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Evidences Of Culture Contacts Between Polynesia And The Americas In Precolumbian Times, John L. Sorenson Sr.

Theses and Dissertations

Of the great unsettled problems of archaeology and anthropology perhaps the most hotly debated has been the relative importance of migration, diffusion, and independent invention in the origin of culture elements. The question has obvious importance, both for a proper understanding of man and culture, that ambitiously comprehensive goal of modern anthropology, and for historical reconstruction, the latter a necessary preliminary of the former.

The concern of this thesis is with culture movement in the eastern Pacific Ocean area. The Pacific area as a whole has long been the geographical center of the diffusion problem (if we may so term …