From: Van oost Kenneth (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Mon 12 Jan 2004 - 15:32:07 GMT
Watching ' Horizon ', dubbed in French, but anyway, it seemed to me
that the entirely sphere of wherein the Solutrean problem exists is primarily
for the sake of Western theoreum.
That beautifully made, symmetrical, bifacially flaked, laurel- leaf like shoul-
dered points of flint could provoke such a discussion is all due, I believe, to
our Western desire to see the world from our narrow perspective.
Moreover,that this view_ that Solutrean culture migrated from Europe to Ame-
rica,expending there and being the bias for the later and further development
of what is now know as American Indian culture_ is determined by this only
find struck me of my feet.
Not, that it couldn 't be true, though, but claiming that all American peoples
are decendents from European immigrants, goes to far.
One can appreciate the inner-perspective, the concept, the number of ele-
ments which many theorists have assumed, but IMO, such attempts obscure
reality.
A way of putting my point is suggesting that the above is a matter of Western
social/ cultural ideology_ a matter of inherent Western memeplexes which have
their own peculiar lexicon.
One, in this situation, is to drop the genetic connection to Siberia altogether,
favouring instead a more Western, European sense of migration.
There are several reasons why such a view is unconvincing. One of them has
to do with what me might call the modern political rationality which in general
runs thru' society, especially the American one and is perhaps more the ex-
pression of a religious faith than a conclusive social argument.
Deeply persisted beliefs, like creatonism in the US, have to be supported
to some extent. That peoples hold on and sometimes die in the name of
ideas is to take up an unpleasantly demeaning attitude towards them.
IMO, the wish to overestimate the role of the Solutrean cultural influence
in the development of later American society is a typical conservative
argument and it is a more radical attitude to hold that the white guy
afflicted all cultural developments all around the globe.
But, in memetic terms, it follows however that we can 't say, for sure,
that such a view is wrong, that there isn 't something in it !
Simply on account of their pervasiveness and durability of such - plexes
we can / may assume that they encode genuine needs and desires.
It may be wrong to believe that the sun moves round the earth, but it is
not absurd to hold that anthropology demands new investigations.
In certain definite respects, some individuals are inferior to others_ less
good- tempered, more prone to envy. It may be ridiculous to generalize
but we can understand well enough the logic.
It may be wrong to believe that the whole of the American continent has
been populated by European immigrants, but the feelings of ( American)
supremacy ( over other cultures), the utopian ( cultural) aspiration, and
since their world would fall apart if proven otherwise, we must regard the
implications which encapsulates such view by no means illusory.
This is a question of scientific power that we must watch very closely.
Regards,
Kenneth
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