I cant comment on Hyerdahl--I just don't know much. A related hole in simian evolutionary theory pertains to new vs old world monkeys, if you want a deep rabbit hole.

edit: the US, afaik, is different in that cultural anthro shares department with archaeology and human/primate genetics at the undergrad level. It's good in the sense that the culturals have to take a bit of science, bad in that politics invade all the subfields.