[azhenfud]

"Much to our surprise, we found that in every case the gourds found in the Americas were a genetic match with modern gourds found in Asia, not Africa. This suggests quite strongly that the gourds that were used as containers in the Americas for thousands of years before the advent of pottery were brought over from Asia.""

So, why isn't it a more plausable position to insist Asians came here, copied America's gourds, and took them back to Asia? (They copy evrything else....)

[VRWCmember]

This would imply that even thousands of years ago the Asians had a comparative advantage in the production of gourds.

[Grut]

They copy evrything else....

Well, they didn't copy Ford's Quality Control Program, did they?

[Sacajaweau]

You're quite right. The origination is interchangeable.

Talked to a farmer this year about gourds. Never realized that the same color/shape came from the same plant and he could propogate a certain shape/color by selection.....which is what he does.