[Sca-cooks] 1421

[Johnna Holloway]

There's a book that I came across in reviews ---
The Zuni Enigma by Nancy Yaw  Davis that
speculates that
"a group of Japanese Buddhists left earthquake-wracked medieval Japan 
and came by ship to the Southern California coast, eventually migrating 
inland to the Zuni territory, where they merged their culture and genes 
with Native Americans to produce the modern Zuni people around A.D. 
1350. Davis uses "forensic" evidence--including analyses of dental 
morphology, blood and skeletal remains--to support a Japanese-Zuni 
connection. Further, she notes the Zuni's exceptionally high incidence 
of a specific kidney disease that is also unusually common in Japan. Yet 
she acknowledges there have been no DNA studies to confirm or refute her 
hypothesis, and she has not turned up a single 13th-century Japanese 
item in North America."

This is from the material on Amazon.com so people may turn there for the 
rest of it.

Johnnae

Terry Decker wrote:

> I read a paper a couple of years ago about parallel pottery designs 
> between a fishing village on the Japanese coast and a small area in 
> Mexico (IIRC). Because of the limited scope of the designs, the 
> locations, and some other evidence, the author made a solid case for 
> accidental transfer by shipwrecked Japanese fishermen.  It's probably 
> unprovable, but it is possible and probable.
>
> Bear
>
>