Reddit mentions of 1421 : THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED THE WORLD

Very cool. That said, you all might find this interesting.

Quit saying that the Chinese discovered North America. One guy (a retired submarine captain, not a historian) wrote a book about it and almost every historian out there disagrees.

Yes, it was a silly thing to say. Genetic drift could happen very rapidly in an isolated environment (especially with something like facial features).

On the other side of the argument though, I see little to no reason to assume the Moriori were Maori, unless you first assume that humans only ever made it here five times, and left again/died out thrice.

5 times seems like a bold statement, for clarification:

1. 50,000+ YA some dude got volcanoed while cutting down a tree
   
2. 2,000 YA rats made it here
   
3. 750 YA the waka came in a series of migrations
   
4. In 1421: the year China discovered the world China definitely made it here, and definitely left again. (There is undeniable evidence of a meteor strike off the the southern coast of Stewart Island circa 1420, the same as described in the book)
   
5. Good old Cap'n Cook
   
   My comments about the celts and the south americans would be discoveries 1.1 and 2.1 on this list respectively, with the theory of 'Maui the Egyptian being comissioned by the Romans to circumnavigate the world' coinciding with discovery 2). I chose to disclude them from this list due to it being rather controversial.
   
   Edit: lots of edits to all my comments in this thread, I swear I'm sane guys! :p
   
   Most importantly though, it's not just the Maori that are rich with cultural transmission, we were just among the first to have reasonable proof of it. The old 'once out of africa in a straight line' theory is finally being ripped to shreds, I'm sure we'll get plenty more evidence of transmission before we cark it.

I don't know if you guys have been keeping up with modern history, but the chinese did sail east in starting in 1421. The discovered and mapped Australia, the west coast of the americas, the southern tip of south america, as well as the east coast of the americas. There is substantial evidence that they briefly settled as well, they just didn't want to stay. A decent introduction to this topic is found in https://www.amazon.ca/1421-Year-China-Discovered-World/dp/0553815229, and there is wealth of research going backfifty years or so supporting his hypothesis.