One too many hits from the peace pipe?

For the last couple of weeks in class there has been a substantial amount of discussion about the rights of supposed descendants over their ancestors’ remains and possessions. All of this talk got me thinking, the main argument that the native Americans use in order to protect the remains of their supposed ancestors is that it is part of their religion to honour the dead the way they do. However, there are so many flaws in this argument it kind of boggles the mind, yet we respect it and honour their wishes. My first major beef with Indians is that they claim that their religion is the same as their ancestors’. While it may be possible it is highly unlikely. The native Americans do not write anything down and rely solely on oral tradition to pass down their history and their religion. Because oral history is so notoriously unreliable it is very hard to believe that what the few modern native Americans believe in is the same as what the people that lived here 2000years ago believed in. When I think of oral history I recall a video that I watched where an anthropologist went to, I think, Mongolia in search of actual bards who memorized their people’s songs and stories, much like how the ancient bards in Greece would sing homer to patrons. Anyway, the researcher had the bard memorize a story/song and when the bard said he had it memorized the researcher asked the bard to sing it back. The result was that the bard did sing most of the original lyrics back but missed sections and instead sung something that was close to the original but not quite right. My thinking is that if the record keepers of the native Americans are anything like the bard from Mongolia then there is no way everyone is going to tell their histories and their stories correctly. These bards had to train their memories to hold specific information and still got it wrong, assuming that the native Americans have people that do the same then their records and their religion is going to change over time just through miscommunication alone, never mind the changes in beliefs that naturally occur over time. What this all boils down to is that the people that lived 2000years ago may not have minded if we dug up their corpses to study them, it’s really nearly impossible to prove either way because nothing was written down.

My second problem with the native Americans’ claim over bodily remains is that they assume all ancient native Americans believed in the same thing. I maybe be viewing the situation in a more ethnocentric way than I should but I find it hard to believe that all Indians practiced religion. In my experience, not all people vest the same amount of interest in religion. Even people who grow up surrounded by religion do not always take on the beliefs of their parents and peers, this leads me to believe that the same is probably true for Indians. Just because most people in a society believe in something, does not mean everyone does. Even those that may have participated in religious rites or festivals may not have had strong religious opinions and may not have even considered themselves a believer in that specific religion. For example, just because most people in Canada celebrate Christmas it does not mean that everyone in Canada is Christian. By this I mean that by and large Christmas has become an increasingly religious neutral holiday, it has transformed from a strictly religious holiday to one that is more about Santa Claus and reindeer. Due to this shift, more and more people who are not Christian celebrate it in some form or another, like; decorating a store, wearing a festive hat, or simply exchanging gifts. More to the point, just because someone wears a Santa hat it does not make them a Christian, just like someone who is buried in an Indian funeral mound may not have been particularly religious and treating the remains as such could be a disservice to the individual. After reading this paragraph through the whole Christmas analogy does sound like a bit of an oversimplification but I think the message is correct.

Mayans, Lions, and Bears, oh my!

Apparently the next big end of the world hoax is right around the corner, on Dec 21st 2012. I guess Y2K wasn't crazy enough so a bunch of nutjobs thought of a crazy idea to use the ancient Mayan calendar to persuade people into believing the world will end in a couple year. Besides the complete lack of any substantial proof, there are several fundamental problems with this end of the world theory.

The first of which being that the Mayan calendar does not end, it merely restarts, like our new years. At least this is according to Anthony Aveni, a Mayan expert and archaeoastronomer at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Like most internet myths I believe you really have to side with the information coming from a reputable source, and to me this expert that national geographic found is far more reliable than some random Joe conspirator spreading chain mail.

The second part of the myth is that the planets aligning on this date will mess with gravitation forces on Earth and the whole planet will go crazy. However, according to NASA there is nothing out of the ordinary happening on Dec 21 2012 that doesn't happen every year. The Winter Solstice is a naturally occurring phenomenon that happens every year without incident.

So really, according to experts nothing spectacular is going to happen and people are getting all worked up over nothing. Yet, thousands of people are getting worked up about these doomsday predictions. Since I don't know how to express the craziness any better I'm just going to insert a section of article here.

"NASA's Ask an Astrobiologist Web site, for example, has received thousands of questions regarding the 2012 doomsday predictions—some of them disturbing, according to David Morrison, senior scientist with the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

"A lot of [the submitters] are people who are genuinely frightened," Morrison said.

"I've had two teenagers who were considering killing themselves, because they didn't want to be around when the world ends," he said. "Two women in the last two weeks said they were contemplating killing their children and themselves so they wouldn't have to suffer through the end of the world.""

Ok, now that you have read this little blurb, reread the last paragraph again. People are so panicked that they are contemplating suicide and killing their children. Does this sounds like rational thought; to be thinking of suicide and murder because of a whim? Since when is something that you may have read in a piece of junk mail your friend sent you or something that you heard the guy with the tin foil hat yell as you walked down the street grounds for killing yourself? I don't know about anyone else but this sounds absolutely crazy to me. To me it really is troubling to hear that any random person can take an obscure piece of information, say its an Ancient Mayan secret and then automatically convince thousands of people about the end of the world.

Scottish Treasure: No, not William Wallace

So the recent buzz in the Scottish Archaeological Community is surrounding a 35 year old safari park warden named David Booth. He has no formal archaeological training or education and is pretty much your average working man. So why all the fuss over this man? That's simple, he bought a metal detector online and found four gold necklaces before he walked ten paces from his car. Since that day his life and the way Ancient Scottish history will be viewed forever has changed. The reason for this change is that one of the necklaces he found is thought to be from a Mediterranean craftsman, while two are of typical Celtic design the other is from France. The necklaces dates from approximately first-third centuries BCE, about 200 years before the Romans arrived in Britain. Scottish historians are claiming the necklace to be the missing link in Scottish history, proving once and for all that the Scots were not as isolated as previously thought.

Despite all of the historical and anecdotal intrigue that the story possesses what really fascinates me is the fact that any one in Europe could buy a metal detector and make brilliant historical finds in their own backyard. If I bought a metal detector and combed the countryside of Niagara I probably wouldn't find much, maybe a few relics from the wars that were fought here but nothing that would compare to the magnificence of what can be found in the soil of Europe. In this regard, I am very jealous of all aspiring archaeologists that live in Europe. To me the opportunity to practice archaeology seems so distant and/or expensive. Whereas, people that live in Europe can buy a metal detector online or at a shop and go for a walk and find not just metal objects but the buildings that they come from and everything that comes with it. I guess the thing that bothers me about this situation is that people that don't even have an interest in archaeology, like David Booth, have the opportunity to make fantastic discoveries whereas people like me, who do have an interest in archaeology, are required to spend thousands to get a chance.