bajalera
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Deja Vu, Pericu! (Conclusion)
Deja Vu Pericu (Conclusion)
Updating the Anthropology
[Note: If I knew how to post italics and accents without making anything disappear, I certainly would have.)
Dr. Paul Rivet took detailed measurements of the skeletal remains deposited at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and found that an unusually
long-headed type of human skull had been collected in Baja California Sur, Melanesia, and Lagoa Santo, Brazil. Convinced that people from these
regions must have been related genetically, he assembled a lot of evidence to supplement the evidence provided by the skulls.
In addition to the major elements summarized in Deja Vu 2--blood type, material culture, language, and maritime technology--Rivet included ocean
currents, climate, and several other factors he felt could have made the journey from the South Pacific to the Cape Region feasible.
Unfortunately, the unusual skulls are about the only piece of Rivet's evidence that still stands. And when it comes to deciding whether there's a
relationship between human groups, bones just aren't as significant as material culture--the things people use in their daily life.
Although later studies have scuttled Rivet's conclusions, he certainly rates an A+ for overall effort, and his paper on Baja California archaeology
remains a prime contribution to peninsular research.
"Cherry-picking"--the careful selection of material that can be used to support a particular viewpoint--was a common strategy in many fields of
research in Rivet's day, and is still practiced in ours as well.
Consider, for example, a phrase taken from a study written by the respected anthropologist Wigberto Jimenez Moreno--that the long-headed people of the
Cape Region "certainly belong to a very ancient ethnic group." One of Mexico's foremost historians has cited this as evidence of Melanesian migration
to the peninsula. But here is the branch from which this cherry was picked:
"Most important is the disclosure--as much by ten Kate (1884) and Rivet (1909) as by Massey in 1947--of bundles containing secondary bones with
hyperdolichocephalic crania in the area Aschmann calls the Cape Region, which have been attributed to the Pericu. While this has been put in doubt,
the crania certainly belong to a very ancient ethnic group, given their kinship with those encountered in Texas and Lagoa Santa, Brazil."
Melanesians aren't mentioned at all in Professor Jimenez's paper, and the only maritime route to Baja he considers valid is a possible crossing of
the Gulf of California from the Mexican mainland, by way of Tiburon and Angel de la Guarda islands. (The Seris of the mainland had boats that could
easily make this passage.)
Dr. Pablo Martinez del Rio (not to be confused with Baja's Pablo L. Martinez) shared Rivet's interest in the populating of our continents, and in his
major life work--Los Origines Americanos--summarized the views of more researchers than I care to count.
In his peninsular history, Pablo L. quotes Pablo Martinez del Rio's summaries of the views of ten Kate and Quatrefages, giving the impression that
Martinez del Rio agreed with their theories. He did not. Ten Kate and Quatrefages aren't even included in his lengthy bibliography--a sure sign
Martinez del Rio didn't consider their research important. (In fact, I've browsed through his book a few times in search of Q's first name, but have
yet to find it mentioned.)
The distinctive Baja skulls still get way more attention than the material culture accompanying them, even though the artifacts were recorded some
half a century ago. In the 1940s and '50s, Dr. William C. Massey excavated burials from sites bordering the Bahia de las Palms, recovering artifacts
that in some cases were as unusual as the skulls. He named this assemblage of crania and artifacts the "Las Palmas" culture.
Massey found no evidence of Melanesian traits in either the archaeology or ethnographic accounts, and felt this absence indicated the Pericu had got
it right: their ancestors had arrived from the north and were gradually forced southward to the peninsula's tip by more aggressive groups that arrived
later. (We don't have to pity the Pericu--they got the best of the deal. )
The teeth of Las Palmas skulls have been studied by physical anthropologist Jose Antonio Pompa y Padilla, who reported, "There is no evidence, based
on genetic dental characteristics, for supporting the idea of some Pericu-New Guinea relationship."
A similar view is expressed by Fermin Reygadas Dahl and Guillermo Velazquez Ramirez in their book, El Grupo Pericu. They believe the peninsula's first
settlers arrived either overland from the north, or by sea from the mainland via Tiburon, San Esteban and San Lorenzo islands.
As Jimmy Smith pointed out, people traversing the Pacific would have brought along water, seeds and other plant material, dogs, pigs, chickens, and
rats. It's possible, I suppose, that by the time they made landfall, the Melanesians could have scarfed up all the plants and animals. And perhaps the
voyage had been such a traumatizing experience that they permanently forgot how to build seaworthy boats, raise food, make pottery, weave textiles,
and in other ways maintain the elements of their Oceanic culture. Although I wouldn't want to bet the palapa on this.
But let's get real. The image of those stalwart seafarers braving the stormy reaches of the Pacific, to finally wash ashore at the peninsula's tip,
has a romantic appeal that can withstand random encounters with the dull reports published in scholarly journals. The Melanesian ancestors of the
Pericu--like the giants who painted the rock-art murals and the Jesuits who stashed their
gold in the lost mission--will probably still be around long after you and I have disappeared.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barco, Miguel del. Historia natural y cronica de la antigua California, 2nd ed. Miguel Leon-Portilla, ed. Mexico, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autonoma,
1988.
Diguet, Leon. Territorio de la Baja California: Resena geografica y estadistica. Mexico, D.F. Libreria de la Vda. de C. Bouret, 1912.
