http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=514&PN=1 -
>the Kennewick Man mentioned in your article was very controversial here in my >state. He pre-dates other native americans
Nope. There are at least two PaleoIndians older than him (Buhl Woman & Wizard's Beach Man, probably the Marmes Burials as well) that closely match modern Native Americans.
For that matter, Penon III (AKA "Penon Woman") from Mexico was ALSO initially claimed to look White, but craniometric studies on her (by Pucciarelli, & by Gonzalez-Jose) have revealed that she closely matches modern Aztec from the same region (to a lesser but still significant degree, she also matched a scattering of North & South American Indians including the Pericu from Baja California, & Brazilian PaleoIndians from Lagoa Santa).
In general (see Powell & Neves' "Craniofacial Morphology of the First Americans" in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology), PaleoIndians fall into 3 rough clusters, most closely matching Australasians, Polynesians, SE Asians, NE Asians, and Native Americans.
>and has no mongoloid features.
Nope, read the scientific study on him at http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/kennewick/powell_rose.htm - http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/kennewick/powell_rose.htm
His features were a mix of what you'll find in Native Americans & Asians & Europeans (he's what is called proto-Mongoloid or sometimes proto-Caucasoid, although proto-Mongoloid is more accurate since the features first showed up in Asia. People with his general type of features later evolved into "Mongoloids" in Asia, into "Caucasians" in Europe, and into "Native Americans" in the Americas.)
> He is evidently a caucasian.
Not even close. Caucasians were the second LEAST similar racial population to him... only Africans were more distant.
He most closely matches various Asian, Pacific, and Native American peoples.
When reading the report, pay special attention to the data tables. Of the two cranial databases used for comparison, the Howells database had only 3 Native American samples (despite the Americas making up 43% of the planet's habitable surface) & so is virtually worthless in determining affinity to Native Americans. Not surprisingly, analyses using just it resulted in very low probabilities for ANY world population. Native Americans showed up here, but marginally less so than Polynesians & Japanese aborigines, both of whom have genetic & craniometric affinities to modern Native Americans as well.
The Hanihara database had something like 3 times as many Native American samples (still underrepresented, but it's a start). Using it, or a combination of it and the Howells, Beringian & Native American groups pop up as the closest matches. More significantly, FINALLY the analyses start giving probabilities of a match higher than a few percent. See http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/kennewick/p_rtable12.htm - http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/kennewick/p_rtable12.htm and http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/kennewick/p_rtable13.htm - http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/kennewick/p_rtable13.htm for matches as close at 90% or more. (BTW, Chukchi are from Siberia right next to the Bering Strait, and have intermarried with Siberian Eskimos quite a bit).
The Chatters reconstruction below is totally invalid. Chatters made it with the help of a local junior college art teacher, NEITHER of them had ever made a reconstruction. Despite the total lack of Caucasian affinities revealed in the study, they averaged Japanese & AMERICAN WHITE data for skin/tissue thickness, which biased the results in the direction of looking more Caucasian than it was. Worse, the method they used relies heavily on artistic license.... and Chatters specifically went looking for White people who he thought might match the skeleton. He's admitted in interviews that he "knew" what the reconstruction would look like MONTHS before it was finished, after seeing actor Patrick Stewart on a late night rerun of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" & "deciding" that Kennewick looked like him.
>He actually kind of looks like Jean-Leauc Picard.
See commentary above.
And go to
http://www.alias.com/eng/community/customer_stories/kennewic k_man.jhtml
for details on a SCIENTIFIC reconstruction that was made (Smithsonian scientist Doug Owsley, who helped make it, is one of the plaintiffs in the Kennewick Man lawsuit. So if anything, he's biased in favor of Kennewick NOT looking Asian/Native American.)
See the scientific reconstruction itself at
http://www.alias.com/eng/community/galleries/image_gallery/kennewick_man/index.jhtml;$sessionid$EDRTDFCIGUBG1QCLCWSCFEWAJMK0KIV0 - http://www.alias.com/eng/community/galleries/image_gallery/k ennewick_man/index.jhtml;$sessionid$EDRTDFCIGUBG1QCLCWSCFEWA JMK0KIV0
Note that the beard is unlikely, they put it in since Ainu have heavy beards (as do some Asians). But on the other hand, many full blooded Native Americans CAN grow sparse beards (traditionally, like in much of Asia, most tribes plucked or shaved their facial hair).
Kenuchelover.
|