a model that involves mingling between Austronesian speakers, perhaps from Taiwan or nearby areas, and the indigenous people of Melanesian islands such as Papua New Guinea. The fusion of these cultures created a people that swept out into the remote Pacific islands, exploring 4500 kilometers in outrigger canoes and leaving a trail..." (Ann Gibbons, Peopling of the Pacific)
"Others see no evidence either for such connections or for any points of mainland origin. Whichever the case, all present signs are that the Austronesian dispersal was from some area in the Pacific itself, and no specific Asiatic homeland for speech or people pointed to by what is known." (William Howells, p. 104)
It’s certain that languages and cultures of Melanesia (y8) and Southeast Asia influenced the Polynesians significantly through trade and normal human traffic. I'm willing to bet that they traded more than just pigs. Although there are many words that are similar with the Samoan and languages of those western regions, the Samoan language also has words that are uniquely local.
What I’m trying to is this - the Samoan language today is affected significantly by English. The modern Samoan contains many words derived from English to express new experiences and objects; words and names like eletise, Ioane, televise, sima, kamapiuta, atomika, telefoni, paresitene, paremia, novema, setema, govana, etc. If nothing is done to control this influx, the Samoan language is in danger of being overloaded with English derivatives.
Dr. William G. Eggington explains what linguists refer to as “language shift that leads to death of languages. This happens as a consequence of people coming together. It’s easy to see what happens to language degradation when a culture encounters the language of a more powerful invader. If there is no conscious effort to reverse the language shift, the Samoan language risks dying out.
Dr. Eggington is a professor at Brigham Young University who is an expert in this language degradation phenomenon. His talk, "Reversing Samoan Language Shift", was presented during the International Samoan Language Commission Conference held in Carson, California on December 11, 2003.
Considering the Periodic Table, except for "auro" (gold), the Samoan names (y9) for the atomic elements are derived from English names. We know why these words are similar, but we would differ on a connection between the Samoan "auro" and the Quechuan (South America) word for gold - "yuari." The Latin word for gold can’t explain the close similarity between the words for gold in Samoan and Quenchen, unless Latin is the source for these words. These changes according to Dr. Eggington occur throughout history, which pose some challenges when attempting to correlate a one-to-one relationship between languages and races.
This lack of information doesn’t allow us to know for sure how words shifted unless we know some external factors such as colonization as in the case of European influence in Polynesia. The English language contains many Latin words that were introduced by the conquering Romans. Since the history of Europe is well known, we have a better understanding of the culture dynamics that affected Britain and the language of its natives. Without a clear history, as in the case of pre-European Polynesia, we don't have a sure way to know how words shifted within the Polynesian languages. Nevertheless, we might still be able to approximate how some words traveled using myths and legends.
"Language is not a Platonic idea abiding in a realm of archetypal truths. Rather it is a system we infer from the sounds that come out of the mouths of speakers and the marks that come from the hands of writers." (Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, 1988
Words are rooted in human experiences, of senses and emotions, not in planning committees. There is a strong indication that some Polynesian words are rooted in the folklores and sky charts of ancient pre-Columbian America. Similarly, many of our modern scientific words are rooted in ancient folklores and experiences of places like Greece and Rome.
Likewise, I surmise that the Samoan word "ula" (in used for necklace, the color red, and lobster) is originated from the movement of the closest planets to the Sun (Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury) and is rooted in the planetary deities of American natives. The Samoan words "uli" (dog) and "uli'uli" (the color black) are also rooted in the ancient American celestial Fox and Llama - the dark formations in the Milky Way where the fox always chases the llama. That also, I believe, is the root to another Samoan word "lama", which means "entrapment."
Another Samoan word that is significant in this discussion is “"malae". This word is related to "marae" in other parts of Polynesia, and it’s also found in Southeast Asian. The “marae” is a sacred place in Polynesia, while in Southeast Asia (East Temori) it means foreigner. In the hills of South America, the word "maray" is an astrological concept that represents a "celestial earth." I would think therefore, that the most likely source for "malae" is pre-Columbian America.
The word "manu" is found in some South American indigenous languages as well as in Polynesia and Southeast Asia. The meaning of this is similar in all three areas. For laguages who aren’t written down in some formal method unfortunately deteriorate. Language deterioration even within Polynesia is a problem. I received the following email Mr. Bruce Sutton, the author of "Lehi, Father of Polynesia".
"Probably the biggest challenge in dealing with the genealogies was caused by the "white man" in the 1820's to the 1880's when we had Spanish, German, English, Dutch, French, etc in the islands, and they all wanted to create a written language. The problem was, that they had different accents and pronunciations for words, and so when the genealogies were written down, one island's ancestor who was the same ancestor of another island had different names. There were fluctuations in use of letters such as i's and o's, l's and r's, o's and u's, k's and t's. E.g. Fale, whale, and whare, all mean house. A great ancestor may have been Tiki, Ti'i, Ki'i, or Kiki. Understanding the old language was necessary. The "white man" in effect, took one language covering the whole of Polynesia and made many different dialects and languages from it. The other challenge is identifying the legends and traditions from different islands and then making sure they are in harmony with the genealogies. This was important in identifying travel paths and time frames of events." (10)
Using information I found in library books and online resources, I compiled a short list of words (Appendix A) from the Americas, Southeast Asia, Polynesia, and Egypt. My goal was to collect as many words that are similar in spelling and meaning to Samoan words. I was quite surprise by the number of words that fit. The traditional view that the Samoan language is part of a proto-Asiatic language ignores its relationship to the Native American languages that I think exists. Besides their spelling similarities, these words appear to have similar meanings.
Before I leave this topic, I want to address an issue that was brought to my attention from someone who questioned these kinds of comparison in modern time. Firstly, we don’t have time machines to return to previous ages to make these studies, so the closest I can come to for comparison is looking at the words and see how they are spelled and their meanings. Their spelling may tell how they are pronounced. I even associate words that have few similar letters, but with clear similarity in meanings.

In the case of Samoan, we can use the European factor as a technique to categorize word association as either coincidental, borrowed from modern contacts, or to be truly rooted in ancient contacts. The English language, for instance, commonly adopted Native American words like tobacco, cocoa, manioc, etc. When the Europeans reached the middle-Pacific, some of these words were then introduced with the 'now' English names. You will find these objects in Samoa as topa'a, koko, and manioka, which are words borne from the modern European contacts. I have tried to exclude many of these kinds of similar-sounding words that I think were developed this way.


