December 09, 2007

"Lost tribe" inspires glassblower

A glass act moving on

Switching to sculpture, artist also going to BajaAbout two decades ago, Kasper said, he was rafting down a river in the Grand Canyon when he heard a tale about the Anasazi, an ancient American Indian civilization that occupied the four corners of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

He learned that the Anasazi disappeared and became a “lost tribe,” a notion that fascinates him. Six months ago, Kasper said, he returned to Palomar to study clay work so he could turn his fanciful vision of the Anasazi into art. His pieces have a wood or marble base with a thin metal pole supporting feet, bodies and heads made with clay, colorful feathers and beads. They can be seen on his Web site, billkasperstudio.com.
Comment:  The Anasazi weren't "lost." They migrated to nearby locations and evolved into today's Pueblo tribes.

5 comments:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
The Anasazi did no such thing, as Hopi and Zuni and Taos people show no traces of polydactal recessives. As well, the Anasazi were tall, whereas Pueblo people are not. The Hopi probably hired the same press agent as did the Kennewick Man "discoverers."
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

Re "polydactyl recessives": I've already addressed most of your unsubstantiated claims regarding the so-called Anasazi. See Anasazi = Ancestral Puebloans? for the details.

And their heights don't match? That's a new one. Unfortunately, it's as unsubstantiated as your previous claims.

Here's an excerpt from The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde by Caroline Arnold. It tells us the Anasazi were about as tall as their Puebloan descendants:

http://books.google.com/books?id=5QTI3bcvTK0C&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=height+of+anasazi+skeletons&source=web&ots=OvBU_0gyOJ&sig=iToZbwNi0TYik4VBOOJ9-wypUGQ

Only 212 buried skeletons have been found among the Mesa Verde ruins, which is not very many considering that so many people lived there. They indicate that Anasazi men were five feet four inches tall and Anasazi women were slightly shorter.

Rob said...

Other websites confirm that the Anasazi were short. Really, where do get your erroneous claims from? Do you make them up out of thin air, as I suspect?

http://weblamp.princeton.edu/chw/conferences/Conference_summary_final_06.pdf

[T]here is enormous variation in height across the Western hemisphere. Mayans in Southern Mexico and the Anasazi in the American Southwest were the shortest, whereas plains Indians were the tallest, probably due to the buffalo, a high protein diet, local vegetation, and trade among tribes.

http://www.viewzone.com/jaws.html

Considering the Anasazi were no more than 42 inches tall, while other Native American cultures, simultaneously, enjoyed almost twice that height, there is now reason to question the present theories of a Bering Straits migration alone.

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
"Unsubstantiated?" How many Pueblans can you cite who are "only 42 inches tall?" Genetics do not change that quickly, from 800 years ago to now. Thus, whose claims are "unsubstantiated?" Reality, whether height or six-fingers, six-toes, has to mean something. And it clearly is not what you now claim. Sorry, Mr. Gumby, but you only have a piece of brain stuck in your forehead...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

The "42 inches" undoubtedly was a typo. It was probably meant to be 62 inches.

My claim was that the "Anasazi" were short, not that they were precisely 42 inches tall. I've substantiated that claim with three sources.

Meanwhile, you haven't substantiated diddly-squat. I'm not sure you even know what "substantiate" means.

In short, every source confirms the point that the Anasazi were short. Only in your imagination were they tall.

P.S. I've already addressed your nonsense about the Anasazi's having six fingers or toes. Too bad you can't address my response.