Identifying Contact with the Americas: A Commensal-Based Approach

Commensal models, which can be used to infer prehistoric human mobility, have been designed and applied to understand migration and interaction in the Pacific (Matisoo-Smith 1994, 1996). This chapter describes the elements of successful commensal models and examines how these models may pertain to finding evidence for prehistoric contact between Polynesia and the Americas. Selling out individual components will aid in the identification of new candidate organisms and the collection of data sets appropriate for testing hypotheses of contact between Polynesia and the Americas. In examining the development and utility of commensal models we will focus the bulk of our discussion on those plants, animals, and viruses that have either been identified as evidence for contact or have the potential to in the future. This chapter will serve to clarify the current state of knowledge regarding organisms with real potential for prehistoric transference between Polynesia and the Americas as well as providing the means by which others may be reasonably excluded.