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To: D. Long who wrote (9705)	5/24/1999 8:56:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

The Neanderthal: A Modern Man With Disease? By Guy Gugliotta Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 24, 1999; Page A09 Recent research has renewed debate over the fate of Europe's Neanderthals, the beetle-browed hunter-gatherers who endured the rigors of the ice age for 200 millennia, only to cede their territory to modern man and dwindle to extinction in a relatively short time some 30,000 years ago. washingtonpost.com

To: D. Long who wrote (9705)	5/24/1999 10:48:00 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Dear Mr. Long, I would still maintain that the basic math involved in human demographics makes the forensic evidence meaningless when dealing with long time intervals. Let's take the case of Charlemagne who lived about 1200 years ago. It's known that Charlemagne had children, a bunch of them. Enough time has passed that by now the odds are that virtually everyone of western European descent has him somewhere in their family tree, though virtually no one may be aware of it. So I'm almost certainly a descendent of Charlemagne. Most of my neighbors are. I'm guessing that you probably are. And because of racial admixture over the last few centuries (most American Blacks and Indians have at least some white ancestry) so probably is Muhammed Ali and Russell Means. Of course all of these people are also descended from virtually everyone else living in western Europe in Charlemagne's time. Now Muhammed Ali and Russell Means and for that matter me or you or my neighbor across the street may not have any forensic skeletal similarities with Charlemagne. Nevertheless the odds are overwhelming that we are all descendents of him. Do you understand what I'm saying? If any of your known ancestors come from a particular part of the world, then everyone who lived (and who had children) in that part of the world in ancient times is your ancestor. Regardless of whether or not we look like them. Since we all have millions of ancient ancestors, we may look like any of them or some mix of any of them. Bruce

To: D. Long who wrote (9705)	5/25/1999 1:34:00 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

Derek, once upon a time I had an interest in anthropology myself, and as you may know, Kant thought that Ethics was the precursor to a philosophical anthropology, and relished tales of primitive peoples in far away places...however, I finally realized that I did not expect to learn anything important from anthropology, and I lost interest. Not too long after, various scandals began to surface, of the fakery with the supposed pristine Philippine aborigines, of the dubiety of Margaret Meads research, and whatever residual interest I may have had was pretty much extinguished. But I never cared much for archeology, and the discussion of the origins of the Amerindians is a good case in point. The data is so fragmentary, and the prospect of resolution so bleak, that it is hard to care...And it is hard to know what we would gain by the resolution, except the satisfaction of raw curiosity. If science is more about laws and processes than about brute facts, it is arguable that little of importance is at stake in the determination. In any case, I thought that I would make the observations. I have no objection to people entertaining themselves with such things, it is harmless, and better for you than getting stoned, but it is a mistake to take it seriously....