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September 28, 2006
Oops
Once upon a time I knew an Indian scholar who insisted, amongst other things, that the CIA was determined to destroy India*, that the Vedas contained evidence of ancient space flight**, that the Vedas further contained the cure for AIDS***, and that there was no over-population problem in Akhand Bharat.**** Having read just enough Edward Said second-hand to arm himself with quotes to support his pre-existing grievance/cultural superiority he was a real pain in the neck.***** His most irritating claim, however, was that archaeological assertions of a pre-historic Aryan invasion of the sub-continent were in error. Racist, actually. He instead espoused an "Indian origin" hypothesis; or rather, theory which was in actuality a proven fact.******
This sort of thinking sends me round the twist. Not so much because people believe stupid things - one does not empty the ocean with an eye-dropper - but because this nonsense was being put forth as science. And what's more, he was surrounded by anthropologists so fearful of putting a foot wrong sensitivity-wise that he cheerfully spouted this line and went off to life as a tenure-track professor somewhere or other. To put it mildly, we are doing students no favours with this sort of thing. Not to mention our responsibility to scholarship, the past and the truth.
Proper learning calls for a different attitude. For example, my hilarity at discovering almost everything I have learned about pre-historic Britain may be in error.******* Stephen Oppenheimer has the details. Time to pick up a Basque phrase-book.********
Yet there is no agreement among historians or archaeologists on the meaning of the words "Celtic" or "Anglo-Saxon." What is more, new evidence from genetic analysis (see note below) indicates that the Anglo-Saxons and Celts, to the extent that they can be defined genetically, were both small immigrant minorities. Neither group had much more impact on the British Isles gene pool than the Vikings, the Normans or, indeed, immigrants of the past 50 years.
The genetic evidence shows that three quarters of our ancestors came to this corner of Europe as hunter-gatherers, between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago, after the melting of the ice caps but before the land broke away from the mainland and divided into islands. Our subsequent separation from Europe has preserved a genetic time capsule of southwestern Europe during the ice age, which we share most closely with the former ice-age refuge in the Basque country. The first settlers were unlikely to have spoken a Celtic language but possibly a tongue related to the unique Basque language.
* Were this true, India would probably be in safe hands.
** One shuddered to think of this fellow and his friends leaning out the windows of their Vedic spaceship whistling at passing alien beauties.
*** My suggestion he make this cure widely available thereby becoming wealthy and acclaimed in addition to saving countless lives met with a blank stare.
**** "Too many people? Bomb the Muslims! Ha ha ha!", I quote.
***** Though the only man I have ever met who put more sugar in his tea than I do and therefore felt no urge to comment on my taste in the matter.
****** Which being fact required no evidence or explication, naturally. And if you disagreed you were racist. Which you probably were anyway.
******* With my apologies to hundreds of archaeology students down through the last ten years. My bad.
******** This is the most embarrassing detail as it suggests at least some of the New Age storytelling about Atlantis is not as far off as any educated person would have assumed it to be. Such is the power of making up dozens of stories with no need for evidence: At least one of them might stray toward the mark.
Goscinny and Uderzo Update: A Flea-reader writes with a perfectly reasonable question regarding "Celtic and Basque language similarities":
Given the above, really, should it be that much of a shock that the Celts were invaders as the genetic record now seems to indicate?
One of the interesting points about these purported genetic findings is precisely how they point to this "Iberian origin" scenario underlined by the Classical literature and quite pointedly ignored by Victorian archaeology on down. The trouble with the Hallstatt and La Tène hypotheses is that they appear not to have been based on much more than what happens to have survived in spots we happened to have found it. That and assuming stylistic resemblances indicate cultural continuity, let alone descent. Imagine some post-apocalyptic archaeologist arguing Aspen was the centre of contemporary American civilization from remains which survived only because they were not on a nuclear targeting list. Or that 1960s Soviet Russia and 1960s Canada were politically homologous because of the similar style of men's hats unearthed at both locations. Archeology is full of these fanciful leaps; as if what remains of antiquity represent a contiguous and complete whole, one which in this case just happened to coincide with the rhetorical and narrative needs of 19th-century European nationalism.