________. "Anciannes sepultures indigenes de la Basse-Californie." Journal de la Societe americanistes de Paris, Vol II, New Series, 429-333, 1896.
Heizer, Robert F. and William C. Massey. "Aboriginal Navigation off the Coasts of Upper and Baja California." Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin
No. 151, pp. 33-42, 1953.
Jimenez Moreno, Wigberto. "Las lenguas y culturas indigenas de Baja California." Calafia, Vol. II, No. 5, 17-35, 1974.
Longinas-Martinez, Jose. California in 1792. Leslie Byrd Simpson, tr., ed. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1938.
Malinovski, Branislav. Argonauts of the Western Pacific.
Martinez, Pablo L. A History of Lower California: The Only Complete and Reliable One. Ethel Duffy Turner, tr. Mexico, D.F.: Editorial Baja California,
1960.
________. Lecciones de historia de Baja California, dedicados a la ninez de la peninsula. Mexico, D.F.: Editorial Baja California, 1958.
________. Historia de la Baja California. Mexico, D.F.: Editorial Baja California, 1956.
Martinez del Rio, Pablo. Los origenes americanos. Mexico, D.F.: Porrua Hermanos, 1936 (1st ed.). Paginas del Siglo XX, 1943 (2nd ed.(,
Massey, William C. "Survival of the Dart-Thrower on the Peninsula of Baja California." Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 17, pp. 81-93. 1961.
________. Culture History of the Cape Region. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1955
________. "Brief Report on Archaeological Investigations in Baja California." Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 3, pp. 345-349, 1947.
Pompa y Padilla, Jose Antonio. "Caracteristicas dentarias de los indigenes Pericu." Calafia, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 29-44/
Reygadas Dahl, Fermin and Guillermo Velazquez Ramirez. El grupo peridu de Baja California. La Paz: FONASAP, 1981.
Rivet, Paul. Los origenes del hombre americano. Jose Recasens, tr. Mexico, D.F.: Cuadernos Mexicanos, 1941.
________. "Recherches anthropologiques sur Baja California." Journal de Americanistes de Paris, New Series VI, pp. 146-235, 1909.
Swadish, Mauricio. "Los supuesto australianos en America," in Homenaje de Pablo Martine del Rio. Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropologia y
Historia, 1967.
ten Kate, Herman. "Sur la question de la pluralite et de la parente des races en Amerique." Compte-Rendu, 8 Congres International des Americanistes,
pp. 288-299. Paris, 1892.
________. "Materiaux pour servie a l anthropologie de la presqu'ils californienne." Bulletin de la Societe d' Anthropologie de Paris, Ser. 3, Vol. 7,
pp. 551-569, 1884.
[Edited on 11-25-2003 by bajalera]
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academicanarchist
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Bibliography
That is a very good bibliography. Small correction. It is Del Barco, Miguel.
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bajalera
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Thank you, Robert. Del Barco is what I would prefer, too. But Miguel Leon-Portilla, who edited that wonderful book, uses Barco as the last name, so I
followed his lead. (Barco still looks strange to me, though.)
Incidentally, I agree with your comments on racism. In a longer paper that provided the basis for the Deja Vu once-over, I pointed out that the 1955
Encyclopaedia Britannica gives only slightly more space to Anthropology than to Anthropometry--and that under the latter entry it notes that research
carried out in Australia had demonstrated that "deaf-and-dumb" children, reformatory inmates and aboriginal natives "all fail to present evidence of
brains of the volume shown by controls to be appropriate to comparable individuals of normal intelligence."
By the late '50s it had been established that Neanderthal brains were generally larger than those of homo sapiens, and Stephen Jay Gould had reported
errors in the measurements that had long supported the white-brains-are-bigger-thus-better theory. Despite all this, the big-brain nonsense still has
its aficionados even today. (Rivet, though, didn't appear to have any interest in this sort of thing.)
[Edited on 11-25-2003 by bajalera]
\"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest never happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.\" -
Mark Twain
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Mike Humfreville
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Thank You
So much for most of another romantic myth. But the concept is still working in the minds of many, kindled perhaps by Thor Hyderdahl (sp) in the '60's
with a touch of Eric Von Danekin (sp) for seasoning.
I don't know if you caught the thread starled by EGL on the current expedition to the Agua Verde area by a bunch of academics. While not as deep as
you and AA (it's still in preliminary report form - obviously no heavy analysis as yet) , it does make interesting reading.
As a result of something recently (here, perhaps) I stumbled on or was led to another Baja California web site:
http://www.nwpotters.org/baja
Much interesting information there as well.
Whats next? Cochimi?, Guaycura? Information on literature of the early Indians?
Necesitamos mas, porfavor
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bajalera
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Thanks, Mike. I'm working on The Second Harvest: A Second View. So far, have collected a good many decent ways to describe this Baja activity, but
only one--C. Mayo's book on the peninsula that Fred Metcalf recommented on his site--that comes right out and says sh*t.
That's an interesting site. Yes, I saw the posts about the expedition. A pity, I think, that the scientists didn't include Dr. Eric Ritter, the
archaeologist who has worked in that area for years and knows more about it than anybody. But maybe he was invited and couldn't make it.
[Edited on 11-26-2003 by bajalera]
\"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest never happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.\" -
Mark Twain
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academicanarchist
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Expedition
The description of the expedition indicates that it is directed at identifying flora and fauna. I don't think they would think to include Ritter,
although they probably should.
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