CA-STAR FORUM ON ANTHROPOLOGY IN PUBLIC - ROBBING NATIVE-AMERICAN CULTURES - VAN-SERTIMA AFROCENTRICITY AND THE OLMECS

In 1976, Ivan Van Sertima proposed that New World civilizations were s trongly influenced by diffusion from Africa. The first and most import ant contact, he argued, was between Nubians and Olmecs in 700 B.C., an d it was followed by other contacts from Mall in A.D. 1300. This theor y has spread widely in the African-American community, both lay and sc holarly, but it has never been evaluated at length by Mesoamericanists . This article shows the proposal to be devoid of any foundation. Firs t, no genuine African artifact has ever been found in a controlled arc haeological excavation in the New World. The presence of African-origi n plants such as the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) or of African genes in New World cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) shows that there was co ntact between the Old World and the New, but this contact occurred too long ago to have involved any human agency and is irrelevant to Egypt ian-Olmec contact. The colossal Olmec heads, which resemble a stereoty pical ''Negroid,'' were carved hundreds of years before the arrival of the presumed models. Additionally, Nubians, who come from a desert en vironment and have long, high noses, do not resemble their supposed '' portraits.'' Claims for the diffusion of pyramid building and mummific ation are also fallacious.