On the other hand, there are words like (11) 'umala' (sweet potato), 'aulo' (gold) and 'tanoa' (canoe), which I think can’t be explained from the European contacts. The word 'tanoa' is the least persuasive one of these three words. Considering the fact that the 'tanoa' is inherent in Samoan traditions and used differently from the object with that familiar name in the Americas, I strongly feel that these words have common roots. I think that the shape of the two objects is what ties these two words. In Samoa, a 'tanoa' is a bowl used to prepare food and kava, and 'canoe' is a rudderless boat used by some Native Americans.
4. Families
According to Sir Wallis Budge, author of "Egyptian Language", "sa" is an Egyptian word for son and sacred. The word "sa" in Samoan is used similarly - sacred or restricted. It’s also a prefix denoting family lineage. To refer to the Fiatoa family, in Samoa say the “Safiatoa”. We emphasize the "Sa" and last letter "a" of the name. Likewise, Samoa would mean “the Moa family.” What's the chance of this happening in cultures half a world apart without contact?
English \Polynesian \Egyptian

guardian \- \ari

lord \ali'i (Samoan), ari'i (Tahitian) \-

family leader \matai (Samoan) \-



the town-guard \- \matai
In his book “Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature”, Heyerdahl was told by a friend, Tei Tetua, that his folk originated from - "te Fiti" - "the East." The Samoan "te'e" means opposing or propping something. I think the word "te Fiti" would compare equally to a Samoan phrase "te'e Fiti" - "oppose Fiji". The village of Omoa on Fatu-Hiva also suggests a connection between Samoa and the eastern islands. The Samoan "sa" has a dual usage: it means sacred, and it also signifies family association. The Samoan word "o" is a possessive pronoun, and it reminds me of the Samoan "sa". Here's a Samoan phrases that illustrate the "o". Ole fale le o Moa. (This is Moa's house.)
5. We need more discussions
Why is the Polynesian name for sweet potato more similar to South America than Southeast Asia? The sweet potato is "kumar" in Peru, "umala" in Samoa, and "kumara" in other Polynesia communities. It’s not so similar when comparing it to the indigenous languages of Southeast Asia. (12)
Thor Heyerdahl talks a lot about the connection between the Americas and Polynesia from common names and traditions, like “the kindred name Mata-Rani, which means in Polynesian "the eye of heaven," is and old Peruvian place name…” (13)
The words "mata" (eye) and "lagi" (sky; pronounced 'langi') in this story are equivalent to Samoan words. The phrase "Mata-Kite-Rani" or "Eye in the Sky" is translated "Mata-ile-Lagi" in Samoan.
The Samoan creation story also conveys similar concepts - "Then Immensity and Space brought forth offspring; they brought forth Po and Ao, 'Night and Day,' and this couple was ordained by Tangaloa to produce the 'Eye of Sky,' [the Sun]." [Fraser, Tala: Samoan creation story; Appendix D]
Heyeradahl also talks about “the sun-god of the Northwest American Kwakiutl word “na-la” for "the sun," while lah was also the word for "sun" in the Kulanapo (Pomo) language of northwestern California.” (14) The Samoan word for sun is “la”.
I received an email from Professor David V. Burley of the Simon Fraser University strongly rejecting any suggestion of Polynesia been colonized from the Americas. According to him, the direction of these words should be secondary in importance to the fact of their existence.
6. Were the Polynesians that adventurous?
"They may have been encouraged to set sail by an expanding population at home (another consequence of agriculture), but their unique solution was only possible because they had the choice of sailing into the unknown. And it was the pursuit of an ever-increasing spectrum of choices that would produce the final Big Bang of human evolutionary history." (p.180, The Journey of Man, Spencer Wells, 2002)
Polynesians moving across thousands of miles of water without any clue of where they were heading is a troubling thought. Even in our modern days, it took years of careful research before the first men was launched into outer space. I think what Wells is talking about here is entirely different from what Lapita researchers are saying - that Polynesians planned their trips.
If Wells is correct, and that the Polynesian colonization of the Pacific was a random occurrence, how would they know to bypass the larger Melanesian islands standing between Southeast Asia and central Pacific? The study on the Pacific rat, Rattus exulans, presents some problems with the "fast train" idea that assumed Polynesians moved through much of Melanesia with little or no contacts. The results of studies with the Pacific rat show that the rat was brought into the central Pacific at successive periods, and they show that there were continual interactions between Polynesians and area further west. The question remains of why there is a distinct difference between the Melanesian and Polynesian DNA if they interacted so much. If the Polynesians branched out from the Melanesian stock, why shouldn’t their DNA be a 100 percent match?
7. Polynesians and Southeast Asia
It is troubling to see broad assumptions about Polynesian origin being made based on very few selected samples. Take me, for example - I am currently living in Ohio, mid-United States. If visitors from another planet find me fishing (assuming I afford it) and take a sample of my blood – is that enough for the space aliens to learn about the people of Ohio? Based on my location and blood type, they would wrongly conclude that Ohioans are from the Middle Pacific. The history of Ohio is complex, and basing it on my blood and fishing pole can be impossible.
By the use of various observations, it appears to me that some in the scientific community seem determined to concoct a Polynesian formula by fusing Asiatic and Melanesian traits. Using similarities in the languages and physical features, the push in the scientific field is to create a mosaic of a singular people that lived in an area from Madagascar, on Africa's eastern coast, to Easter Island in the east Pacific. Think about this folks - that is a distance spanning 3/4 of the globe, which is a large enough area to advance any theory.
It’s apparent that the experts don’t know how the Polynesians were dispersed from the west to the east. Did they go through the Melanesian territory without intermingling? Did they hop from island to island, starting from Madagascar to Easter Island, genetically changing bit by bit? If that is the case, why was the end result uniquely Polynesian with nothing in common genetically to their supposed Melanesian parents? Also, during the same time that Lapita pottery was popular, the Polynesians were using open ovens ("umu") as they do today. Why didn't the Polynesians continue to use pottery in their cooking if that was part of their tradition?
Their use of biological factors as a determinant element in the development of the pottery verges on racism. Although they say that the Lapita pottery was a localized development, their argument still requires an external catalyst. They explain that the catalyst were lighter skin people from Asia. Why shouldn’t a dark skin people given full credit for the development of the decorative pottery? I think that the dark skin people that Polynesians met developed the pottery found throughout the Pacific islands.
It’s interesting to note that the DNA proof of an Asian origin of the Polynesians presents a problem with the conclusions of Lapita research. Critics of an American origin of Polynesians enthusiastically point out the DNA results. The Lapita experts stress the Melanesian origin of Polynesians, which contradicts in a great degree what the DNA experts are saying. These views both suggest an eastward movement, but they seem to differ on how that happened. If you accept the Lapita view, you'll have to accept the conclusion that Polynesians are offspring of people derived from Africa by way of Melanesia.
The Lapita research declares that the artifacts that are found throughout Melanesia and Polynesia show a migratory track of colonizers from a particular group, which has similar backgrounds and cultures, in the region that extended from East Africa to East Polynesia. Unfortunately, the facts provided by DNA studies don’t support that view. The DNA experts are saying that Polynesians came from Asia. In their studies they found that the Polynesian DNA doesn’t match African DNA, but it closely matched Asian. These are the conflicting ideas from the experts.
"As early as the nineteenth century, scholars had linked the languages of Polynesia to those spoken by Taiwan (then Formosa) and Malaysia. Today, Taiwan is inhabited by Han-speaking Chinese, but prior to the seventeenth century it was home to aboriginal groups speaking completely different languages. All of these languages were united into one family, Malayo-Polynesian, which became known as Austronesian in the early twentieth century. So, there is clear linguistic data tracing from Hawaii back to Asia, rather than the Americas. ...The 'Express Train' model, as it became known, predicted a close genetic link between aboriginal Taiwanese and the Polynesians. MtDNA seemed to support this model, although its resolution - as we have seen elsewhere - is often limited. Recent results from the Y-chromosome, though, have suggested that the theory needs to be modified." (p.179, The Journey of Man, A Genetic Odyssey, Spencer Wells, Princeton University Press, 2002)
