Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (9596)	5/23/1999 1:59:00 PM
From: truedog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

to: D.Long from:truedog Re: response #9596 I appreciate your input to the Native American discussion. There is a thread about the Makah tribe who were allowed to ceremonially kill and eat a whale. That part of it seems to be a dead issue but the thread has progressed into a full scale disscussion on peoples' opinions regarding Native Americans regardless of tribal affiliations. If somebody wants to start a thread expressly for this purpose, count me in. BTW, I seem to remember that you are the one who emigrated from either New York or southern California to the Houston area in Texas. In the densely populated areas, such as inside the 610 loop ,or close to it, you will find it a minor problem to find a native Texan but, I can assure you that they abound in the suburbs, small towns and rural areas. I may not have been born in Texas but, neither was Sam Houston and all the others of his time, but have lived here since early 1942, so I am very close to being a native. I'm wondering why all these people have left their native habitats and moved here. As if I didn't know. Follow the money ! I was amused by a number of bumper stickers that said " the last on to leave Michigan,turn out the lights". Anyhoo, we are neighbors and, since you have shown yourself to be a gentleman, you are welcome. regards, truedog

To: D. Long who wrote (9596)	5/24/1999 1:01:00 AM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Dear Mr. Long, I'd like to respond to two points: 1) What I was saying is that it is not necessarily cogent for say a Creek to claim an Paleoindian set of skeletal remains on Creek ancestral territory as his ancestor, because it does not follow necessarily. It is possible to trace such things, but it is not exact by any means. Such tracing relies upon forensic features such skull measurements, dentition, and other factors and without a comprehensive history of the tribes and prehistoric America, it can hardly be argued that remains of characteristic X belong to tribal group Y. If the newsweek article is correct, and the Americas were an even greater mixing pot than previously believed, then that task is even more vast. It may very well be that a Yamamamo in Brazil has a greater claim to those remains than Mr. Creek, for example. I disagree. I think it would be perfectly reasonable for a Creek, for example, to assume an ancient skeleton found on Creek ancestral territory to be an ancestor, regardless of the physical characteristics of the skeleton. Everyone living has a vast number of ancient ancestors and obviously not all of them share the same physical characteristics. The number of positions in our family trees doubles with each generation we go back. Start with our parents and go back ten generations and we all have 1024 ancestors in that generation. Go back another 10 generations, the number is over a million. Another 10 generations back produces a number of potential ancestors of over 1 billion. That's only about 750 years back into the past. One implication of this is that if one's ancestors come from a particular part of the world, eastern North America or western Europe, for example, the mathematical odds are overwhelming that everyone who lived in that part of the world 1000 years ago is an ancestor. The odds are even higher if you're talking about 10,000 or 15,000 years ago. The physical characteristics of the ancestral skeleton are irrelevant because of the overwhelming mathematical odds and the vast number of ancient ancestors we all have. 2) About Cahokia, I'm impressed with your use of terms like "event horizon" and "ethnobotanical". Nevertheless, the resource depletion hypothesis seems incredulous and unreasonable to me. Illinois is a very fertile and well-watered country. It would take a massive population living at a subsistence level to deplete the resources. The middle mississippian culture decline and disappearance is an unsolved mystery IMO. Have to wonder if researchers are developing the best hypothesis they can think up and looking for and finding the evidence to support it. Bruce