🚀 go-pugleaf

Yuri Kuchinsky wrote:

> Duncan Craig (dunkers@king.cts.com) wrote on Sat, 24 Oct 1998 10:13:24 -0700:
> :      (snipped)
>
> : > Considering the majority of the East Indian sites, are conducted by East
> : > Indians and/or have Indian University involement nowdays , the mindset
> : > would be leaning towards Pre-Colubian voyages, since that would raise the
> : > prestige of the Indians. Sort of like English historians claims on Roger Bacon
> : > coming up with gunpowder independent of the East....
>
> : Good point.
>
> I don't see it this way.
>
> : That's why I find it curious that in 1984, Beijing Universitys
> : leading historian vehemently denied Chinese excursions to the New World prior to
> : Columbus (L.A. Times, April 18, 1984).
> : Duncan
>
> I cannot speak for the Chinese scholar. But what is yours or Oscar's point
> exactly?

Oscars' point seems to be that we live in a chauvinist world where Russians claim to
have invented the bra; Africans, written language, and Americans, everything else that
the British didn't. It is understandable that he cites lack of crowing on the part of
the Indians to support his position against pre-Columbian maize on the Indian
subcontinent.My point is that using the braggadacio-meter to measure the validity of
archaeological theories, particularly in matters of trans-cultural contact, is a two
edged sword and faulty methodology. Does this make sense?


>
>
> You both imply that Chinese and/or Indians may have some prior bias. This
> is debatable. Perhaps they have a bias, but which way, and how strong?
>
> Even if they do have a bias for precolumbian contacts, I certainly don't
> think it's large enough to make a difference. The biggest factor here is
> ignorance. Very few people _anywhere_ are aware of these theories.
>
> Yuri.
>
> Yuri Kuchinsky -=- Toronto -=- http://www.globalserve.net/~yuku
>
> The USA is so enormous, and so numerous are its schools, colleges and
> religious seminaries, many devoted to special religious beliefs ranging
> from the unorthodox to the dotty, that we can hardly wonder at its
> yielding a more bounteous harvest of gobbledygook than the rest of the
> world put together.
>          -- Sir Peter Medawar

  Unfortunately, true.
 Regards,  Duncan