Another problem area that I see is the attempt by some experts to correlate human DNA to languages when clearly, in the case of Polynesia, the two don’t quite match the way it is explained. To insist that the only source of words in Polynesia be Asia is inadequate considering the numerous common words (Appendix A) between some languages of the Americas and Polynesia. While there are many similarities between the languages of Polynesia and Southeast Asia, limiting linguistic studies to that region doesn’t address the complexities of human activities that encompass the Pacific people and their story.
Perhaps the history of the Polynesians isn’t that long. The Lapita researchers are trying desperately to tie them to a long evolutionary line - an approach that contradicts other facts.
8. Accidental versus Carefully Plan Migration
On the National Geographic Channel program "Naked Science: First to Cross the Ocean", Professor Jim O'Connell of the University of Utah explains how Australia was colonized by a group of people from Southeast Asia some 50,000 years ago. The program was based on 30-plus years of research by Professor O'Connell. One of the highlights of the show is when Professor O'Connell visited Professor John Moore of the University of Florida to learn about a computer program Moore designed to predict the survivability of a colonizing group on another planet. Results generated by the computer program demonstrated that a random accidental colonization of Australia couldn’t have occurred. It takes a certain number of couples, men and women, to make a colony survive.
If we apply that standard to the colonization of the Polynesian islands, the accidental theory that some anthropologists advocate can’t be correct. Whether Polynesia was colonized from the East or West, an accidental colonization by a few people couldn’t have survived after so many generations.
9. A Growing Field
a. Raw facts alone are not enough to tell the story.
There are many professional books presenting careful assumptions that are mistakenly construed as facts. The evolving nature of scientific knowledge makes it necessary to make best-educated conclusions, but some practitioners of science seem to use their positions, and not their facts, as a way to promote their ideas. This makes lay people like me get lost in noodles of disconnected information. What caused these people to venture out to islands hundreds and even thousands of miles into the vast ocean? Why do they have a different DNA makeup compare to their supposed parents? Why do the Polynesia reveal through traditions and legends different from their artifacts?
Remarks like the following comment from Kirch’s book yearn for clear and definite answers. "Thus in Western Polynesia the 'end' of Lapita is the 'beginning' of Polynesian culture." (Kirch, p.68) And maybe in these instances, hard facts are not enough. Even Professor Kirch admitted that it is sometimes necessary to look beyond the artifacts. I think that is something I am trying to do here.
"Thus in Western Polynesia the 'end' of Lapita is the 'beginning' of Polynesian culture. Eastern Lapita was gradually transformed through processes of culture change and adaptation to new island environments to something recognizably different, yet retaining many of the ancestral culture patterns. In terms of formal archaeological taxonomy, we cease to label the ceramic and artifact assemblages found in the Western Polynesian region after about 500 BC as 'Lapita,' and now label them...'Polynesian Plain Ware'." (Kirch, p.68)
"Conservative prehistorians may argue that I have gone too far in my interpretation of Lapita as a 'house society', urging that we stick closely to the archaeological data of post molds and fire pits. But I - like my colleagues Roger Green, Jim Fox, and Andrew Pawley - am convinced that a cultural history that draws not only upon the material evidence of archaeology, but also on careful lexical and semantic reconstructions, and on comparative ethnology, has far greater power to inform us about the social lives of Lapita and other ancient peoples. Certainly our current vision of this social world is a fuzzy and incomplete one, for our methods need refinements and our databases enlarging. Only by daring to envision this world, however, can we ever bring it to light." (Kirch, p.191)
Kirch's "The Lapita Peoples", (y15) and Spriggs' "The Island Melanesians", interesting enough, can also be used to show a collision between the cultures of Melanesia and Polynesia that is observable with the Lapita artifacts and language similarities. Kirch's book estimated the start of the Polynesian identity, in Samoa and Tonga, to around 300 AD to 1000 AD. Interestingly, that is about the time other Pacific islands, thousands of miles due east were colonized.
Can it be positively proven that Polynesians were responsible for the Polynesian Plain Ware, or are they remains of the work of a people who preceded the Polynesians? Maybe the two products are distinct designs? Pottery making is still done in some places in the far west Pacific, but it is nowhere found practiced in Polynesia.
b. Reading between the lines.
Gorge Forster (quoted in Beaglehole 1969:461) records that the Malakulans who visited Cook's ship in Port Sandwich when it first anchored kept repeating the word 'Tommar or Tomarro' which he took to mean friend, but which may have been temar or ancestor. Although the initial reaction of ni-Vanuatu may have been ascribe supernatural status of Cook and his ships, it seems that where contact was continued for some time, as at the next stop after Erromongo, Port Resolution on Tanna, it was quickly realized that the visitors were human, if it had been in doubt. On islands with long experience of Polynesian contact, the white color of the Europeans was as likely to have suggested Polynesian voyagers as returned ancestors." (Spriggs, p.249)
The above quote from Spriggs' "The Island Melanesians" suggested that some people within the Melanesian region consider Polynesians their ancestors.
"What historical linguistics on its own cannot convincingly achieve is a chronology for the spread of a language group or for the dating of a particular language state or proto-language" (Spriggs, p.96)
The Polynesians share many common words with Melanesians and other Southeast Asian peoples. However, to use this to prove that Polynesians originated from there, to me, is just an assumption. I have compiled words common between Samoan and languages of the Americas that show that there are just as many common words between Samoan to those languages. Someone told me that 30 percent of Samoan and Quechuen words are identical. The list of words I compiled (Appendix A) seems to confirm that number. The trouble, I see, in the linguistic field is the emphasis toward the western Asiatic languages and the exclusion of any relationship between Samoan and Native American languages.
10. Coming to America
The traditional view about the peopling of the Americas is based on the notion that a primitive people crossed over to the Americas from Asia over a land bridge when the sea level was low as a result of ice formation during the Ice Age. An article in the journal Science suggested that a people might have moved from Siberia to America long before such a land bridge existed. The new finding "makes it plausible that the first peopling of the Americas occurred prior to the last glacial maximum," Daniel Mann of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, said in Science. It is now known from research findings that there were people in the Americas long before the supposed land bridge existed (around 11,000 years ago). The utilization of floating devices (logs) is fairly within the abilities of primitive minds to create and use in coastal areas when the need arise.
As recently as November 2004, CNN reported that a University of South Carolina archaeologist, Albert Goodyear, found evidence to suggest the Americas were settled 50,000 years ago. That is at least 25,000 years before other known human sites on the continent, CNN reports. "It poses some real problems trying to explain how you have people (arriving) in Central Asia almost at the same time as people in the Eastern United States," said Theodore Schurr at the University of Pennsylvania.
It was suggested on the television program "Journey to 10,000 BC" that people from pre-historic Europe migrated to the Americas. The program highlighted Dennis Stanford, the Director of the Paleo-Indian Program at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution who advocates the notion that people from Europe migrated to the Americas in what is known as the Solutrean hypothesis. According to Stanford, the stone tool technology of the Solutrean culture in prehistoric Europe may have influenced the development of the Clovis tool-making in the Americas.
Once they make it to the New World, what would prevent some from venturing further out into the seas? Some Native American communities made a living out of hunting large sea animals. The ability to doing that, I think, is enough to make long sea voyages possible. Even an accidental drifting by some unfortunate fishermen would find themselves in the remote easterly islands of Polynesia, as demonstrated by Heyerdahl with his raft, the Kon-Tiki.
11. Gata (pronounce: ngata)
The Samoan word for snake (gata) suggests a very interesting thing to me. This word, and its various derivations, reveals a commonality between very diverse cultures and lands. Firstly, the Sanskrit word "nag" is an origin of the word "naga" common in Buddhist writings and refers to snakes or snake-like things. This word for snake is also found in other parts of the world including the Middle East and the Americas. The following list suggests that the Javanese word for dragon (ulanaga) is a compound word derived from two eastern words, red (ula) and snake (ngata). The reverse would be unlikely because I think complex (or compound) words are formed from root words and not the other way around.
English \Southeast Asia \Samoa \Americas
snake \ular (SE2) \gata (ngata) \chan/kan (CA5)

