Mystery: Who Brought Beans to the Lenape and Mahicans in the 1300s? [View all]

[GreatGazoo]

Many have heard of "Three Sisters" plantings, the technique which thwarted deer by planting corn, beans and squash together. The Lenape made the ground into a series of mounds and planted the 3 crops together with fish guts (a source of nitrogen) in the center of each mound. Squash leaves are enormous so as the vines spread, the leaves obscured the dappled ground. Deer are instinctually fearful of any potential injuries to their legs and hooves so they will not step on ground which they cannot see. Thus the squash leaves and uneven ground deter them.

But recently it has become better known that beans were not part of these plantings before the 1300s. And this is where it gets interesting.

Beans are known by very similar names in languages around the world -- fasule (Albanian), fazole (czech), fasgiolu (corsican), faba (latin), fasulye (turkish), etc. And they ship exceedingly well once dried. Like corn, beans can be planted or eaten, and drying them makes them unpalatable to many insects and rodents. They were so commonly used as a form of money that to this day we call accountants "bean counters." For some period of time they may have been the most widely traded commodity on earth.

So it looks like someone brought them across the Atlantic in the 1300s. And the most likely suspects are the Mali and the French.

The French

Contrary to CW, the French were fishing along the coast of modern Maine in the 1300s. Many of them were either stranded or "went native" to join a people that call themselves the Mi-kmaq which is pigeon French for "this and that." European scholars date the first contact between these people and the French to 1520 but indigenous experts place it earlier because they are not bound by the Colombus-first maxims. From at least the voyages of Erik the Red onward, Europeans had secret fishing spots and secret maps. One researcher (Charles Mann IIRC) aptly observed "Columbus was not the first but rather the last to discover the Americas" meaning that Colombus was the one who made public maps and let the secret out.

The Mali

The Mali (or any other North African culture that had access to Islamic navigation aids and mathematics) are an even more controversial possibility. Europeans, again, dismiss these theories outright and insist that Verrazzano did not see what he reported in the area of modern Massachusetts in July of 1524:

We were able to see a large number of people, who had apparently come down to observe our approach, but they fled as soon as we arrived at the shores. We tried to reassure them with all manner of friendly gesture. A few of the braver finally came forth, and expressed great joy at seeing us. They expressed amazement at our way of dressing, our appearance and the colour of our skin... The men and women are dark-skinned, not unlike Ethiopians, and have thick, black hair which they tie behind their necks. They are well-built, and of medium to above-average height when compared to us. They have broad chests and strong arms and legs, and on the whole, are very well proportioned. Their eyes are large and black, and have a quick and watchful look to them. Though they do not seem extraordinarily strong, they are swift and resistant runners.

The Columbus-first gang insists that these were just dark skinned indians, not Africans, but Verrazzano is specific. He is not talking about a people who tend toward medium tones and may have darkened further by the abundant (?) sunshine of Massachusetts. He says "Ethiopian" and he details their features. We now know that the overwhelming majority of people in the Americas before 1492 descended from four distinct genetic groups -- Korean, Polynesian, Japanese and Central Asian. None of those peoples would be described as African by someone as well traveled as Verrazzano.

The power and culture of the Mali is documented in Islamic literature as early as 1068. Other evidence proves the Mali had a vibrant culture and adequate proficiency in global navigation during the period in question:

(The) Timbuktu Manuscripts written in Sudani script (a form of Arabic) from the Mali Empire showing established knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. Today there are close to a million of these manuscripts found in Timbuktu alone.... The Mali Empire later formed on the upper Niger River, and reached the height of power in the 14th century.[41] Under the Mali Empire, the ancient cities of Djenné and Timbuktu were centers of both trade and Islamic learning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali#History

Famously, Norwegian researcher Thor Heyerdahl made a voyage to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples -- the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a large papyrus reed boat.

The Mali (?) via the Taino

One last theory, a step more complex: The Taino, most famous for resisting Columbus, originate in the upper Amazon River delta and they made regular, perhaps annual, trips of the eastern coast of North America. We know that they intermarried with the Wappingers (in NY) as early as 1000BCE and that a group of them came to stay with the Wappingers in the 1300s. So that theory would be that brought beans with them and that beans were new to them in this period since it was not a food/seed they had brought previously. If the Taino brought the beans then the Mali are the most likely source since French fishermen are not known to have traveled to the Amazon in the 1300s.

These remain only theories. Data points. I am fascinated with this stuff and we are making great strides to better understand this period of history thanks to advances in genetics, linguistics and anti-racism.

I of course welcome any input or criticism others may have.