Op Ed #2, Easter island

[martes]

The latest National Geographic has a cover story about Easter island and it's famous statues.  By now the general scientific consensus is that the satues were built and moved by the Polynisians who originally settled the island hundreds of years ago, although the hows and whys are still being debated.  Since Western thought originally couldn't

Comments

[martes]

I am a heretic, not a heathen! Heretics just get burned at the stake-- at least heathens get a chance at forcible conversion. :P

[oldhans117]

And don't mention the cannibalism they seem to get quite upset about that little fact, as does people who have ancestors in the Donner Party .

[stavner]

Indigenous peoples get angry about such stuff all the time, even if it's true. "People have been saying this about us for centuries, and they even used it as an excuse to oppress us."

[martes]

I've heard rival tribes will often use charges of cannibalism against their enemies to make them look bad to westerners.. "We don't eat people, but that tribe over there does, all the time!"

[ironbadger]

Ah yes

[mejeep]

a slight tangent to that:
that's why I abhor the slime that oozes out of the TV when tuned to certain non-educational networks such as Discover, History, etc.
It's all UFO conspiracies and Hitler's cult that escaped in a flying saucer. A video equivalent of the National Enquirer, but with fewer Elvis sightings.

I volunteer at a science center and the head of the shipwreck museum once worked on some undersea/scuba rescues/salvages that were broadcast on the History network. But don't expect any more of the series. The new pres/CEO of the History channel said "there's too much History on the History Network" so in channel drift, she's favoring pseudo-science crap to bring in more audience. Maybe even enough to replace all those who left for lack of content :-/

[iisaw]

"...non-educational networks such as Discover, History, etc.

LMAO! If we were trying to make our nation more ignorant and superstitious, we couldn't do a better job of it!

[kvogel]

Variations of the "noble savage" and all that felgerkarb. Local ironic bit of archeology of coastal native groups. Some pre-european residential sites were preserved by land slides caused by the locals denuding up-slope areas, sort of undermining the natural eco-sensitive lore.