Posted by Racer on August 31, 2005, at 13:13:21
In reply to Re: Hello,my name is Racer, and I'm a book addict » Racer, posted by Damos on August 30, 2005, at 17:29:22
Well, I did finally start "Fat: Anthropology of an Obsession," but first I read a book I picked up for my husband at a used bookstore as a sort of a joke: "The First Walkabout" about the pre-Aboriginal Australians...
It's a kids' book, and it's definitely dated in that it talks about "primitive" cultures, which is Politically Incorrect in anthropology these days, but it's kinda interesting. Even includes some Meganthropus, since the authors say that there are so many legends of giants in the cultures that *maybe* there was some overlap...
Bothered me a tiny bit that they discussed the "Negritos" almost as if they were a sub-species of the genus Homo, rather than fully human. Since they say that the Negritos, with some interbreeding, were the ancestors of the Tasmanian Aboriginals, it might make sense since the Tasmanians were literally hunted into extinction by the early white settlers. One way to assuage the guilt, huh? (Remember, there are tons of sightings now of the thylacine, which was finally added to the Endangered Species list *six months after* the last one ever seen was shot... There's a lot of collective guilt down there...)
Then again, they also say that there were still some few tribes of Negritos left on the mainland until recently... {shrug} I am pretty ignorant about current understanding of the various Aborigines in Australia, but I do worry when I see the things like a few years ago when someone said that the Aborigines got to Australia 80,000 years ago. That's before modern Homo Sapiens Sapiens appeared, which would make them not *quite* human, you know?
OK. I'm done with my odd ramblings here. I'm going to go read about "We Need To Talk About Kevin" on Amazon, and then do something productive with my day. Or nap.
poster:Racer
thread:545472
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20050728/msgs/549225.html