The other trick with this quite sensible question is that Celtic languages and Basque are not related. In fact, and in so far as we can rely on predominant notions in linguistics, Basque appears to be unrelated to any Indo-European language. Hence the surprise to find stories of a pre-Roman Celtic conquest of the British isles seem to be unsupported at least in so far as a significant addition to the local population. This little factoid also tends to jeopardize much of the cultural and political grievance underlying contemporary Celtic nationalism(s).
Posted by Ghost of a flea at September 28, 2006 06:37 AM
Comments
'Celtic' is certainly not a racial term; to be a Celt is to be a member of a broad cultural group. It has nothing to do with race.
It's a point I know well, yet I do find myself repeating something to the effect that 'my ancestors came from the foothills of the Himalayas'. Some may have, but the point I should be making is that this was the origin of the movement of a group of people that brought with them into northern Europe a strong cultural influence.
In a Frank Delaney-ish Irish lilt, I say: To try to search out racial roots in the murky mists of the Celtic past is nothing more than a fool's errand.
Posted by: The_Campblog ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.ghostofaflea.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 28, 2006 06:58 AM
I would like to suggest an amendment to the official Flea Style Guide. Where extended footnotes cannot be avoided, could one replace asterisks with say superscripted numbers? I'm just sayin'...
Posted by: Chris Taylor at September 28, 2006 10:44 AM
Despite the enormous pleasure my multi-asterisk adventure of today gave me, I think superscripted numbers are an excellent idea. I would be grateful for your html expertise to guide me in how to proceed.
Posted by: Ghost of a flea at September 28, 2006 11:09 AM
Oh, but superscripted numbers will lose the effect of increasing scholarly depth. You see when I see 7 astericks, my brain instinctively believes that the Ghost is hitting a new level of scholarly cross-reference -- that much deepr than the preceding 6 astericks footnote. Call it the "accumulating astericks" effect - but I'd be very careful, least you lose your extra-special je ne sais pas.
Posted by: Joshua H. at September 28, 2006 12:39 PM
If I may be so bold as to presume, some HTML entity household hints are here: http://www.bbsinc.com/iso8859.html
You can also use the HTMLeriffic structure <sup><small>XYZ</small></sup> to make anything that you want as XYZ to appear tiny and raised in any situation.
Posted by: Alan McLeod at September 28, 2006 01:10 PM
I have had bad luck with HTML on this site in the past. The bullet point fiasco, for example. But it is worth a try!
Posted by: Ghost of a flea at September 28, 2006 01:13 PM
The superscript HTML tag is okay but it always screws up the line spacing for me. I have e-mailed some suggestions to Dr. Flea.
Posted by: Chris Taylor at September 28, 2006 01:19 PM
As an Anglo-Norman (I put this down any time people ask what race I am on a form...as I refuse to classify myself as merely "white" or Caucasian) I find these DNA studies to be fascinating. Its does seem that Viking and other "invader" blood did not penetrate as deep into the British ancestry as first believed.
Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge at September 28, 2006 01:30 PM
I you have a suggestion, Chris, I think it would be polite to share it with the whole class.
Posted by: Alan McLeod at September 28, 2006 04:23 PM
Yes Mr. McLeod... This guy and this guy have some ideas on how to prevent the dreaded line-spacing-unevenness.
I haven't decided which to throw into my own CSS stylesheet yet but as a not infrequent user of super- and subscript it will be necessary in the near future.
Posted by: Chris Taylor at September 28, 2006 07:28 PM
Ah, yes - the stylesheet. That is the one small thing my server overlords do not extend to me. I, therefore have that dreaded line-spacing-unevenness from time to time.
Posted by: Alan McLeod at September 28, 2006 08:40 PM
