So what's the current state of the discussion?
Did the Polynesians immigrate from South America? I imagine that this puzzle might have been solved now through DNA analysis.
shareHere is a little reference from Wikipedia:
"Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins never gained acceptance among anthropologists.[11] Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from southeast Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia.[12] Easter Islanders are of Polynesian descent.[13][14]
Anthropologist Robert Carl Suggs included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his book on Polynesia, concluding that "The Kon-Tiki theory is about as plausible as the tales of Atlantis, Mu, and 'Children of the Sun.' Like most such theories it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."[15]"
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl#section_3
I have also read other places, that his theory was dismissed on many occasions, but he is still honored due to his engagement and hard work.
AFAIK, nobody's managed to explain the South American pineapples, the South American sweet potatoes, and the South American sixteen chromosome cotton.
I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.
- Jon Stewart
If people could sail Eastwards, they probably managed to sail or drift in the other direction aswell...
Yep. Either Polynesians in South America or South Americans in Polynesia.
I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.
- Jon Stewart
And, well... that strong current that, once caught, aims sailboats straight toward Polynesia... and the pineapples, yams, South American cotton, etc., as others here have mentioned.
shareMore of Thor's research, from wiki:
"The Search for Odin" in Azerbaijan and Russia
Heyerdahl made four visits to Azerbaijan in 1981,[39] 1994, 1999 and 2000.[40] Heyerdahl had long been fascinated with the rock carvings that date back to about 8th-7th millennia BCE at Gobustan (about 30 miles west of Baku). He was convinced that their artistic style closely resembles the carvings found in his native Norway. The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle-shaped line, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.
Based on this and other published documentation, Heyerdahl proposed that Azerbaijan was the site of an ancient advanced civilization. He believed that natives migrated north through waterways to present-day Scandinavia using ingeniously constructed vessels made of skins that could be folded like cloth. When voyagers traveled upstream, they conveniently folded their skin boats and transported them via pack animals.
On Heyerdahl's visit to Baku in 1999, he lectured at the Academy of Sciences about the history of ancient Nordic Kings. He spoke of a notation made by Snorri Sturluson, a 13th-century historian-mythographer in Ynglinga Saga, which relates that "Odin (a Scandinavian god who was one of the kings) came to the North with his people from a country called Aser."[41] (see also House of Ynglings and Mythological kings of Sweden). Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward through Saxony, to Fyn in Denmark, and eventually settling in Sweden. Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan - "east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea". "We are no longer talking about mythology," Heyerdahl said, "but of the realities of geography and history. Azerbaijanis should be proud of their ancient culture. It is just as rich and ancient as that of China and Mesopotamia."
In September 2000, Heyerdahl returned to Baku for the fourth time and visited the archeological dig in the area of the church of Kish.[42]
One of the last projects of his life, Jakten på Odin, 'The Search for Odin', was a sudden revision of his Odin hypothesis, in furtherance of which he initiated 2001–2002 excavations in Azov, Russia, near the Sea of Azov at the northeast of the Black Sea.[43] He searched for the remains of a civilization to match the account of Odin in Snorri Sturlusson, quite a bit north of his original target of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea only two years earlier. This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudo-science from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.[44][45]
His central claims were based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and geographic names in the Black Sea region, e.g. Azov and Æsir, Udi and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwelt there. The controversy surrounding the Search for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and the academic community.