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benlizross
 
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Default Heyerdahl ( Rat genes solve mystery of great Pacific odyssey

Yuri Kuchinsky wrote:

benlizross wrote:

[snip]

I was going to ask you for a reference, but then I noticed that this is
just a selection from the list in Heyerdahl 1952, pp. 92ff. Ho hum.

Ross Clark

I see... So it seems like, according to Dr. Clark's system
of values,

1. Anything that Heyerdahl has ever said is automatically
wrong.


No, this is not entirely correct.


Well, now we would expect Dr. Clark to specify which of
Heyerdahl's contributions to Polynesian history may be
important.


You don't seem to be reading at all carefully these days.
I simply rejected your ridiculous suggestion that everything H ever said
was "automatically" wrong.

But, I'm afraid, Dr. Clark has been remarkably short on
specifics of late...


Still haven't learned how to work Google Groups yet?

2. Any subject upon which Heyerdahl had ever touched is
automatically tainted, and is no longer worth talking about.


No, this is completely wrong.


No doubt these assumptions do simplify Dr. Clark's Universe
considerably...


No doubt you have not misunderstood what I said quite as completely as
you pretend to. I mentioned the list from H because you posted it here
already some 4 years ago, and, judging by today's posts, I am sure you
have nothing further to add to it.

Ross Clark


Have you yet dealt with what had already been posted some 4
years ago?

I guess not... So let me help you here a bit. Here's the
goods,

[quote what had already been posted some 4 years ago]

The following info is all brought together in Heyerdahl's
AMERICAN INDIANS IN THE PACIFIC, pages 92ff.

- special similarities between NWC and NZ, noted by Capt.
Cook
- similar double canoe
- same type of rudimentary sail used both on NWC and in NZ
- the sewing of wood
- same canoes, and same techniques of canoe-making
- same canoe-decorations
- the special neolithic elbow adze: identical on NWC and in
Polynesia.
- the rectangular plank-house
- similar house facade decorations, and house-posts
- mortuary and ancestral poles
- very similar petroglyph designs
- identical pounders and pestles
- identical hand-clubs (patu clubs)
- various fishing implements, especially the halibut hook
- the earth oven
- bark-cloth manufacture

[unquote]


Well, I notice you've still got "bark-cloth" in there, even though it
was made clear to you at the time that the NW coast peoples did not make
bark-cloth. We also dealt with the earth-oven here quite recently. It's
very widespread, no evidence of anything special.
And you can take out the word "special", which is a kind of pixie-dust
that Thor likes to sprinkle on various descriptions.
This leaves us with a lot of artefacts that (in Thor's opinion) are
"similar" or "very similar" or "identical". And here I fear we are
likely to get into the same impasse as we did with the "totem poles" a
while ago. You will look at them and say they are so similar they must
be related, whereas others will look at them and not see such a
similarity, beyond what one might expect from functional constraints,
chance resemblance, and common inheritance from an Asian past.
But if you can expand on one or two items and add something to what's on
the bare list, we might be able to have a discussion. What's special
about the halibut hook, for example? Since the Polynesians didn't catch
halibut, what would be the corresponding Polynesian hook?

Ross Clark