Geneticist Traces Mysterious Origins of Native Americans to Middle Eas

[Aurelia]

That's a bizarre theory, but who knows?

 

 

The idea that Native Americans are descended from ancient Jews, Egyptians, or Greeks has been a controversial one for hundreds of years. James Adair, an 18th century settler who traded with Native Americans for 40 years, wrote that their language, customs, and social structures were similar to those of the Israelites.

 

He wrote in his book “The History of the American Indians”: “It is a very difficult thing to divest ourselves, not to say, other persons, of prejudices and favourite opinions, and I expect to be censured by some for opposing commonly received sentiments, or for meddling with a dispute agitated among the learned ever since the first discovery of America.”

 

More here

[caesar novus]

I haven't kept up with that news much, after being disgusted on how ancient human remains are being snatched from scientists in the US under the assumption that they are "owned" by contemporary tribes. Are such remains still confiscated and effectively destroyed before they can be objectively examined?

 

Anyway I heard a bit of a lecture that said the Alaskan land bridge wasn't used because it appeared at the wrong time. Of course you would often have ice bridges, and very simple boats could skirt the edge. It seems you could have a diversity of groups coming by various means at various times.

 

I heard an author talk for the book "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" where Charles Mann summarized latest research that is accepted consensus but not well known. As I recall it depicted a massive, settled, sedentary population in the Americas that greatly modified their environment by irrigation or clearing by fire. The Europeans encountered more sparse nomadic types because smallpox, etc preceded them like a shockwave and depopulated. The susceptibility to such diseases was sort of a freak because the types of big animals that can originally host (and thus engender resistance) died out much earlier for unknown reasons. He gave interesting answers to naive audience questions (laden with positive stereotypes), such as to emphasize the extreme cultural diversity of original inhabitants.

Edited August 2, 2014 by caesar novus

[Aurelia]

I heard an author talk for the book "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" where Charles Mann summarized latest research that is accepted consensus but not well known. As I recall it depicted a massive, settled, sedentary population in the Americas that greatly modified their environment by irrigation or clearing by fire.

 

That's quite interesting. Is there any mention in Charles Mann's book about the origins of this massive, sedentary population in the Americas?

[caesar novus]

It just pains me that the video of his talk wasn't posted online, while most others of that series was. I think it is just the familiar groups that we already know were much more numerous and agricultural than previously thought. I think he said the farming technology and village type settlement was almost similar to Europe at 1491. I went to an anthropology lecture about 10 years ago that said similar things about the Amazon being packed with settlements doing fancy irrigation... so it must be published elsewhere too.

 

UPDATE: here is another youtube talk he gave.. maybe you can find an even better one. Reminds me he points out the advanced urbanization in parts of the Americas...

Edited August 5, 2014 by caesar novus