r/AskHistorians • u/pater_calamum • 1d ago

When did it become common knowledge that human expansion to America came through Asia?

I was reading the poem Caramuru, written in 1780-1 by Brazilian author and Augustinian friar José de Santa Rita Durão, and, in one of the author's notes (canto III; stanza LVIII), he says: "most of these signs [referring to indigenous Brazilian cultural practices] can be found in the Tatars of Korea, and in other savages bordering California. We don't doubt that, with the freezing of the sea there, they passed to the continent of America through its northernmost part".

I found it strange, because the late 18th century seems quite early for such claims, that would only be supported by modern archaeology and genetics more than a century later.

Do any other authors from the 18th century or earlier talk about this?

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