Although the debate among scholars is still ongoing, some genetic, botanical and linguistic clues seem to suggest that around 1200 AD. C., some groups of Polynesians arrived on the Pacific coasts of South America, giving rise to short-lived mixed communities, and bringing with them plant species. In recent years, more and more elements seem to be confirming that before the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, but after the Norsemen around the year 1000, it was the populations of navigators from the Pacific Ocean who visited this continent.
Who were the Polynesians
The term “Polynesians” refers to those native peoples of the numerous archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean (the so-called “Polynesian Triangle” which includes the islands between New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island) and who speak languages belonging to the Polynesian family. They descend from the Austronesian populations, a group of peoples who originated in southern China or Taiwan, and who spread throughout the western Pacific and Indian Ocean between 3000 and 1000 BC. C.
In a very long period of time that goes from around 1500 BC. C. to 1200 AD. C., these people of highly skilled navigators colonized the islands of the Pacific one after another, aboard simple but sophisticated boats, traveling thanks to a profound knowledge of sea currents and the stars.
In itself, their colonization would qualify them as the most skilled navigators in history, capable of navigating between islands thousands of kilometers apart. Today the best-known Polynesian peoples are the Maori of New Zealand, the Tahitians in French Polynesia, and the Hawaiians in the United States.
Until a few years ago it was believed that the easternmost point ever reached by Polynesian colonization in the Pacific was Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world, today belonging to Chile, where the Polynesians, probably coming from the Pitcairn Islands (now part of the United Kingdom) more than 2000 km away, arrived between 1000 and 1200 AD. C. Easter Island is about 3000 km from the coast of Chile, and some elements seem to suggest that some Polynesian groups arrived on the coast of South America starting from here, between the 12th and 13th centuries. This is approximately two centuries after the arrival of the Norse in Canada and three centuries before the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean.
Evidence of the landing in America: the sweet potato and turmeric
When British and French colonizers began to settle the islands of Polynesia during the 18th and 19th centuries, they discovered that the native populations knew and cultivated the sweet potato (Ipomea batatas), a plant native to the Americas. Genetic studies on these plants cultivated in the Polynesian islands have shown that there are two different species: one introduced by Europeans in recent times, and a much older one, whose presence has been attested in the Cook Islands (New Zealand territory) since at least 1000 AD. C.
Although it cannot be ruled out that some sweet potato seeds were transported across the Pacific by sea currents, it is more likely that the cultivation of this plant by the Polynesians even before the arrival of the Europeans was due to its importation from South America to the islands of Polynesia. Even the linguistic data would seem to suggest this: in Rapanui, the Polynesian language of Easter Island, sweet potato is called “kumara”, while in Maori, the native language of New Zealand, it is called “kūmara”. This suggests that the origin of the term is a reconstructed proto-Polynesian form, kumalaspread very early among the Polynesian peoples, before their languages differentiated (also because New Zealand and Easter Island are located at the two extremes of Polynesia). Interestingly, this linguistic stability is unusual in loanwords, that is, in words taken from other languages. In some dialects of Quechua, the native language of Peru, the sweet potato is called “comal”, “k’umar” or “k’umara”
If the Polynesians imported the sweet potato from the Americas, it would also seem that they left them a plant species of Asian origin. During their colonization of the Pacific, the Austronesians and their Polynesian descendants spread the cultivation of turmeric (Curcuma longa), native to south-eastern Asia. This plant was cultivated and used by the Amahuaca tribe, originating from an area of the Amazon now on the border between Brazil and Peru and unknown until the 18th century.
Genetic studies supporting Polynesian colonization
A 2020 genetic study focused on the DNA of some inhabitants of islands now belonging to French Polynesia. The result demonstrated that these modern populations have a certain level of genetic affinity with a Native American tribe from the Pacific coast of present-day Colombia. This would suggest contact and genetic exchange between the two populations dating back to between the 12th and 14th centuries, implying that some Polynesian groups who arrived in the Americas had children of mixed descent, who subsequently returned to the Pacific islands. Some native groups in South America, even in the Amazon, also have part of their genetic heritage of Polynesian origin. In addition to this very interesting fact, another genetic study on the native Easter Island population would see an average of 10% Native American DNA.
Scholars who deal with the topic tend to identify the Polynesian community of Easter Island, famous for the construction of the well-known Moai, as a mixed community, which was probably characterized by some elements coming from the Americas. Although it cannot be ruled out a priori that Native Americans settled on Easter Island, mixing with the Polynesians, it seems more probable and likely that the American DNA present among the inhabitants of the island was introduced by mixed communities returning from the coasts of South America after a few generations.
Although there were probably contacts between the peoples of South America and the Polynesians, these were never massive migrations, but rather sporadic contacts, the result of the great expansion of these very skilled navigators, who over the course of centuries managed to set foot on practically all the emerged lands of the largest ocean in the world.