dragon \ulanaga (SE4) \"no word for dragon" \-

red \- \ula \puka (SA2)

necklace \- \ula \-


"The ancient Hebrew word for "Serpent" is "Nachash" (which according to Strong's Comprehensive and other Biblical concordances contained in itself the meanings: Reptile, Enchantment, Hissing, Whisper, Diligently Observe, Learn by Experience, Incantation, Snake, etc. all of which may be descriptive of the serpent-sauroid race which we have been referring to). The original "Nachash" was not actually a "snake" as most people believe, but actually an extremely intelligent, cunning creature possessed with the ability to speak and reason. It also stood upright as we've said, as did many of its descendants, the small "saurian" predators which ambled about on two legs." (from "The Cult of the Serpent" file, edited by Branton) (17)
"Quetzalcoatl is a feathered and winged serpent. In the Motherland to the South of the Quetzals were a people whose corresponding symbol was the Cobra-de-Capella, which they called Naga. They were known as the Nagas. They gave their Naga seven heads to correspond with the Seven Commands" or mental planes of creation. The early settlers in North America, coming, generally, from the northern parts of the Motherland, made the feathered serpent their symbol." (18)
12. Parallels and Synonyms
I want to include in this manuscript a comparison of words collected from the languages of America and Samoa. I wanted to list words that look similar in both the spelling and meaning. The result of that search is listed in “Appendix A”. My only source for these references was the public library, and it’s far from comprehensive. However, for the languages that I was fortunate enough to find books for in the library, I was able to compile a list from them. Most of these like words are found in the languages of South and Central America - Inca, Maya, and Zapotec. But, I also found a lot of Samoan-like words (listed below) in the Lakota language of the North America Great Planes.
Lakota words with similarity to Samoan words:
English \Samoan \Lakota (North America)
difficult \faigata (faingata) \nagana, dxiina (Mayan)

to find it hard to work \- \wah'anka

hurt \tiga (tinga) \-

upper part of a river \uluvai \-

brain \faiai \nas'ula

forehead \mu'aulu \ituhu

to rub \- \apa

to reach \a'apa'atu \-

mistake \sala, sipa, se'se, agasala \si'pil (Mayan), aglasna

root \a'a, io \de, xcu (Zapotec)

a medicinal herb root \- \haka

below \lalo \kuta, ye-ma-la (yemal) (Mayan)

shore (edge of a stream) \- \ihuta, ohuta

inland (mountain area) \tua, iuta \uta (Ute)

to weigh \- \iyuta

load/burden \uta \kuch (Mayan)

to burn \tunu, susunu, mu \gu

land (earth) \fanua, laumua \maka, lu'um (Mayan), luhm (Quechean)

raw \mata \-

country \malo \llaqta (Quechua), makoce

to cut \tipi \ch'aakik, xotik, puztequi (Mayan)

to fit \- \kipi

to die \mate, oti, pe \mic (Nahuatl), kimil (Mayan), rati (Zapotec), ta, ote, mat'a

death \maliu, folau, mate, oti, pe kimen, och b'i (Mayan), guenda guti, guenda rati (Zapotec)

to kill \ta'mate, fasi'oti, kape \kte

live in \oofi \oti

destroy \uti \-

beat \tata \kastaka

kick \a'a, i'I \nahpa

meat \aano \talo

taro \talo, ta'amu \-

squash \- \k'uum (Mayan)

flow \tafe \-

wind, air \- \iik' (Mayan), tate

expression of fear;amazed \oka'oka, ofo, te'i \-

plenty \- \ota

grand \- \mboota (Zapotec)

water \vai \ja', ha', way (Mayan), mni, unu (Quechua)

rain \timuga (timunga) \magaju, ha' (Mayan)

sea \sami \mniwanca, mni sose tanka

river \auvai \wa (Kwakiutl)

snow \- \wa

adore \- \ohola

friend \- \kola

to cultivate \to'to \-

to live \ola \gvhnoda (Cherokee)

the Great Spirit \- \wakantanka ohola

boat \va'a \wata

god \atua \wakantanka

paddle \selu, alo \alus (Sumas)

comb \selu \-

sweep \salu \-

wave \galu (ngalu) \-

to fan \tapili, fa'amalu \kalu

fan \- \icalu

enemy (hostile) \- \toka

angry stare \sepa \-

dirty, defiled, blacken \- \sapa, sape

rooster \toa \kokoyahanla bloka

priest-astronomers \- \paqo (Huarochiri)

man who makes decisions \- \pogo

smart \poto, atamai \asamadi (Cherokee)

knowledgeable \- \aktahna?i (Cherokee)

basket \ola, ato \xak (Mayan)

barrel \- \koka

gourd \- \wagmu

bottle \fagu (fangu) \-

to scold \ote, ee \k'eeyik (Mayan), iyopeya

wing \apa'au \hupahu, ape

involved \o'osi \-

wound \- \oo

black \- \sapa

dirt \pala'pala, ele'ele \-

dirty \pala'pa'la \sapa

enrails \- \taniga

ear \taliga \xikin (Mayan), diaga (Zapotec), ga’leni (Cherokee)

prominent \ta'ua \tanka

person \tagata (tangata) \-

people \o tagata \oyate

father \ta'ma \ate, tat{a} (Mayan)

