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| Witchvox Chapter: Wren's Nest News | Chapter Page Views: 59,684,428 |
 Kennewick Man Skeletal Find May Revolutionalize Continent's History Author: Middle Tennessee State University Source: Newswise Title: KENNEWICK MAN SKELETAL FIND MAY REVOLUTIONALIZE CONTINENT'S HISTORY A forensic anthropologist at Middle Tennessee State University is one of a select number of scientists to participate in the examination of a skeleton that could force historians to rewrite the story of the entire North American continent. Dr. Hugh Berryman, research professor, was one of only 11 experts from across the United States to scrutinize the bones of Kennewick Man, a 9,300-year-old skeleton found 10 years ago along the Columbia River at Kennewick, Wash. “It’s one of the oldest skeletons, one of the earliest individuals that populated this continent,” Berryman says. “And we have a chance to look at those remains and learn from them what they tell us about the past and who these people were.” What the experts were able to ascertain from their brief encounter with Kennewick is that he did not look like a Native American. In fact, Berryman says Kennewick’s facial features are most similar to those of a Japanese group called the Ainu, who have a different physical makeup and cultural background from the ethnic Japanese. | |
| Community Thoughts: There are 6 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| What About The Future? | Apr 25th. at 4:21:35 pm EDT |
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Zhukora (Claremont, California) - Email Me "It is sad that there could not have been an agreement where the scientists could have the skeleton for study, and then, after they were finished, in a year or two, give the remains to the Tribes." I think this may actually be the nature of the present agreement--the scientists are given temporary access until their federal support expires. The problem here, however, is that the scientific methods of analysis anthropologists have at present are still quite limited. As with any archaeological find, the scientists involved hope to preserve some samples for the future, when analysis techniques will be more advanced, and/or cheap enough for the anthropologists to afford them. Unfortunately, if the bones are returned for burial, this will not be possible. Remains, once "returned" to "their tribe" are inviolable. |
| Good Grief | Apr 25th. at 12:58:27 am EDT |
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R. Cicero (Seattle, Washington) - Email Me It is insane and outrageous for anyone to make special claim to a friggin' 9000 year old corpse. This is one of many cases in which all religious and territorial claims should be thrown out the window in the name of science, the acquisition of knowledge, and the pursuit of truth. Is it not obvious that the tribes have a very intense political interest in this? Let the heavens fall. If it's Ainu, or European, it's important to know. You don't see the Egyptians sancimoniously burying the ancient dead in the name of Isis--they plop their bodies and all their related booty in museums and make a killing. That might sound crass, but in the process, the knowledge of ancient ways becomes public and accessible, and there's a paradigm shift. Don't bury the truth--it's hard enough to determine with everything in the open. |
| Rambling, Semi-coherent Thoughts | Apr 24th. at 11:55:58 pm EDT |
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Siara (Annapolis, Maryland) - Email Me I strongly agree with the general sense of Lady KR's statement: "It is sad that there could not have been an agreement where the scientists could have the skeleton for study, and then, after they were finished, in a year or two, give the remains to the Tribes. " Kennewick's remains should be treated decently, with the same respect we would grant the remains of our own family members. On the other hand, I am NOT convinced that he should be handed over to the Tribes. There is NO scientific evidence that he is related to the Tribes. His skeletal structure (the skull at least) is totally different. It seems likely likely to me that, if scientists manage to extract some DNA, they will find big differences there as well. I've read a number of articles on ancient remains uncovered during British digs. When the scientists were done studying them, they often demonstrated their "respect" by burying them in a Christian grave yard. Some of these remains were (based on burial rituals, or based on a 2000+ year old carbon dating) obviously Pagan. Was the Christian burial really the right way to go? I see little difference between the British assumption that all British remains are Christian, and the Amer-Indians' assumption that Kennewick Man must be part of their culture. Handing Kennewick Man's remains over to a specific Tribe, against all scientific evidence, would be politically correct . Maybe it would be a drop in the bucket to compensate for the appalling way that Native Americans were treated by the invading Europeans But Kennewick Man is more than a symbol-- he was a specific person. And he probably wasn't an ancestor of today's Native Americans. Handing him over as some sort of politically correct apology seems disingenuous. There needs to be some sort of international, non-denominational ritual for respecting the ancient dead that doesn't impose our modern cultures upon them. ------------------------------------------- After all this talk , I must admit that burying the skeleton without studying it would strike me as a great loss to humanity in general.. We should try to understand the ancient history of our species without imposing our politics on it. |
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