[Leica] IMG: Quetzales

[scleroplex at gmail.com (scleroplex)]

turns out the stuff we were taught in school are not set in stone
or as prehistoric as they said

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_definitions_of_races_in_India

much of what is taught came from english sources in the 1930s and were
never updated
including much of the archaeological work in Iraq and Syria.

a few German and Italian expeditions have worked in the area since but have
not bothered to write
popular books and publicise their advances.

i visited a great exhibit at the Harvard Semitic Museum 10 years ago
called "Nuzi and the Hurrians"

http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k66717&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup103506

one of the items was a great clay pot inscribed with the name of King
Tusrutta,
which is a Sanskrit name, Dasaratha.

a later king by the same name was famously king of Ayodhya.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasharatha

according to the last Harvard expedition to that area, back in the 1930s,
the Hurrians are a Semitic people, hence the exhibit at the Semitic Museum.

at the same time the Hurrian kingdom of Mitani is considered Aryan, with
Sanskrit as the official language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitanni

i found the whole distinction totally unbelievable and unscientific.
definitely a case of making it up as you go along.
and it is an obscure field without much sunlight on the people working in
it.

perhaps now that the areas have undergone regime change, some proper work
can be carried out,
leaving behind all the unscientific racist assumptions from the 1930s.
they have simply carried on for too long, unlike in other fields.
:-)
bharani



Message: 43
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 12:37:57 +0530
From: Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: Quetzales
To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
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       <CAH1UNJ1YAPYU8A8ouMhWvnfGBb3K=wz5DZ0UHUwWp7G1P3PsRQ at 
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Bharani is absolutely right - it is a very old prehistoric prejudice, to do
with the fair skinned Central Asian Aryans coming in and driving the dark
skinned indigenous Dravidians southward into South India and Sri Lanka. By
the way, that BBC article makes complete sense - but do you know who are
the two biggest propagators of skin whitening creams, which, of course, BBC
will not mention? Unilever, followed by Proctor and Gamble, through their
Indian subsidiaries, of course!
Cheers
Jayanand