The Philippines (and Chile) in Martínez de Zúñiga's 19th-Century Ideas about pre-Columbian trans-Pacific Contact

Abstract

ABSTRACT Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (1760–1818) was one of the earliest scholars to propose a trans-Pacific contact theory in his Historia de las Islas Philipinas. Although his 1803 publication contains the earliest-known theory establishing linguistic comparisons between the Mapuche language of Chile and Tagalog (the Philippines), his ideas and evidence have not been fully explored. This article argues that while Martínez de Zúñiga’s ideas were novel and set some scientific grounds for one of the most resilient debates in the history of archaeology, his evidence was scarce. Furthermore, his attribution as one of the earliest individuals to propose a trans-Pacific contact theory is arguably inaccurate, as similar ideas were pondered as early as the 16th century. This article investigates supporting and opposing ideas proposed by Martínez de Zúñiga and his contemporaries, which were either produced in Spanish and British colonies, or shaped by knowledge about them with a colonial bias. These scholars’ hypotheses were predominantly based on linguistic and anthropological grounds, on the direction of sea currents and winds, and on the numerous islands across the Pacific that could facilitate long-distance voyages. Similar ideas continue to feed into the pre-Columbian trans-Pacific contact debate today.