Austronesians
in South America
nPolynesian
contact with South America has long been the
subject of speculation (Heyerdahl etc.) but model was
confused, having Amerindians voyaging in the Pacific,
despite their known lack of
ocean-going craft
nProbably
the crack in scholarly scepticism was the clear evidence
that the sweet potato reached Eastern Polynesian, under its
Peruvian name, kumara, in pre-Spanish
time.
nSince
then, a considerable amount of other evidence has
turned up, notably in human genetics where the presence
of the 9 base pair deletion on the
West Coast of South America points to Polynesian presence