[Aztlan] 2012 Conference Trailer

[Katherine Reece]

> I.  What's the big difference between the two groups

The academics care about the real history of the areas, the people who write 
the alternative books are only interested in book sales.  This is MY opinion 
and comes from my personal experiences of dealing with both, and I assure 
you my experience with alternative history writers is fairly extensive and 
covers almost a ten year period.   The alternative writers research as a 
rule is some of the most sloppy I have ever seen.  I can cite a book whose 
author is now exclaimed as a pyramid expert among the alternative crowd, who 
claims that people from Sundaland came to Peru when their island sunk and 
built Aspero and Caral.  He also says that after the preceramic period 
pyramid mound building went "extinct" and didn't start again until the 
Olmecs were taught how to build pyramids by the Chinese and that it then 
spread down to Peru again hundreds of years later.   Never mind that there 
is zero evidence for this, and that Sundaland sunk long long before the 
Caral time frame.  Even in his own book his contradicts himself, whereas he 
says early in the book that pyramid building went "extinct" in Peru, later 
in the book he says, "South of Mesoamerica, in Peru, where humans erected 
early pyramids at Aspero, the tradition of pyramid building continued, 
shifting and changing as it moved from culture to succeeding culture." 
Where he cites a reference it is almost always a newspaper story.

The academics ivory tower is not as high as some think.  There are many 
lists, like this one, where a layperson can join and ask questions and get 
real answers.  I've also emailed academics and been replied to, I know other 
laypeople who have as well.

There are also books published by academics that are not so difficult to 
read and are without the footnotes.  I've never actually understood the 
problem with footnotes, they serve a real purpose and are often very 
informative, but if they annoy you so much there are quite a few books 
without them.  The prices of the books vary because publishers know they'll 
have larger print runs with books with titles screaming the secret 
history... or the forbidden knowledge ...   Brian Fagan, Mike Moseley, 
Michael Coe, and others have written easy to read books.

Just because something is marketed better does not make it right.

Just *my* two cents......

Kat Reece
Founder / Director
In the Hall of Ma'at
http://www.hallofmaat.com
Amun Owner / Moderator
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amun
Contributing author to the book "Archaeological Fantasies:
How pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public"
http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=97
Kat's Personal Page
http://www.katherinereece.com/