With the increasing number of ancient genomes being produced,
we might hope that we can start applying these methods to
Pacific samples. We are currently starting to develop genome
sequencing for analyses of some of our ancient Chilean samples
that show phenotypic evidence of Polynesian admixture (Matisoo-
Smith and Ramirez, 2010). To date, these individuals have produced
mtDNA genomes that belong to Native American haplogroups, but
if the Polynesian voyagers who made contact with South America
were men, as we might expect if they were traders or explorers, we
would not see any evidence of Polynesian mtDNA unless we found
the remains of those voyagers