The Zuni Enigma: A Native American People's Possible Japanese Connection [Paperback]

Nancy Yaw Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2001

"A stunning and carefully supported argument that should stir useful discussion.... [An] exciting, groundbreaking work."—Booklist

Did a group of thirteenth-century Japanese merge with the people, language, and religion of the Zuni tribe? For many years, anthropologists have understood the Zuni in the American Southwest to occupy a special place in Native American culture and ethnography. Their language, religion, and blood type are startlingly different from all other tribes. Most puzzling, the Zuni appear to have much in common with the people of Japan. In a book with groundbreaking implications, Dr. Nancy Yaw Davis examines the evidence underscoring the Zuni enigma and suggests the circumstances that may have led Japanese on a religious quest—searching for the legendary "middle world" of Buddhism—across the Pacific to the American Southwest more than seven hundred years ago. 72 black and white illustrations and 17 maps

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The peaceful Zuni of New Mexico and Arizona are much studied, partly because their language, culture and physical appearance set them apart from other Native American peoples. Davis, an anthropologist who has made 10 visits to the Zuni pueblo, now offers the startling thesis that a group of Japanese Buddhists left earthquake-wracked medieval Japan and came by ship to the Southern California coast, eventually migrating inland to the Zuni territory, where they merged their culture and genes with Native Americans to produce the modern Zuni people around A.D. 1350. Davis uses "forensic" evidence--including analyses of dental morphology, blood and skeletal remains--to support a Japanese-Zuni connection. Further, she notes the Zuni's exceptionally high incidence of a specific kidney disease that is also unusually common in Japan. Yet she acknowledges there have been no DNA studies to confirm or refute her hypothesis, and she has not turned up a single 13th-century Japanese item in North America. Her bold, highly speculative theory gets a boost from some cultural parallels, including striking similarities between the Zuni and Japanese languages; between the Zuni "sacred rosette" found on robes and pottery and the Japanese Buddhist chrysanthemum symbol (presently Japan's imperial crest). A Zuni mid-January ceremony with masked monsters, aimed at frightening children into proper behavior, is almost identical to one in Japan. Davis's broader thesis that the Pacific was a "liquid highway" mounts a serious challenge to the entrenched idea of the peopling of the Americas solely via the Bering Strait land bridge. Open-minded readers will enjoy her beautifully written book as an opportunity to ponder our shared humanity. Illus.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Davis, an independent anthropological researcher with a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, has developed a bold and unorthodox theory to account for some of the cultural, linguistic, and religious characteristics that set the Zuni people apart from other Pueblo Indian groups. Davis hypothesizes that a small group of Japanese men, possibly on a religious pilgrimage to find the "middle-world" of Buddhism, may have sailed to North America in the late 13th century and then traveled eastward. Eventually, she posits, they may have settled in the area of present-day western New Mexico, intermingling their customs and religious practices with those of the local Native Americans. Davis's theory is well thought out and provides intricate comparisons among many Japanese and Zuni cultural characteristics. Her work is an engaging and persuasive presentation of an alternative migration theory that perhaps deserves more serious consideration by anthropological scholars. Recommended for academic libraries.
-Elizabeth Anne Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393322300
• ISBN-13: 978-0393322309
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,259,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting theory for an open mind, December 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Zuni Enigma: A Native American People's Possible Japanese Connection (Paperback)

