From: baylor@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Baylor)
Newsgroups: alt.native
Subject: Re: Polyenesia (was Re: Question of Nativity), Alaska
Date: 27 Jan 1993 00:06:25 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
NNTP-Posting-Host: tigger.cc.utexas.edu

>This is a crock of shit.
>
	Ok, academic so far...

>1)  The Thai people speak a Sino-Tibetan language, which links them
>directly to the Chinese and Burmese people.  Malayo-Polynesian languages
>are spoken in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia in South-East Asia. 
>The Thai are NOT Polynesian!!!
>
>2)  The Tlingit language and culture are unique in the world, and not at
>all related to Polynesian or other cultures.  The same is true of their
>artwork.
>
	This assumes that the only way to identify a culture is by
linguistic families. Assuming we all came from africa and spread
outwards, it should be strange that we don't all speak the same linguistic
family.
	Further, should there be a bering crossing, then the tlingit language
wouldn't be uniqe, it would be the same as the cherokee, choctaw, tiwa, etc
(unless of course they came a different route, which was how this
started i believe, to the cries of bullshit).
	The polynesians were the best sailors around and are as responsible
for indochina culture as they are for australian aborigine (another long
journey and possibly also disputed).
	There are other factors, but i doubt it's interesting anyone...


>3)  I don't suppose YOU yourself have made this easy journey from Hawaii
>to Japan to Alaska?  You want to know how difficult it was to cross the
>Pacific before the modern ship?  Read about the Pacific crossings made by
>Spanish galleons going from the Philippines to Mexico for centuries during
>Spanish rule in those places.  If you still aren't convinced, try this
>"Alaska Crossing" yourself.
>
	Actually it's rather easy to get caught in a cross current and
get swept anywhere. That would somewhat explain the chinese anchors in
San Francisco (dated early 900 ad i think?) and the various japanese
inventions (metal, daggers)  that are found through out the aleutians.
	I doubt even in a new ocean liner i could make the crossing 
although one person (heyerdal? the scandanavian dude) did it and
documented it in kon tiki.
	Really, i'm not so sure why this should be impossible unless
i can do it. To each their own.
	Oh yeah, the tiny viking ships managed to keep america/greenland
settled for some centuries before the spanish arrived.


>What will you armchair anthropologists come up with next?  Links between
>the Tlingits and the "lost continents" of Atlantis and Mu?  It seems that
>when anthropologists or archaeologists have a theory to prove, they will
>disregard the evidence sitting right under their noses to make themselves
>look good.
>
	Someone i suspect has a major chip on their shoulder. I suppose
those liars the anthropolgists will claim the earth isn't flat and
people have been on the moon (something i personally have never done 
and therefore doubt anyone else could).
	I am far from an expert, but take some small bits of facts
from those i trust, namely my mother, the phd anthropologist who
spent 4 years in bangkok, and the books on chinese minorities written
by whoever writes such things.
	If any of this sparks some interest, i have a rather nice library
of books on this (phd-type books, not comic books).
	And we won't even discuss chinese maps of america found
in 10th century bc and quite highly documented.

>How do we know the "Bering Strait Migration" didn't go the other way?
>
>Chew on this for a while, people.
>
	Well if it's a joke, too bad, it's an interesting if as-yet
unsupported thought, but if you really don't know...

					- baylor


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