What can the sweet potato tell us about our ancestors' worldviews?
Tags: Interbeing, Worldview, Connection, Privilege, Imperialism

What can the sweet potato tell us about our ancestors' worldviews?

I started jotting these notes down in May 2020. I came to revisit it this December.

This is an invitation to read the following article and then find the patterns and connect the subtle dots of the past, present and future:

Polynesian Seafarers ‘Discovered’ America Long Before Europeans, Says DNA Study, By Bryan Nelson, Updated May 12, 2020

John Webber, —1793, Wikipedia

Take a moment and consider our worldviews… our ancestors’ worldviews. And allow them to tell us things about ourselves.

While reading the Treehugger post on Polynesian seafarers, I find it interesting what the history of the sweet potato tells us about the dynamics between our ancestors who crossed the oceans and seas and the difference in their worldviews.

I have Filipino, Chinese and European ancestors. I now live on colonized lands of the Americas.

Who were our ancestors? What were their worldviews?

The worldview of my Filipino ancestors is one of deep interconnection (interbeing — kapwa, interbeingness—pakikipagkapwa) with Nature and the Earth and of peaceful multicultural exchange with those different from them. Filipinos live on an archipelago in the Pacific. They live in Asia.

My ancestors are Asian and Pacific Islanders. My ancestors interacted and are related with Polynesians.

My Spanish ancestor came from Europe, crossed the Atlantic, crossed America, and then came via the Spanish galleons that crossed the Pacific coming to the archipelago renamed “the Philippines. The worldview of my colonizer Spanish ancestor and his people was of hierarchy, separation, ownership, dominion, survival of the strongest, imperialistic and of privilege by race.

My Chinese ancestor came to the Philippines as a merchant…

So when I read the article about the sweet potato I considered a lot of things.

After reading about the sweet potato DNA evidence (Polynesians have grown sweet potatoes far back as 2500 years) it occurred to me that:

The relationship between ancient Pacific Islanders and the ancient Americans was of multicultural exchange.

Polynesians “discovered” when they made early contact with the natives and lands of America (not called “American” back then 🤔).

The Polynesians made long voyages over the Pacific Ocean, and landed in this “new-found land” to gather supples—food and water… to make peace with the people of the land, not conquer them and take their land.

As ocean voyagers, Polynesians came to make exchange — fresh water, food, livestock, and very likely human relationships. They didn’t come to conquer new lands.

The dynamic between European colonizers and the Americas’ land and people is dynamic is totally different.

Almost 500 years ago the Europeans “discovered” land west of the Atlantic ocean and Euro-centric American history began — they renamed the lands “the Americas” and instead of multicultural exchange they established dominion and imperial conquest.

Western-centric modernization, consumerism and capitalization of resources and land are today called progress. The genocide, aggression and destruction inflicted by European and Western colonizers are dark history, uncomfortable topics of conversations among academics and ordinary people.

(China is a colonizer today… I have Chinese blood too)