Sunday, July 25, 2010

Let's talk anthropology. . .

I'm sure my anthropologist son will correct me in some or many ways, but I gotta throw this out. . .
First, the article that spawned this tirade:


Ancient woman suggests diverse migration
AP
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 23, 11:18 pm ET

MEXICO CITY – A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.

Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History on Thursday released photos of the reconstructed image of a woman who probably lived on Mexico's Caribbean coast 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. She peeks out of the picture as a short, spry-looking woman with slightly graying hair.

Anthropologists had long believed humans migrated to the Americas in a relatively short period from a limited area in northeast Asia across a temporary land corridor that opened across the Bering Strait during an ice age.

But government archaeologist Alejandro Terrazas says the picture has now become more complicated, because the reconstruction more resembles people from southeastern Asian areas like Indonesia.

"History isn't that simple," Terrazas said. "This indicates that the Americas were populated by several migratory movements, not just one or two waves from northern Asia across the Bering Strait."


This whole "facial reconstruction" stuff stinks to me. How definitive can these guys be using muscle attachment points, etc that are over 10,000 yrs old to reconstruct what a person looked like. I'm a man of science, but sometimes I wonder who these guys are trying to kid.

Besides, I've seen Mexicans that looked Asian, Indians (from India) that looked Native American, and hundreds of anomalies like that my whole life, so going by how someone looks is ridiculous.

I truly believe that the Bering Land Bridge theory is only a part of the puzzle. We know there are people in Tierra Del Fuego who have Autralian ancestory. IT's hard to look at ancient Meso American sculpture without wondering about a Mid-east/African connection. There needs to be more definitive DNA studies done before we'll really know anything.

Do you know that there are two groups of Native Americans who speak Athabaskan languages? There are the Athabaskans of Alaska and the Navajo, Commanche and others from the south west. Nobody else speaks Athabaskan. Language patterns tell us a lot. Take a look at the distribution of Nauhuatl from meso America up through the south west and down into So. Amer. People have found many similarities between eastern NA language and northern European.

I had an interesting conversation with a Russian guy when I was in Homer, Alaska a few weeks ago. He told me he had relatives on both sides of the Bering Straits. You see, it's only about 50 miles across with islands in the middle that are 2.5 miles apart (one is Russian, one is American. . . yes, Russia is only 2.5 miles from the US). On a good day, any Eskimo worth his salt can jump in his kayak and be in Russia (or visa versa) by evening. So this Russian guy is telling me how in the 60s his family used to have family reunions every couple years on both coasts. They didn't have passports or check in with customs or any of that shit. They just did it like their ancestors had been doing it for thousands of years. Hmmm, so anthropologists believe that the migration occurred "in a relatively short period."
Who are these anthropologists?! What agenda are they trying to uphold? Who is feeding them dollars and bullshit to get them to continue perpetrating this farse?

4 comments:

Herbert Weaver said...

Ever do a DNA ancestry test? I work with a black guy who was shocked when he was told he was 70% Caucasian. I joke with him that I'm blacker than him even though I look 100% Irish cracker. My wife's a crazy mix of Arab, Mediterranean, English, Scandinavian, Indian and African. This ethno-geneology stuff basically falls apart after a while and becomes meaningless. Only thing we know is that we all started off dodging lions on the African plains and spread everywhere else. Presumably in search of lion-free places to hang out.

Bedlam said...

Anthropology?Anthropology? Bedlam like to talk about ants with some kind of ology. C ants are Bedlams bestest friends when it comes to torture devices...tie down an let the fire ants have at it....BEDLAM STYLE!!!! Whoooo baby, and they travel a long way to get a bite to eat. Ha Haaaaa. Itsy bitsy inches. yllibllihsuoicagaS, let me intro-Duce my self....I AM BEDLAM! A fine piece of leather, put nice togather and I’ll Be BEDLAM in any kind of Weather. DECONS (yes Bedlam), START to counting! Church, if these peoplets are connected to ants then, way to go buckooo!! Where’s the bug spray...RAID!!! yllibllihsuoicagaS, u eqel me (BEDLAM). Bedlam problem has always been reconstruction of old fossles. We don’t know what the F@#$@$ these people looked like. We always design in the mind of the creator. Decons! paddy wack and give that dog a BONE. People came from the planet Helvet (ereht saw maldeB), they didn’t cross no hemisphere covered with snow, dame!! The Bering Strait during an ice age was still under water. Shift the planet BEDLAM tell you. ANYWAY who in the hell want’s to travel in the cold? BEDLAM have to play with DNA every day, (be bedlaM line of wrok) and B.E.D.L.A.M. can tell you this, in the lab BEDLAM can match your dna/rna with anything, let me play with your sequence, ha, ha, have you related with every ape on the planet. MY NAME IS BEDLAM! come with BEDLAM back in time, year -AFYW320. Bring your d’camera because it’s a sight to see, and sunscreen, it be a little hot! Bedlam would say follow Bedlam on twitter, butt Bedlam aint got no twitter account, whooooo! Now people from southeastern Asian look like everybody else, Bedlam know whites that look black, blacks that look white, asian that look mexican, mexican that look indian and indian that look sivpres. yllibllihsuoicagaS You want to see facial reconstruction, look at me....Its-Gonna-Be-Bedlam.

ANNNNNDDDD, that china dude be sending B.E.D.L.A.M. that spam junk too.

SagaciousHillbilly said...

Bedlam, It's always a pleasure to have you stop by and present us with your version of the facts . . and bedlam. Your style, your grace, your certain savoir faire is never under appreciated by this hillbilly.

Christiaan said...

New theories in fields such as anthropology or it's subdiscipline of archaeology can be slow to catch on. This is mainly due to the fact that professors have built their careers around these old theories and are not willing to change course no matter how overwhelming the evidence is. If it is contrary to some theory they pushed in books/articles back in the 60s, then it must be "bad science". At this point the evidence is strong for multiple points of entry at various times going back longer than previously thought.

Though not the same continent, you might be interested in what my friend Tom has been working on. It could completely change Mediterranran prehistory and how we think about early homonids...
http://www.archaeology.org/1005/trenches/voyage.html