nose \isu \xii (Zapotec), ni' (Mayan), poge, pasu

field (caltivated) \umaga \maga

mother \tina \jnaa (Zapotec), ina

pole \- \sata

beam for hanging things \fata \-

mad \ita \-

proud \mimita \itan

spirit \agaga, agua \naguals (Nahuatl), wanagi

soul \- \nagi

sky \lagi (langi) \chaan/ka'an (Mayan), mahpiya

sacred (holy) \sa, mamalu \wakan

red \ula, mumu \puka (Zapotec), chak (Mayan), luta, sa

fresh \mata \aak' (Mayan)

green (color) \lanu mata \-

ground, the earth \- \maka

raw, unripe, green \mata, moto \naga' (Zapotec), ch'o-ko (Mayan)

cultivated spot or field \umaga \maga

I am \o a'u \waun

Salt \masima \mniskuya

Bark \- \papa

stretched mat, flat rock \papa \-

flatten \papa \pak'achtik (Mayan)

male \po'a \ngola (Zapotec), bloka

alas, cry of sorrow \aue, e'e \he-he

yell \e'e \-

drop \pa'u \lape (Zapotec)

to kick, cause to fall \- \nahpeya

trip (fall) \lape \-

strike, hit \tu'i, ta, moto, po \sak', puts-e, p'uchik (Mayan), apa

slap \po, paka \-

clap \pati \-

eat \ota (uncooked), ai, tausami, taumafa, taute \hanal (Mayan), ayastan, wota

embrace \opo'opo \-

to be shrunken \- \opo

to walk dragging one's feet \- \gogo s'e

walk too slow \gogose, nenese \nanene (Zapotec)

in the grown, as grass that has not yet shown itself growning \- \makagna

shame \mata'ga (mata'nga) \-

in the way of \aga \ogna

school \aoga \-

in the way of one's speech \lona gagana \ognagna

language \gagana \-

to wander in \- \onuni

which way \ui'fea \-

the hair of the head \pale, lau'ulu \paha

the pit of the stomach \- \supute

belly-button \pute \-

a little basket in a woman's game \- \npa

sack \taga \-

a squash, pumpkin, gourd, etc \- \wagmu

a taro variety \ta'amu \-

dinner \- \ipaga

meal \ta'uga, mea'ai, to'anai'i, ava, aiga \-

to quarrel with \misa \kiza

relative \ou tei \otakuye

laugh \ata \aihat'a

leaf \lau \ape

hang \ape, sisi \-

question \masalo, fesili \iyunga

reason \uiga \-


The Lakota language was the only language from North America that satisfied my search for words with similarities to Samoan words. If these like-words have common roots, how were they transmitted between the Great Planes of North America and the Middle Pacific? Did people who spoke those words moved down from the Great Planes of North America to the Middle Pacific by way of Central America and South America?

Or were they transmitted the opposite direction?


It’s possible these words were dispersed outward from a point in South America. From that dispersal, these people took familiar stories into North America and Polynesia. The stories of how Native Americans acquired corn and how Polynesians acquired the coconut have identical messages. In both stories a person was killed and the body (or body part) was buried, which the corn or coconut, grew from. The root idea may have nothing to do with corn or coconut, but an idea found in the human sacrifices of Central and South America.
Next I searched for common words between the Samoan language and regions beyond the Americas and Southeast Asia. Might there be like-words between the Samoan and Egyptian? Interestingly, I found several words that satisfy my search. Many of these words appear to be associated to kingship and religion. Here are some words from the word list (Appendix A) that I think are related to the word "ulu" (head).
English \SE Asia \Middle East \Samoan \Americas
headache \- \- \uluti'ga \k'inam ho'ol (CA5)

great ones \- \arau (ME1) \- \-

nobles \mulia (SE1) \uru (ME1) \- \-

king \muluk (SE1) \- \tupu \tepal (CA5)

royal \diraja (SE1) \- \- \tupa (SA2)

great \besar, raja (SE1) \ urui (ME1) \- \-

upper part of a river \hulu (SE1) \- \uluvai \-

brain \otak (SE2) \- \faiai \nas'ula (NA11)

gold \emas (SE2) \nub (ME1), zahav (ME2) \auro \gori, yuari (SA2)

holy \kudus, suci (SE1) \- \paia \k'ul (CA5)

forehead \- \- \mu'aulu \ituhu (NA11)

head \ulu (SE4) \- \ulu, ao \jol (CA5), xalom (CA6), uska (NA13)

beginning \- \sha (ME1) \amataga, ulua'I \ruzulu (CA4)

fruit \buah (SE1), aifuan (SE3) \- \fua, ulu \ch'uhuk (CA5)

chief/owner/head \ulu (SE4) \tatat (ME1) \ulu, pule \churi (SA3), ho'ol (CA5)

leader \ulu (SE4), totos (SE4) \hauti (ME1) \ta'ita'i, to'oto'o \-

staff \- \aryt (ME1) \to'oto'o, amo \-

guardian \pengawal (SE1) \ari (ME1) \- \-

lord \tuhan (SE1) \- \alii \-

family leader \- \- \matai \-



the town-guard \- \matai (ME1) \- \-
It seems that whoever migrated into the middle Pacific was familiar with Egyptian. These words are related to rulers and god and were retained for their importance. You can see more of these words in Appendix A. The labels ME1 (Egyptian) and ME2 (Hebrew) are for reference. If these words are not coincidental, how did they travel? They might have traveled eastward from the Middle East to the mid-Pacific through Southeast Asia, or they might have traveled westward from the Middle East to the Americas, and then to Polynesia.
This is where a little expert advice would come in handy. I don’t know if there is a way to determine a word pedigree based on these common words. Maybe a migration route can be determined from these common words. I’m not a linguist, unfortunately, and all I can show are these words. I read about a Dr. Russell Gray mapping the Polynesian and Mesoamerican languages using a very ingenious method of computer modeling like what biologists use in genetic studies. It’ll be interesting to know what result his team comes up with.
The next step for me was to see if those words that are common between Egypt and Samoa resemble words in Southeast Asia and the Americas. Although my word list is limited, I do see a lot more words in the American languages that satisfy this requirement compare to languages of Southeast Asia. That fact indicates for me that the movement westward from the Middle East, to the Americas, and then into the middle Pacific is the most probable route of these words.
What about other languages in continental Africa? Africa is such a huge continent with many dialects and I made a comparison to just a few African languages. Again, my source was the public library. The few African languages that I sampled contained word spelled like Samoan work, but the meanings were different. It’s possible that there might be some similarities, but I haven’t found them. It’s possible that because of Egyptian influences in Africa proper, there might be words in other communities of Africa that are similar to Samoan words.
13. Chicken-bone clue points to early America-Polynesia contacts
A recent scientific finding (2007) involving chicken bone provides convincing evidence that a contact between people of the Americas and Polynesia. Traveling the huge ocean distances was well within the abilities of early Polynesian mariners.
This study will appear in proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Its lead author is New Zealand anthropologist Alice Storey. It appears that the chance of Polynesians having common interactions with the pre-Columbian Americans is just as possible as their interactions with the peoples on the Asiatic side. Using the chicken bone evidence, scientists believe that the Polynesians made contact with America about 600 or 700 years ago.
14. Samoan and Hebrew word comparison
Could the following Hebrew and Samoan words that exhibit similarities share common roots? Statistically, it’s possible to produce this list without these words having anything in common, but it is an interesting likeness. I have compiled a larger list of words (appendix A) from the Middle East, Americas, Polynesia, and Southeast Asia for a similar comparison.
English \Hebrew \Samoan
know \ya-do'-a \iloa

