8.2 Chinese Contact with America
133
Though there is a considerable body of academic literature favouring Chinese
transoceanic contact with America, as we have commented, there also seems to be
an unbridgeable gulf in America between diffusionists and anti-diffusionists. While
anti-diffusionists argue for independent evolution of the major American civilizations, diffusionists argue that through repeated Chinese contact with America over
an extended period of time, Chinese technologies, cultural motifs and artistic styles
had a major shaping effect on the evolution of the high cultures of Mesoamerica,
Peru and Ecuador. Because this contact is inferred, that is, it is based on scholars’
perceptions of Chinese cultural and technological influence, it is challenged by antidiffusionists as being less than adequately robust. And yet, as Jett shows, much of
the evidence that has been gathered in favour of repeated Chinese contact and of
persistent cultural and artistic influence is clearly dated, specific and striking.
Jett attributes the first significant Chinese contact with America to the Shang
dynasty and compares it with the Olmec:
the first Bronze Age civilization in the Yellow River valley in northern China, developed
upon a Lungshan Neolithic base during the eighteenth century BC or earlier. It was a hierarchical civilization with a capital and administrative and religious centers whose buildings
were often built on earth platforms with a north-south orientation. The Shang possessed
ideographic writing, produced richly decorated ritual bronze vessels, knew gold and silver,
valued jade, and buried their elite with retainers and grave furniture in subterranean tombs.
They practiced water control, had long-distance trade networks, made war with chariots,
and controlled a large area.
On the Gulf of Mexico, in Veracruz and Tabasco, lay the heartland of what has been called
America’s first civilization, the Olmec. It possessed a hierarchy of leaders, constructed
complex north-south-oriented ceremonial centers on artificial earth platforms, erected large
earthen mounds, produced monumental stone sculptures and superb lapidary work in jade
and other stones, practiced water control, had long-distance trade and widespread influence,
and apparently used systems of enumeration and ideographic writing. Its calibrated dates
are about 1450–650 BC (p. 607).
Summarizing a considerable diffusionist literature linking Shang and Olmec, Jett
draws attention, for example, to a shared feline cult:
Much has been made of a “feline cult” in comparing archaic China (tiger) with Olmec and
later Mesoamerica (jaguar). Emphasis on animals of such power and hunting prowess is
not surprising, but certain specific shared aspects of feline representation, such as frequent
absence of a lower jaw, are more arbitrary. Meggers (1975; 14, 17) points out that felines
appear to have been earth gods in both regions. Additional themes common to the Shang and
the Olmec are felines protecting (devouring?) children. . .which is a variant of the alter-ego
motif, and monster-mask headgear. . .Birds or bird monsters are iconographically significant
in both areas. The plumed (?) or winged serpent (Quetzalcoatl) and the four-legged fire
serpent are said by Coe to have been two of the principal Olmec deities, and serpents and
dragons are abundantly depicted in Shang China. Other similarities have been pointed out,
but perhaps the ones most deserving of detailed examination here are those relating to the
use of green stones, particularly jade (pp. 607–608).
Jett notes that, while on the whole Shang and Olmec jade objects are quite
distinct, common to both areas
are rounded jade celts, often interred with corpses. Celts sometimes carried faces engraved
or painted in red. In China, ritual objects such as slender yuan kuei seem to have evolved
133
Though there is a considerable body of academic literature favouring Chinese
transoceanic contact with America, as we have commented, there also seems to be
an unbridgeable gulf in America between diffusionists and anti-diffusionists. While
anti-diffusionists argue for independent evolution of the major American civilizations, diffusionists argue that through repeated Chinese contact with America over
an extended period of time, Chinese technologies, cultural motifs and artistic styles
had a major shaping effect on the evolution of the high cultures of Mesoamerica,
Peru and Ecuador. Because this contact is inferred, that is, it is based on scholars’
perceptions of Chinese cultural and technological influence, it is challenged by antidiffusionists as being less than adequately robust. And yet, as Jett shows, much of
the evidence that has been gathered in favour of repeated Chinese contact and of
persistent cultural and artistic influence is clearly dated, specific and striking.
Jett attributes the first significant Chinese contact with America to the Shang
dynasty and compares it with the Olmec:
the first Bronze Age civilization in the Yellow River valley in northern China, developed
upon a Lungshan Neolithic base during the eighteenth century BC or earlier. It was a hierarchical civilization with a capital and administrative and religious centers whose buildings
were often built on earth platforms with a north-south orientation. The Shang possessed
ideographic writing, produced richly decorated ritual bronze vessels, knew gold and silver,
valued jade, and buried their elite with retainers and grave furniture in subterranean tombs.
They practiced water control, had long-distance trade networks, made war with chariots,
and controlled a large area.
On the Gulf of Mexico, in Veracruz and Tabasco, lay the heartland of what has been called
America’s first civilization, the Olmec. It possessed a hierarchy of leaders, constructed
complex north-south-oriented ceremonial centers on artificial earth platforms, erected large
earthen mounds, produced monumental stone sculptures and superb lapidary work in jade
and other stones, practiced water control, had long-distance trade and widespread influence,
and apparently used systems of enumeration and ideographic writing. Its calibrated dates
are about 1450–650 BC (p. 607).
Summarizing a considerable diffusionist literature linking Shang and Olmec, Jett
draws attention, for example, to a shared feline cult:
Much has been made of a “feline cult” in comparing archaic China (tiger) with Olmec and
later Mesoamerica (jaguar). Emphasis on animals of such power and hunting prowess is
not surprising, but certain specific shared aspects of feline representation, such as frequent
absence of a lower jaw, are more arbitrary. Meggers (1975; 14, 17) points out that felines
appear to have been earth gods in both regions. Additional themes common to the Shang and
the Olmec are felines protecting (devouring?) children. . .which is a variant of the alter-ego
motif, and monster-mask headgear. . .Birds or bird monsters are iconographically significant
in both areas. The plumed (?) or winged serpent (Quetzalcoatl) and the four-legged fire
serpent are said by Coe to have been two of the principal Olmec deities, and serpents and
dragons are abundantly depicted in Shang China. Other similarities have been pointed out,
but perhaps the ones most deserving of detailed examination here are those relating to the
use of green stones, particularly jade (pp. 607–608).
Jett notes that, while on the whole Shang and Olmec jade objects are quite
distinct, common to both areas
are rounded jade celts, often interred with corpses. Celts sometimes carried faces engraved
or painted in red. In China, ritual objects such as slender yuan kuei seem to have evolved