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DNA Link Found Between Frozen Aboriginal Man and 17 Living People
The Globe and Mail is reporting that scientists claim to have found a DNA link between the frozen remains of an aboriginal man and 17 living people. "While the work on the human DNA project has opened new doors and work will continue on establishing a fuller family tree, Long Ago Person Found's descendants said they finally have the opportunity to give their ancestor a proper burial. Because his lineage had never been established, no memorial potlatch could be held. Of the 17 people linked through DNA, 15 self-identify with the Wolf Clan, meaning the young man was most likely Wolf as well."
and here I was thinking lupus was a species, not a clan...
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He could be. And he probably would be if they checked my DNA. But who knows? TFA is really short on information.
There is no mention of the methodology of the study, particularly on how the samples were chosen, or if there was a control group.
Did they decide how close was close enough and then go looking for DNA? Or did they look first and then say "That seems close enough."? To me, the only intellectually honest way to do it would be the former. There has to be a possibility of the answer being "Nobody that we found was close enough".
I don't wish to criticize these researchers based on the absence of information, but it is remarkably convenient for them that they came up with the politically correct and properly ethnically sensitive result. It makes a cynic like me suspicious.
sending genes to my friends is limited to a select number of females in my case ;)
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Due to the lack of a frozen will, the 17 people will now be heading off to court to fight over who inherits the frozen wooden bowl and spoon found with the man.
> He might have only died 160 years ago. I'd be
> more impressed if he'd been dead for thousands of
> years.
Exactly so.
This hardly qualifies as Archeology at all.
Further, in spite of the hand wringing in TFA, is does nothing but discredit native verbal traditions as a source of scientific information.
First, no verbal traditions provided the slightest clue as to his id or even his clan/tribe. The fact that he was extracted from a glacier, reasonably intact, and NOBODY could pin down his tribe/clan from his clothing, and personal effects says the traditions are little more than stories.
Second, a certain racism rears its ugly head with regard to the new found relatives statement that he could ONLY NOW be given "the respect and dignity he deserves." Really? Heaven forbid the native people accorded a white man the dignity of a proper native ceremony.
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Because the summary didn't bother to explain what Wolf Clan....
This would be the Wolf Clan of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations in Yukon, Canada. Their traditional territory is about an hour and a half from Whitehorse, around Haines Junction. I live in Whitehorse but I'm not of this first nation. I believe they had strong trade ties with coastal first nations, I want to say Tlingit but I'm probably wrong.
It's an interesting discovery and an interesting moment for that first nation.
Who is this WE you speak of?
Inuit/Inupiat and Eskimo people have never had their culture attacked, discredited or suppressed. They have never been defeated in battle, and never have been made war upon.
Not in Alaska and not in Canada. If anything, native cultures of the far north are celebrated far in excess of their actual accomplishments.
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It's never lupus.
30 years living in Alaska tells me you are just wrong, and ignorant of the facts.
The language is dyeing because it is largely useless to them, preserved mostly for historical purposes.
It is still taught, both at home, and in schools. You can even enroll in college courses teaching these languages.
Just as Norwegian is lost to by the second generation after immigration from Norway, so too is Inuit. Not by suppression. Simply thru disuse. A choice made by the peoples themselves.
These people have never been beaten. Their pride is intact. I've lived there. Have you? Or is this just more liberal ranting?
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I am a specialist in North American indigenous languages. I work with multiple reservations on language and cultural revitalization, and while I do not work with any of the Alaskan communities, we attend the same symposiums, training sessions, conferences, etc.
You say the natives of Alaska have never been beaten or suppressed? Then why don't they have local sovereignty? They used to. Why are the lands of culturally distinct bands like the Tlingit and Haida controlled by Corporations (albeit natively owned), like Sealaska Inc.? Are you suggesting they asked for that socio-political structure? Just because we didn't just flat-out kill 95% of them (like in California), we didn't beat or suppress them? If there was no issue, why have there been two major acts of Congress designed to fix the situation?
Russia, Canada, and the United States took their lands, and changed their entire system of social organization, politics, and economics. (Only the last was inevitable.) They didn't get the same level of warfare, forced boarding schools, and outlawed religions as other groups further east and south, but to say that equals "not suppressed" doesn't follow. We forced upon them a socio-economic system that discourages the continuation of their ways and language. That's suppression, even if it is a "nicer" form of it than often otherwise practiced.
The irony is that one of them is Kevin Bacon!
Out of curiosity, if his/hers is "liberal ranting", then I'm curious to know how you'd classify YOUR ranting?
Additionally, your use of the phrase "These people" leads me to believe that you aren't "one of them" so then the other question I have is: How can you be so familiar with another person's culture that you feel it's acceptable to speak on their behalf?
Assuming that you're a "white guy" (I know I could be wrong...), I'd say that many of "us black folks" speak of and about "white people" in ways that you will probably never be aware of because, well, you're not "one of us". I would think it very likely to be the same for these people.