mother \i-ma' \tina

lighting rod \kallira'am \uila

old age \kelah \tua'a, leva

pass \- \te'a

black \kushi \uli

force, strength \ko'ah, ko'-ach \-

brave \- \toa

pain \keev \ti'ga, eeva

hurt \lehipaga \puagatia, ti'na, ti'ga

show \hatzaga, hofaa \fa'aaliga, fa'ailoa

kick \- \a'a

to walk \ha \savali

path \shvil \ala

fishing \dayig \sau'sau, fagota, faiva

fish \- \i'a

long \arokh \sa'o

sea \yam \sami

sky \sha-ma-yim \lagi

wave \gal \galu

sickness \mahala \ma'i, manu'a

calamity \- \malaia, mala

bitter \mara \-

all, everything \hakol \atoa

meal \aruha \ta'uga, mea'ai, to'anai'i, ava, aiga

question \sheela \masalo, fesili

search \- \saili

juice \mitz \sua, miti (coconut milk)

how \eykh \fa'apefea, a ea (okay?)

love \leehov, a-hov, a-hava \alofa

respect \- \a'ava

hill \giva \matifa

forbidden \asur \sa

against \neged \nene'e

organize \baurau \faufau

clay impression seal \bulla \-

rule \- \pule

shell \- \pule

swallow \dror' \folo

separate \hav-dail \vava-tai

blood \dom \toto

brother \och \uso

dead \maith \malie, oti, mate

sick \- \mai

fire \aish \afi

green \yarok, yraka \moto, mata

meet \pa-go'-a \-

embrace \- \pago

roast \tsa-lo \tao

rob \ga-zol \gaoi

roll \ga-lol \gasolo

roof \gag, sa-kaich \tala, sala, ato

sack \pa-tor \taga

basket \- \ato

shoot \ya-ro \velo

arrow \ya-ro \a-u

spear \- \tao

sit \ya-shov' \nofo, saofai

smoke \a-shain, a-shan \a-asu

steal \ga-nov \gaoi

strike \ha-kai \ta

sun \cha-ma \-

father \- \ta-ma

swallow \ba-lo'-a \folo

back \gav \itua, gatua

bring, fetch \ha-vai' \aumai

tell, relate \hav-dail \talai

legend, tale, story \ha-ga-da' \tala'aga

language \- \gagana

teach, instruct \ho-rai' \aoa'i

yellow \ktho-ma' \sama-sama

sight (to see) \ha-bait' \vaa'i, tepa


15. Candi Sukuh
A Hindu temple in central Java has a very interesting feature that resembles Mayan pyramid construction. It’s call "Candi Sukuh" (19), and it’s unique from the various Hindu influenced temple constructed throughout South East Asia. While the Hindu culture moved into South East Asia around 1 AD, the Mayan culture flourished around 300 BC. So who influenced who in this case? I am just asking.
16. Samoan and Formosian word comparison
Because there are some experts with strong opinions that Polynesians originated from Taiwan, formally Formosa, I decided to create a list of some aboriginal Taiwanese (Pepo-whan) words and compare them to Samoan and languages from the Americas. It’s not entirely certain from this list that Samoans orginated from Taiwan.
English Pepo-whan Samoan East
all \sasaan \- \-

arm \pario \- \-

bad \mabuhu \- \-

beard \gngi \- \-

big \maizang \- \-

bird \aiane \- \-

black \maidum \- \-

blood \gama \- \-

blue \taburusung \- \-

bow \kuh \- \-

breast \abu \- \-

brother \nigaha \- \-

buy \pelakule \- \-

cat \luklao \- \-

chin \tak-tak \- \-

clouds \rabu \- \-

cold \mahau mung \- \-

come \mapunakuti \- \-

cook \tuku \- \-

*grilled* \- \tunu \-

cow \loang \- \-

cry \mang-i \tagi \-

cark \madung \- \-

*night* \- \po -

*fog, mist* \- \- \po (Lakota)

daughter \alaka \- \-

deer \nang \- \-

die \mariku \maliu, oti, pe \mic (Nahuatl), kimil (Mayan), rati (Zapotec), ta, ote, mat'a

dog \asu \- \-

door \natap \- \-

ears \tangira \taliga \-

east \tagaja \- \-

egg \po pak \- \-

elbow \puuk \- \-

evening \madung \- \-

eyes \mata \mata \-

father \dama \tama \-

feather \ribing \- \-

few \akousai \- \-

finger \kagamua \- \-

finger Nail \kalunkung \- \-

fire \apui \afi \-

fish \tug \i'a \ts'a, kay, cha-ya (Maya), challwa (Quechua), dika (Shoshone)

flower \isib \- \-

foot \tintin \- \-

fruit \maugua \fua, ulu \ch'uhuk (Maya)

*mountain* \- \(tua) mauga \mana (Panoan/Peru)

go \madarang \- \-

good \magani \- \-

grass \uzu \- \-

gun \lantu \- \-

hair \buku \lau ulu \-

hand \dadukam \- \-

he \inuhua \- \-

head \bungu \ulu, ao \jol (Maya), xalom (Quichean)

heart \abu \fatu \-

heel \lugu \- \-

hen \tahuka \- \-

hot \madzulat \- \-

house \hamadung \- \-

husband \tinu \taane \-

I \yau \- \-

*me* \- \O a'u \-

iron \mani \- \-

it \samshu \- \-

knee \dudu \- \-

knife \ulut \- \-

laugh \matawa \ata \aihat'a (Lakota), zeel (Quichean)

*laughter* \- \ata'li \ah tzeel (Quichean)

*to laugh* \- \- \zelah (Quichean)

*out of breath* \ - \sela \-

leaf \hapa \lau \ape (Lakota)

*hang* \- \ape, sisi \-

lie down \mariku \- \-

light \madama \malama \-

lips \babibit \- \-

little \mansing \- \-

long \mahadak \- \-

man \amama \- \-

many \mada \- \-

moon \buran \masina \killa (Aymara), ma-hin (North America/Shew.), poh (Quichean)

morning \matakuh \- \-

morth \tagama \- \-

mother \jena \tina \-

mountain \bukung \- \-

mouth \mutut \gutu \-

must \malup \- \-

neck \kudunk \- \-

no \akoatai \leai, aua \aua (No. America/Songes), whaa (No. America/Nisk.), ma (Maya)

nod \marisip \- \-

nose \gung-us \- \-

pig \babui \puaa \-

plantain \dum \- \-

pretty \mabutira \- \-

*beautiful* \- \mata'nofie, manai'a, aulelei \munaycha (Quechua)

rain \udan \timuga \para (Maya), hab (Quichean)

