Posted by
michael
on from the history-that-isn't-taught-in-high-school dept.
Genoaschild writes: "CNN has an interesting article about the possible origins of early Americans and their similarities to the cultures of where they came from."
SAM MORTON RIDES AGAIN!
by
Medievalist
·
· Score: 3
I didn't see any mention of which graves were robbed to get all these skulls, but I have a suspicion....
In the early 1800s Samuel George Morton built a huge and famous collection of skulls. These skulls were garnered by his correspondents (Morton being an eminent naturalist of the day) from all over the world, but according to this site were mostly native american.
One of the previous posters was decrying the way some tribes object to the pillaging of their graveyards - in Morton's day, similar objections were made to the way the Indians resisted having their heads chopped off. Benighted savages, how dare they resist the progress of science!
A retired friend of mine was once the curator of the Morton skull collection (aka "the American Golgotha"). Originally housed at the Academy of Natural Sciences, it has since been moved to the University of Pennsylvania, where it still comprises over a thousand skulls despite an unknown amount of pilfering.
Everybody's got a theory of where the Amerinds came from; but Morton went a bit beyond that. He used his skulls to prove that middle-aged caucasian males (which, oddly enough, was a group containing Samuel Morton) were the pinnacle of evolution - the smartest, most bestest people of all!
The debunking of Morton's conclusions was completed by Stephen Gould, in his essay "The Mismeasure of Man". I highly recommend Gould's early works, incidentally, although his recent stuff is tedious.
Morton's infamously flawed racial ladder of intelligence, based on his measurements of humans skulls, were a part of the justification for Nazism and many other racist movements. Even today there are those who insist that measuring skulls can give meaningful insights to guide current events. I think the measurements, and especially the conclusions drawn from them, say more about the researchers than they do about the objects measured.
If you are really into the interpretation of dimensions of crania, you must visit the phrenology website.
--Charlie
What's totally wrong with the land bridge theory
by
scotpurl
·
· Score: 3
1. About every 10 years, the Bering Strait freezes over, so you don't have to wait for an ice age to cross.
2. Northern cultures have been using small boats for a long time, so you don't have to wait for an ice age to cross.
3. If I'm walking from Japan to Wyoming across mile-deep glaciers (as the "they walked here" theory states, what the hell were they eating? Or am I supposed to beleive each walker carried several months of food and fuel (to melt ice for water). A six-month supply of 2,000 calories per day of fish or meat jerky weighs how much? A ton? Two tons?
4. 100,000 years ago, there were thriving pine forests in Antarctica. If it was that warm there, then it was that warm up North, and the whole north coast of Russia and Canada was probably a great place to live.
5. The glaciers destroyed almost all evidence of human habitation in the north.
6. Nomadic cultures use little, and waste even less. Most of what we find from older cultures is from their burial grounds, or from what they have abandoned. Inuit leave very little behind, and a couple decades of winter storms erases almost everything.
and I'll stop there. If you want more, search for Pre-Columbian new world contacts.
Researchers hindered by tribes in many cases.
by
Bonker
·
· Score: 4
I watched a documentary not too long about about this kind of research. One of the researchers' primary obstacles was the fact that many tribal councils demanded that all fossils be turned over to them for 'proper burial' if they were found in tribal lands.
Of course you can't do composition analysis on casts, which are slightly imperefect representations anyway.
-- The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't see any mention of which graves were robbed to get all these skulls, but I have a suspicion....
In the early 1800s Samuel George Morton built a huge and famous collection of skulls. These skulls were garnered by his correspondents (Morton being an eminent naturalist of the day) from all over the world, but according to this site were mostly native american.
One of the previous posters was decrying the way some tribes object to the pillaging of their graveyards - in Morton's day, similar objections were made to the way the Indians resisted having their heads chopped off. Benighted savages, how dare they resist the progress of science!
A retired friend of mine was once the curator of the Morton skull collection (aka "the American Golgotha"). Originally housed at the Academy of Natural Sciences, it has since been moved to the University of Pennsylvania, where it still comprises over a thousand skulls despite an unknown amount of pilfering.
Everybody's got a theory of where the Amerinds came from; but Morton went a bit beyond that. He used his skulls to prove that middle-aged caucasian males (which, oddly enough, was a group containing Samuel Morton) were the pinnacle of evolution - the smartest, most bestest people of all!
The debunking of Morton's conclusions was completed by Stephen Gould, in his essay "The Mismeasure of Man". I highly recommend Gould's early works, incidentally, although his recent stuff is tedious.
Morton's infamously flawed racial ladder of intelligence, based on his measurements of humans skulls, were a part of the justification for Nazism and many other racist movements. Even today there are those who insist that measuring skulls can give meaningful insights to guide current events. I think the measurements, and especially the conclusions drawn from them, say more about the researchers than they do about the objects measured.
If you are really into the interpretation of dimensions of crania, you must visit the phrenology website.
--Charlie
1. About every 10 years, the Bering Strait freezes over, so you don't have to wait for an ice age to cross.
2. Northern cultures have been using small boats for a long time, so you don't have to wait for an ice age to cross.
3. If I'm walking from Japan to Wyoming across mile-deep glaciers (as the "they walked here" theory states, what the hell were they eating? Or am I supposed to beleive each walker carried several months of food and fuel (to melt ice for water). A six-month supply of 2,000 calories per day of fish or meat jerky weighs how much? A ton? Two tons?
4. 100,000 years ago, there were thriving pine forests in Antarctica. If it was that warm there, then it was that warm up North, and the whole north coast of Russia and Canada was probably a great place to live.
5. The glaciers destroyed almost all evidence of human habitation in the north.
6. Nomadic cultures use little, and waste even less. Most of what we find from older cultures is from their burial grounds, or from what they have abandoned. Inuit leave very little behind, and a couple decades of winter storms erases almost everything.
and I'll stop there. If you want more, search for Pre-Columbian new world contacts.
I watched a documentary not too long about about this kind of research. One of the researchers' primary obstacles was the fact that many tribal councils demanded that all fossils be turned over to them for 'proper burial' if they were found in tribal lands.
Of course you can't do composition analysis on casts, which are slightly imperefect representations anyway.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!