they came before columbus by ivan van sertima

But there is no question that it will enrich the study of a wide range of subjects, from archaeology to anthropology, and result in profound changes in the reordering of historical priorities and pedagogy. This book is likely to engender disputes and disagreements. But, whatever the character of the interaction, its very existence merits awareness. Van Sertima contends that such relationships can be unpleasant as well as pleasant, conflictual as well as consensual. The borrowing of artifacts and ideas does not mean that the outsider is superior to the native, or that indigenous cultures are insignificant. It is also the study of how two peoples and cultures can lead to cross-fertilization. They serve as a basis to examine anew the study of culture contacts between civilizations, and in so doing, offer a serious base to a multifaceted re-examination of earlier hypotheses of influences in both directions.Įarly America Revisited provides anthropological evidence about the physical presence of Africans in pre-Columbian America. The impact of these early discoveries is of far more than historical interest. He marshals literary and pictorial evidence and shows its authenticity to be beyond question. Van Sertima's critical cutting edge is that there is an anthropological and ethnographic dimension to the process of discovery, one in which black Africans of non-European origins played a central role. At the same time, the work in no way denies the importance of the Columbus voyages for opening up the New World to Europe, and hence changing the economic and political map of the world for all time. The book makes a carefully balanced case for an African presence in America before Columbus' voyages. Early America Revisited is a vigorous defense and amplification of Ivan Van Sertima's classic work, They Came Before Columbus.

They came before columbus by ivan van sertima