ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at boat technology and at evidence, some beyond doubt and much controversial, for intersocietal contacts before the European Age of Exploration and colonization. It believes that the model of intermittent contacts best explains the cited features of indigenous American cultures. The word "diffusion" comes from the Latin fundere, to pour, and means to spread out, as in pouring out, or to intermingle. Diffusion may result from the introduction of a style, symbol, or technology, but not inevitably the introduced trait could become limited to just a few people, or never accepted. Students wanting to study transoceanic diffusion are told by their professors to simply avoid dealing with any proponents of pre-Columbian ocean crossings. Independent invention of similar cultural traits is actually very hard to prove, while intersocietal contacts can be demonstrated historically to be frequent sources of cultural change.
