User talk:Crasherbruce
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Precolumbian Chinese-Maya contact
[edit]Hi Crasherbruce, apologies for the delayed response, I've had barely any time free of late to check in on wikipedia.
FWIW, I would say the notion of Chinese or any other trans-oceanic influence on pre-Columbian Maya culture lacks any credible foundation or evidence, not to say plausibility. By contrast, a stack of reliable evidence from multiple disciplines instead supports the prevailing view that pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures are homegrown.
Even if there was anything at all to Menzies' claims, the 15thC would be more than 1500 years too late to have been able to influence Maya writing. The two systems hardly resemble one another, even if both contain ideograms their individual histories and development are well-enough understood to rule out any connection. There are no linguistic links between Mayan languages and any known language of Asia past or present. Menzies' book is rife with unsupported speculative claims and misuse of sources, not taken seriously by any Mesoamericanist researcher.
I don't recall a specific claim re "buddhist" statue in 1421, if it is in Menzies then it'd be treated sceptically like the rest of his 'evidence'. As for genetic studies, I am not aware of any accepted study whose results demonstrate there must have been some degree of pre-Columbian contact.
In any case it's hardly my opinion that matters, one may look around and readily find that published Mesoamericanists universally pay no heed to Menzies' claims. Regards --cjllw ʘ TALK 01:55, 16 August 2010 (UTC)