*soak* \- \pala, fufui \-

red \mai pang \ula, mumu \puka (Zapotec), chak (Mayan), luta, sa (Lakota)

rice \pak \- \-

river \aguang \- \-

roof \alub \- \-

round \marunzarung \- \-

sand \lapun \- \-

sea \baung \- \-

sell \mirakakule \- \-

short \makusing \- \-

shoulder \tagu \- \-

silver \manituk \- \-

sing \ururao \- \-

sister \bim \- \-

sleep \mariku \- \-

smoke \labu \a-asu, pusa \gu'xhu' (Zapotec), b'utz' (Maya)

snake \bulae \- \-

son \alak \atali'i, alo \-

*lineage* \- \- \ayllo (Aymara)

sour \maaqmid \- \-

south \tagatimu \- \-

stars \alatingakai \- \-

stone \batu \- \-

sun \Wagi \la \sua, na-la (North America), k'iin (Mayan), ra (Kaingang/Brazil)

*sky* \- \lagi \-

sweet \mahami \- \-

sweet Potato \tamami \- \-

ralk \masusuu \- \-

*soft talk* \- \musu'musu \-

teeth \walit \- \-

they \kagudung \- \-

*them* \- \latou \laatu (Zapotec)

thigh \paa \- \-

thou \inuhu \- \-

thunder \dung-dung \- \-

toe \kagamua \- \-

toe-nail \kalunkung \- \-

tongue \dalila \- \-

tree \bukung \- \-

ugly \madidung \- \-

walk \madadarang \- \-

warm \madalat \- \-

water \dalum \vai \ja', ha', way (Mayan), mni, unu (Quechua)

west \tagalaua \- \-

when \timang-kokana \- \-

white \mapuli \- \-

wife \kigung \- \udali'i (Cherokee)

*husband-wife* \- \unali'I \-

woman \inina \tamai'ta'i, fafine, suna \gunaa (Zapotec), kuna (Guarani/Paraquay)

wood \kaiu \- \-

wood Knife \takaili \- \-

work \muuma \- \-

yellow \makutang \- \-

yes \haee \i'oe \-

1 \saaaat \- \-

2 \duha \lua \-

3 \turu \tolu \-

4 \tuhat \fa \-

5 \turima \lima \-

6 \tunum \ono \-

7 \pitu \fitu \-

8 \pipa \valu \-

9 \kuda \iva \-

10 \keteng \- \-


Source: "The Aborigines of Formoa", Vol. XIV No. 3.

Notes for Chapter 2 (Facts):


1. Public Broadcast Service's production by Liesl Clark: (a) "First Inhabitants", (b) "Ancient Navigation", and (c) "Wayfinders"
2. Douglas Wallace, a professor of genetics and molecular medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, is a proponent of the theory that people came to America from Southeast Asia across the Pacific. An article reported that Wallace and his team were "surprise ... that native Siberians lack one peculiar mutation that appeared in the Amerinds 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. This raises the question of where, if not from Siberia, this mtDNA originated." The article reported that the researchers suspect that "they either came across the Pacific to Central and South America or they went up the east coast of Asia and across the northern Pacific to Alaska and Canada."
3. (a) The article entitled "Transpacific Contacts: The Mapuche Connection" written by Jose Miguel Ramerez, archaeologist with the Rapa Nui National Park, suggested the possibility of Polynesians migrating into South America. There is, as I see it, a definite mixing of cultures around the world - the Pacific region is no exception. "Transpacific Contacts: The Mapuche Connection", Ramerez, Jose Miguel. 1990/91. from Rapa Nui Journal Vol. 4 No 4: 53-55, http://www.pvs.hawaii.org/rapanui/mapuche.html.
(b) (2007) Recent scientific findings involving chicken bone (alive 600 or 700 years ago) is making it more convincing that America-Polynesia contacts were made and traversing the huge ocean distances was well within the abilities of early mariners. This study will appear in proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Its lead author is New Zealand anthropologist Alice Storey.
4. http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_1.htm

DNA analysis on Native Americans

"Modern Genetic Research Confirming Cayce's Story. This section adapted from Mound Builders: Edgar Cayce's Forgotten Record of Ancient America by Gregory L. Little (August 2001).
4.a. “The first research on living Native American tribes showed they were comprised of four distinct mtDNA haplogroups called A, B, C, and D. This means that the Native Americans are derived from four different lineages. These haplogroups were also found in native populations in Central and South America. Other mtDNA research utilizing ancient remains recovered in the Americas validated these four haplogroups. Three of these haplogroups - A, C, and D are found primarily in Siberian Asia. The B haplogroup, however, is found only in aboriginal groups in Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Melanesia, and Polynesia.”
4.b. Confirming a South Pacific and Japanese Migration
“Based on the mutations found in the mtDNA, most researchers think that groups A, C, and D entered America from Siberia across Beringia sometime around 35,000 BC. Group B, they assert, probably came to America from the South Pacific or Japan via boats. It is believed the B groups began this migration not long after the A, C, and D groups arrived. However, the majority of the B group arrived about 11,000 BC. This leaves open the possibility of several migrations by the B group from different locations.

It should be noted that a few geneticists have proposed that each of these tour haplogroups came in four separate migrations. And many Clovis supporters argue that all the groups migrated together.”


4.c. The Significance of mtDNA Research
“The mtDNA research confirms most of the other new findings in archaeology. The Americas were settled early and many different racial groups came. Several different waves of migration probably occurred. The initial wave seems to have occurred around 35,000 BC. However, it may have been far earlier since some of the recent radiocarbon dates that have emerged from areas like California and the southwest point to 50,000 BC. But it must be kept in mind that mtDNA analysis is still in its infancy. Not all current Native American tribes and very few remains have been tested.”
5. Dr. Rebecca Cann: "Why is the B-lineage clade, a clade most common on the western coast of the Americas, not found in Beringia? Why does the B-lineage clade have lower sequence diversity and a different mismatch distribution than do the major A, C, and D clades (as well as others recently documented by T. Shurr and colleagues) in Amerindians? Why are other lineages, not just in the B group, found in Pacific and Amerindian population? Finally, how do we account for the prehistoric distribution of the sweet potato in Oceania (Yen 1974)?" [R.L Cunn and J.K. Lum, "Mitochondrial Myopia: Reply to Bonatto et al." (letter to the editor), American Journal Human Genetics, p. 258, 1996]
6. Christopher Austin, an evolutionary biologist from the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, has studied the mitochondrial DNA of the Lipinia noctua lizard, which lives alongside humans on Pacific islands ranging from Hawaii in the northeast to Easter and Pitcairn island in the southeast, and he says that his analysis supports the fast hypothesis - humans and lizards caught the "Polynesian express train".
7. Pacific Rat (Rattus exulans):

