[Aztlan] man in north america

[Reinaldo Morales, Jr.]

I believe I posted something to this list back when that TLC "documentary" came out. It was full of errors (very sensational). It discussed a "mongoloid" vs "negroid" race war that occurred about 9000 BP, based on cranial measurements made by Walter Neves (U. São Paulo) and (mis)interpretations of rock paintings at Serra da Capivara National Park in Piauí, Brazil. (I can re-post a summary of that video if anyone is interested. It seems the list archives do not go back that far... or do they?)
 
The "documentary" cited Anne-Marie Pessis and Niède Guidon's claims that Africans could have arrived in Brazil by boat +50,000 years ago, and that Australian aborigines could have done the same. That date is now claimed to be 150,000 years BP based in microscopic analysis of the lithics. This work was done by Robson Bonnichsen, according to Guidon. Unfortunately for us all, he passed away before this was published (http://anthropology.tamu.edu/faculty/bonnichsen/profile.htm).
 
The indigenous group from Tierra del Fuego was shown in turn-of-the-century films as living examples of the so-called "dancers" seen in the Serra da Capivara rock art (Pessis's idea). 
 
Dillehay's work in Chile was not mentioned, just the work in Serra da Capivara (Sítio da Pedra Furada) by Guidon. 
 
No DNA tests have been completed at Serra da Capivara. A recent publication claims the soil there does not preserve this material. (citation available on request)
 
Guidon and Pessis have claimed on occasions that Brazil was the heartland of American peopling, later giving rise to all the later Meso- and North-American cultures.
 
I posted a selected bibliography on Pedra Furada (not updated since 2003) at: www.ditomorales.com/pfbib.htm
Perhaps this will provide some help.
 
I just returned from Serra da Capivara, and can comment on NEW excavations ongoing at Pedra Furada if anyone is interested. My work involves the rock art, not the dirt archaeology, so please keep that in mind.
 
Best,
Dito Morales
rmorales at uca.edu
> To: Aztlan at lists.famsi.org> > Hi Robin> > There was a cable tv documentary some time ago, on TLC I think, that looked at the peopling of South America (and perhaps the Americas as a whole). One portion of the hour-long show was about native Fuegans who, as I recall the piece, were thought perhaps to be related to aboriginal Australians and to have arrived in the Americas before migrants from Asia. There was old black and white footage of some ceremonial activity in which the body decorations and activities appeared to closely resemble those of aboriginal Australians. There were also some interviews with two elderly women from the Fuegan tribe, sisters of mixed Fuegan and other heritage, who talked about > carrying fire in dugout canoes.> > I believe that what incited the making of the documentary was Tom Dillehay's discovery of Luzia (in Brazil?) and the DNA tests from the site.> > I can't say that TLC documentaries are particularly accurate, and I'm not stumping for this one's point of view, but it does respond to your question and echoes the ideas/thoughts of a number of native peoples in the Americas and in the Pacific.> > Looking at Tom Diilehay's published works may be a good source for your daughter.> > Don't know if any of this helps.> > Martha