HENRY - The human evolution news relay
Entries in the ' americas ' category
Written July 9, 2008 in africa, americas, anthropology, europe, genetics, human prehistory, mtDNA
Scientific American covers the human diaspora in a nice broad-brush overview:
Fifty or sixty thousand years ago a small band of Africans—a few hundred or even several thousand—crossed the strait in tiny boats, never to return.
The reason they left their homeland in eastern Africa is not completely understood. Perhaps the climate changed, or once abundant shellfish [...]
Remember the amazing lost tribe that was being hawked all over the news a few weeks ago? Ahh, not so lost after all. The real story is actually a whole lot more interesting:
…far from being unknown, the tribe’s existence has been noted since 1910 and the mission to photograph them was undertaken in order to prove that ‘uncontacted’ tribes still existed in an area endangered by the menace of the logging industry….
According to his account, the Brazilian state of Acre offered him the use of an aircraft for three days. ‘I had years of GPS co-ordinates,’ he said. Meirelles had another clue to the tribe’s precise location. ‘A friend of mine sent me some Google Earth co-ordinates and maps that showed a strange clearing in the middle of the forest and asked me what that was,’ he said. ‘I saw the co-ordinates and realised that it was close to the area I had been exploring with my son – so I needed to fly over it.’…
…’When I saw them painted red, I was satisfied, I was happy,’ he said. ‘Because painted red means they are ready for war, which to me says they are happy and healthy defending their territory.‘
( 3 )
Concerned that evidence of human settlement and migration may be lost under the sea, researchers are finding new ways of tracking ancient mariners. By combining archaeological studies on remote islands with computer simulations of founding populations and detailed examinations of seafloor topography and ancient sea level, they are amassing crucial new data on voyages from [...]
“Ancient humans, venturing across the ice bridge to North America, got
lost quite often. They found it very hard to keep their Bering Strait….” (I’m sorry, so very sorry).
Written March 9, 2008 in americas, anthropology, bongo-bongoism, creationism-is-stupid, human prehistory, it-was-better-in-my-day, stupidity
The reviews of Roland Emmerich’s new movie, 10,000 B.C. (”A prehistoric epic that follows a young mammoth hunter’s journey through uncharted territory to secure the future of his tribe”) are starting to come through, and it sounds like a bigger crapfest than Apocalypto:
In 10,000 BC, you’ve got Egyptian pyramids being built by guys using woolly [...]
Kenneth Chang in the NY Times talks about The Grim Story of Maya Blue:
The vibrant sky color can be seen on pottery, murals and other artifacts produced by the Maya people of Central America centuries ago and the unusual, durable pigment remains vibrant today long after other colors have faded away.
It was also the color of Chaak, the rain god, and of human sacrifice.
( 0 )
Written February 18, 2008 in americas, anthropology, language preservation, linguistics
The first time Jose Freeman heard his tribe’s lost language through the crackle of a 70-year-old recording, he cried.
“My ancestors were speaking to me,” said Freeman of the sounds captured when American Indians still inhabited California’s Salinas Valley. “It was like coming home.”
Entries RSS
Post a Comment