Ancient Caucasian Remains in America

[Jay R]

Ancient Caucasian Remains in America

[joshuaream]

That article actually has quite a bit of interesting information in it about some of the early human remains found but largely ignored by archaeologists. That said the overall "tone" is misleading.

In the US we have adapted the word caucasian to mean White or anglosaxon. In the not so commonly used anthropological sense it describes a set of features and the many different groups of people that can exhibit those features (ranging from most of Europe, Central Asia, Iran, Arabs, North Africans, Ethiopians, a good chunk of India, people in Nepal, etc.)

Not turning this into a discussion about human evolution, but groups can evolve unique physical traits pretty quickly. Mayans, Northern Plains groups (Sioux, Blackfoot, etc.), Aztecs, Incans, Amazonian groups, natives in Florida, all looked very different from each other. It's not surprising that Kennewick looks different, heck 10,000 year old skeletons from Europe look nothing like modern Europeans.

[mootsman]

Originally Posted by joshuaream

That article actually has quite a bit of interesting information in it about some of the early human remains found but largely ignored by archaeologists. That said the overall "tone" is misleading.

In the US we have adapted the word caucasian to mean White or anglosaxon. In the not so commonly used anthropological sense it describes a set of features and the many different groups of people that can exhibit those features (ranging from most of Europe, Central Asia, Iran, Arabs, North Africans, Ethiopians, a good chunk of India, people in Nepal, etc.)

Not turning this into a discussion about human evolution, but groups can evolve unique physical traits pretty quickly. Mayans, Northern Plains groups (Sioux, Blackfoot, etc.), Aztecs, Incans, Amazonian groups, natives in Florida, all looked very different from each other. It's not surprising that Kennewick looks different, heck 10,000 year old skeletons from Europe look nothing like modern Europeans.

Well put. One thing about Kennewick that I rarely see noted is that the continent was occupied at least 4,000 years before him. That's a lot of time for multiple migrations to have occurred. I just get tired of articles that imply that he and his "Caucasian" characteristics (if there really are any) were amongst the first in the Americas.


Oh, and as grotesque as it sounds I'd like to see these facial reconstructors put to the test with a cadaver, i.e., could they recreate the appearance using the skull and how close would it really come to a facial photo of the cadaver. It seems a bit more art than science to me. And why does Kennewick man look like that guy from Star Trek?

[paleo_joe]

Originally Posted by joshuaream

Not turning this into a discussion about human evolution, but groups can evolve unique physical traits pretty quickly. Mayans, Northern Plains groups (Sioux, Blackfoot, etc.), Aztecs, Incans, Amazonian groups, natives in Florida, all looked very different from each other. It's not surprising that Kennewick looks different, heck 10,000 year old skeletons from Europe look nothing like modern Europeans.

Thanks for that insight. I had not thought about those examples and the speed of evolution.