I disagree with my fellow Zunis that the contents of the book couldn't have been possible or suggest discrediting it. The fact that the book is titled "Zuni Enigma" is correct in the true sense of the word enigma. It raises many more questions than can be answered and the author states this intention up front. She makes the plea that all these questions require further study. Whether you call it a theory or a hypothesis, it is to her credit that she recognized something that no one else had and now it is up to the experts in their respective fields to confirm or disprove her theory. As she mentioned, it took her over 40 years of gathering evidence and consulting before she wrote the book. I don't think anyone could accuse her of rushing to get the book out.
I can see how someone can be threatened by the mere mention of a connection to another culture such as the Japanese. Maybe it is a reaction to typical anthropological ideas where a Native American culture couldn't possibly have original or distinct ideas. This may be one reason that the typical Zuni would jump to conclusions about the author's intentions. I heard the radio talk show in Albuquerque, NM when the author was interviewed along with our governor and councilman. I felt ashamed as a Zuni how close minded and rude they were to Nancy Yaw Davis. She was very cordial to them and didn't get upset despite their behavior. She kept repeating that the material needed further study.
It seemed to me that the councilman only saw what he wanted to see and took several comparisons to words out of context. He seemed offended and thought that the book was about the Zuni's coming from Japan. It was a very uncharacteristically Zuni reaction. It is a part of our culture to treat everyone with respect and not to "hurt another's heart" whoever they might be.
The one aspect of the language that we might never know is the actual pronunciation of "old Zuni" words. Since Zuni is not a written language, it has changed throughout the years and some of the proposed identical words might have been more so in antiquity. One observation that stood out for me was the word "hai!" when listening to one another, to signify "I hear you, I understand, go on." As anyone who might have seen the "Shogun" series on TV, that was a Japanese response with the same meaning. The word might not be used with the younger people, but I remember hearing it a lot as I was growing up. The Zuni language is like no other surrounding Pueblo language or like any other in the world. I found the following observations compelling for this reason. Basic Zuni and Japanese syntax are both subject-object-verb. Both languages primarily alter words with suffixes, not with prefixes or internally. Japanese and Zuni employ 22 phonemes, and 17 are the same. All the vowels and 12 out of 16 consonants are identical.
I agree with the author about the uniqueness of our Zuni people and the rich heritage we still possess. I would recommend the book more for the respectful and appreciative explanation of our society in the first few chapters. I don't fully agree with the physical theories she introduces without the forensic investigations that can be conducted with modern technologies. If any contact was made in antiquity with the Japanese, both cultures might have benefited and contributed equally.
Again, the evidence shown in the book wasn't meant to be conclusive. It was meant to present a hypothesis that required further study. The only outright mistake I found was "Halona Itiwanna" being referred to as the middle place. Halona is across the river from the current location of Itiwanna. Halowa means to dream or make a mistake. Therefore, "Halona Itiwanna" means mistaken middle place. The true middle place is just called "Itiwanna."
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like anyone has continued with her work. I hope to travel to Japan someday and see for myself.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really fascinating read, June 1, 2000

By 

"mlb26" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zuni Enigma : A Native American People's Possible Japanese Connection (Hardcover)

What a great book. Facts are presented very clearly and in detail. If you're interested in either Japanese or Native American history this is worth the price of the hardcover. Is the author's thesis correct? Well, that's hard to say for sure but she poses very credible arguments and definately leaves the reader with a lot of fascinating possibilities on the origin of Zuni culture. The book is not necessarily light reading but it is a fairly easy read just because the subject matter is so well-presented. You can tell this was a real labor of love for the author. A must for any anthropology student!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Japanese/Zuni origins, September 16, 2003

By 

Jack Purcell (Placitas, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zuni Enigma : A Native American People's Possible Japanese Connection (Hardcover)

I believe the premise Ms. Davis puts forward stands a good possibility of being proven someday. Unfortunately, this book doesn't prove it. Only after reading the book several times did I become convinced there's probably some solid fact behind the Zuni origin she proposes.
One of the problems with the book in my view is the temptation Ms. Davis indulges to become an apologist for the Native American past. This leads her into directions she needn't have followed with time better spent supporting her own premises. Her attempts to find unlikely possibilities to explain evidence of NA cannibalism are one example. The fact is we humans have such things in our history. All of us. There's no reason, nor any excuse for attempting to mitigate such facts, nor to apologize for them.
The Zunis are a strange people. I've read some of the other reviews suggesting Zunis look the 'same as other Indians in the southwest', which I'd disagree with. The various tribes, including Zunis don't look the same as one another. People who live in this area can usually tell a Zuni or a Navajo (or Acoma, Laguna, Mescalero) from one another from a distance. To suggest the tribes look alike is probably a matter most southwesterners would find objectionable. I'd say Zunis look more like Japanese than, say, Mescaleros do, or than Navajos do.
In any case I think the Davis book is worth reading because of the interesting premise. I wish she'd had the time to pursue the matter further than she did.