November 11, 2006

Are Indians Taiwanese?

An American Indian-East Asian Connection?

12 comments:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
No, Natives are not Taiwanese, but a lot of what are sold as 'Native trinkets, souvenirs, and jewelry' certainly are!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Not a Sioux said...

I saw a man selling Indian pipes at a pow-wow. They were Indian, all right.... guess which kind.

Anonymous said...

Rob,

Well I must admit, the title of your post strikes me (at first glance) as an intellectually dishonest representation of my own post: I posited the possibility of an "American Indian-East Asian connection"; I posted a photograph I'd taken; and I offered up a brief anecdotal, open-ended, if suggestive, statement. Whereas the title of your post appears to deliberately narrow this point to a degree too absurd to discuss.

I didn't mean to suggest more than the possibility of an American Indian-East Asian connection. If you have strong views on the Bering Straits debate, fine. I don't. As I said: you be the judge.

Peace.

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
Current anthropology posits that a form of Homo erectus called Tautavel Man may have crossed the Bering Straits as long ago as two or three Ice Ages, evolving into a parallel form of humankind that became the Native populations of both New World continents. Speculations that connect NovaMundians with comparatively modern Asians now seem more in keeping with the Mormon view that Middle East peoples who knew Christ sailed across the entire Pacific and landed on the west coast of South America. These, the Mormons claim, seeded American Natives and gave them the knowledge to build their advanced cities and pyramids. Yeah, right...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

People have posited that Indians came from various parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands, so I'd say it's a legitimate question. But I basically chose the title to have some fun. Your title, the actual title, is right below it, so there's no chance of anyone's being misled. In short, no offense or intellectual dishonesty intended.

Not a Sioux said...

re - "evolving into a parallel form of humankind that became the Native populations of both New World continents"

Wouldn't this have resulted in an entire separate human species? Parallelism would have meant two similar species, instead of the same one. Instead of two forms of humankind, we ended up with just one. Natives, whites, black Africans, Ainu, etc. are all of this one species. Any "race" differences are really superficial among them.

The only parallel species of humankind I know of that can be mentioned in this context is the Neanderthal, which was present in relatively recent times (unlike the others).

Or did I miss something....?

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
You missed something, all right. But maybe you were absent the day they taught evolution in your zoology courses. Precursers of the horse migrated to the Americas and then evolved into horses on these continents, at or about the same time as the same horses evolved in Africa and Asia. Simultaneity is the concept, and pre-humans are considered to have migrated to the Americas and then evolved into humans on these continents. Consider that Native peoples had, prior to intermarriage, zero genetic potentials for B blood types; there are no whorls in their fingerprints, only loops and arches; there is an singular, extra suture in the skull called the Inca Bone; their incisor teeth are concave from behind (called shovel-shaped), along with dozens of other physical and genetic differences from the other nominal humanoid populations of the world. Several such matters are detailed in the research volume, AMERICAN GENESIS, which was a response to the populist volume, AFRICAN GENESIS. Based on the studies and findings of Richard S. B. Leakey, humanoids and humans may have been present on these continents for half a million years or more.
And concerning Neanderthals, new findings earlier this year showed that H. Sapiens and H. Neanderthalis could interbreed, and thus the latter likely were absorbed rather than extincted...
How did you miss it? It was in all the papers...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
POSTSCRIPTUM: all of which reminds writerfella of this song --
"I've got your picture,
I"ve got your picture,
I'd like a million of them
All round my cell
I want the doctor to take a picture
So I can look at you
From inside as well.
You've got me turning up
And turning down
And turning in and turning round
I'm turning Taiwanese
I think I'm turning Taiwanese
I really think so
Turning Taiwanese
I think I'm turning Taiwanese
I really think so...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Not a Sioux said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Not a Sioux said...

re: "humanoids and humans may have been present on these continents for half a million years or more."

I remember when it was "standard" that Natives only arrived about 12,000 years ago. I knew then that the arrival year would keep getting push back. And it has, sure enough. How old are the oldest homonid/human/etc fossils found in the Americans believed to be at this time?

Anonymous said...

If you look at all "aboriginal" people from around the world; Africa, Australia, Asia and America they all have similar dress and culture ie; feathers, animal parts, head bands, tribal customs, art, music and even tattoos. I could go on and on. This doesn't mean that Indians are directly related to the Taiwanese on the sole basis of vague similarities in indigenous dress.

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
Richard Leakey's studies (the son of the Leakeys of Olduvai Gorge)are being continued in California and Oregon by his students, but more recent excavations in South America are turning up human specimens with Argon dating ranges that go back to 35,000 and 40,000 years, and more. The US contingents mostly are ignoring such new findings, concentrating instead on the Kennewick Man "debate" apparently in hopes of using it to overturn NAGPRA. Sort of reminds writerfella of Ales Hrdlicka, an immigrant Czech who was a former tobbaconist-turned-'anthropologist' who helped support the Bering Strait origins theory and most definitely supported the unilinealism school of anthropological thought. In the Old West, Hrdlicka held court in saloons and houses of prostitution, while he sought any finds of human skeletons or other artifacts from the public. Usually drunk, he personally smashed fossilized skulls found by miners that resembled early forms of humans, shouting 'there was no ape or ape-like pre-human in the New World!' Not quite the David Attenborough of his time, to be sure...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'