The BBC reporting on the rat DNA clues to sea migration

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3784759.stm
The rat mtDNA types fell into three haplogroups, or types: I, II and III. Haplogroup I is found primarily in South-East Asia. Haplogroup II was found in South-East Asia and a region known as Near Oceania. Haplogroup III is only found in an area known as Remote Oceania, comprising the islands of Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa. The researchers claim this result allows them to reject two well-known theories for the colonization of Polynesia, including the Express Train To Polynesia (ETP) theory and the Bismarck Archipelago Indigenous Inhabitants (BAII) theory. These two theories are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The ETP theory focuses on a rapid dispersal from Taiwan to Polynesia. The BAII proposes that there was no migration into Near Oceania, and that the Lapita culture arose from indigenous people in the area. Matisoo-Smith and Robins argue that the truth was somewhere in between. The absence of Haplogroup III rats from Near Oceania seems to preclude a progressive expansion from that area into Remote Oceania where Haplogroup III rats are common. Instead, the researchers claim, the seafarers who brought Haplogroup III rats to Remote Oceania did not come from nearby New Guinea or the Solomon Islands but from close to the Asian mainland, completely by-passing Near Oceania.(BBC News, Tuesday, 8 June, 2004)
Janet M. Wilmshurstl

Landcare Research, PO Box 69, Lincoln 8152, New Zealand,

wilmshurstj@landcareresearch.co.nz

http://intl-hol.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/14/6/801



Thomas F.G. Higham
Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, 6 Keble Road, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QJ, UK
“The Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) was transported throughout the south Pacific with voyaging humans. Thus, the earliest dated evidence of Pacific rat can be used to infer first human contact. Until recently, it was considered that rats arrived in New Zealand with humans in the thirteenth century AD. However, controversial radiocarbon dates on Pacific rat bones now suggest that rats reached the remote islands of New Zealand with people c. AD 50-150. These dates are anomalous because they imply human contact with New Zealand more than 1000 years before any archaeological evidence for human presence, and precede settlement of tropical eastern Polynesia, the ancestral homeland of Maori, the first New Zealanders. The early rat bone dates are controversial for other technical reasons, which have been debated in the literature. Here, distinctive rat-gnawed seed cases preserved in sediments are used as a proxy to independently date the arrival of the Pacific rat and humans in New Zealand. This method effectively bypasses the problems that have plagued rat bone dating and provides a reliable age for rat and human arrival. The oldest dates on rat-gnawed seed cases from widely separated sites are consistent with the Pacific rat arriving at the same time as the initial human settlement of New Zealand in the thirteenth century AD, and not before. The gnawed seed dates lend no support to the argument for an earlier introduction of rats. This dating approach offers a novel way of clarifying island colonization histories throughout Oceania.”
8. "Dr. Beauchamp once wrote: 'The Onandagas have not move over twenty miles in two hundred and fifty years, yet how much their tongue has changed in half that time! A migration to new and distant homes would have produced many new words, and then the language would have remained much the same for a time, waiting for other disturbing causes.' Clearly if any conditions could favor linguistic change it would be the complete isolation of an initially small band of people in an extensive and entirely new environment." (Brigham D. Madsen, "Studies of the Book of Mormon", University of Illinois Press, Chicago, 1985, pp.41-42)
9. Modern or western words that are added to the Samoan volcabary consist of "Samoanized" words such as "atomika" for atomic, "Samoan descriptive" words such as "ta’avale" (literally means rolling) for car, and to existing Samoan words such as “vai” for water.
10. "Lehi - Father of Polynesia", Bruce S. Sutton, Hawaiki Publishing, Orem, Utah, 2001
(b) Page 153: "Those who engage in Polynesian genealogy and recordkeeping, discover that the only records which antedate the arrival of Europeans in the Pacific which are available to the Polynesians today are the stories, genealogies and traditions which are preserved in the memories of the people. With the introduction of European records, traditions stories and legends are generally not accepted as sufficient proof for the establishment of a true record. However, in Polynesia, since memory and traditions are all that is available, as far as they seem reasonable and true, they should be accepted. The stories hand down by Polynesians from generations to generations may be classified into several groups: history, traditions, legends, folklores, and mythology. It is hard to determine at times, where true history ends and legends begin." (Sutton, p. 153)
(d) Page 171: "It has been the experience of many genealogists who search out European genealogies to discover that family traditions are, in most cases, unreliable. Therefore, family traditions are not acceptable as facts until research proves them to be otherwise. Family traditions often supply good clues for research, and often, they have some truth. A good genealogist examining European records authenticates every connection from reliable recorded source materials, and does not accept anything as true because it looks good or sounds possible. These standards cannot necessarily be applied to the Polynesian genealogies. There are no written records to search, except those in existence, which came about, only after literacy was introduced by the Christian missionaries. All knowledge was handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth." [This was done through very selected pupils.] (Sutton, p. 171)
11. American Indians in the Pacific, Thor Heyerdahl, 1952, p.429; "According to Hillebrand (1888,p.314) it seems that Seemann was first to record that sweet-potato was known as Cumar (Kumar) in Quechua-dialect of Eduador, whereas it was known in Polynesia as Kumara, with sundry dialectical variations. Seemann (1865-73, p.170) wrote himself that he found 'Cumar' in the Eduadorian highlands, an observation which he considered 'perhaps pointing to the country whence the South Sea Islanders originally obtained this esculent.'"
12. "Kon-Tiki", Rand McNally & Company, 1950, Thor Heyeradahl, p.185
13. "American Indians in the Pacific", Rand McNally & Company, 1952, Thor Heyeradahl, p.106
14. American Indians in the Pacific, Thor Heyerdahl, 1952, P. 133

"The only mean of boiling that was known in aboriginal Polynesia was dropping red-hot stones into water contained in a wooden tray or basket. This method was occasionally used for boiling arrow-root and similar plant products. (Ellis 1829, Vol I, p.49.) Referring to this rather unusual custom, Allen (1884) says: "Tylor also mentions, in his work on 'Primitive Culture', that the boilers (by heated stones placed in breakable baskets) inhabit the northern half of North America, extending far down on the western side; but not further than New England on the Eastern. This singular method of cooking is only known to exist in the northern corner of Asia, but is universal throughout Polynesia."


15. "The Lapita Peoples, Ancestors of the Oceanic World", Patrick Vinton Kirch, Blackwell Publishers, 1997. "The Island Melanesians", Matthew Spriggs, Blackwell Publishers, 1997
16. Steve Olson, Mapping Human History, Discovering the Past Through Our Genes, p.199: "Several sites in North and South America now strongly suggest that people were in the New World well before the appearance of Clovis points [14,000 years ago]. Near Charleston, South Carolina, ... Meadow craft rock shelter in western Pennsylvania,...near Richmond, Virginia,...and the strongest pre-Clovis evidence comes from a site known as Monte Verde in south-central Chile."
17. [http://www.reptilianagenda.com/research/r073101a.html]
18. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ssm/ssm10.htm]
19. Candi Sukuh

http://asiaforvisitors.com/indonesia/java/central/solo/sukah/index.html




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