Category: Native American DNA

Mechica: Indigenous Origin of the Chicano Hybrid Identity

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www.se.edu/native-american/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2020/06/4.pdf

Mechica: Indigenous Origin of the Chicano Hybrid Identity

Rolando J. Diaz Southeastern Oklahoma State University

Both Homi Bhabha and Gloria Anzaldúa speak of a “third” element that emerges as a “structure of ambivalence” (Bhabha 217) and as a “new consciousness” (Anzaldúa 102). Bhabha develops his concept of culture in terms of class, gender, and race, whereas Anzaldúa bases her concept of culture in terms of fluid, and transient borders. The term Mechica and the Chicano hybrid identity (historical, cultural, and linguistic) are presented here as an amalgamation of various components that when brought together result in something new, something distinct, and something altogether greater than the sum of its parts. The native roots of the Chicano can be traced back to the Aztecs and to other indigenous people in what would become Mexico. His European roots were introduced by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The complexity of the Chicano is that he is both the conqueror and the conquered. He is an amalgamation of both the indigenous and the European. He speaks the language of conquest (Spanish in Mexico; English in the United States), yet holds on to remnants of Nahuatl. This paper will approach the Chicano identity as hybrid of the Indigenous/Native American and the European/Spanish patrimonies.

Faith versus fact: the problem of Native American creationism and paleoanthropology in North America – Why Evolution Is True

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This article in Quillette caught my eye because it was about science—paleoanthropology—and its conflict with faith. The authors are a pair of anthropologists who have written a book about the topic, which is the perennial conflict between scientists on the one hand and Native Americans claiming ancient human remains that, they say, are their ancestors.…
— Read on whyevolutionistrue.com/2021/06/14/faith-versus-fact-the-problem-of-native-american-creationism-and-paleoanthropology-in-north-america/

A timeframe for human evolution | Nature Portfolio Ecology & Evolution Community

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A precise timeframe for human evolution is fundamental to contextualise key events that occurred during the evolution of our lineage. Our new phylogenetic study dates specific speciation events and provides important insights into body mass and encephalization trends in human evolution.
— Read on natureecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/a-timeframe-for-human-evolution

Opinion | Ancient DNA Is Changing How We Think About the Caribbean – The New York Times

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Some of the arguments for large population numbers in the pre-contact Americas have been motivated by an attempt to counter a myth, perpetuated by apologists for colonialism like the philosopher John Locke, that the Americas were a vast “vacuum domicilium,” or empty dwelling, populated by a handful of Indigenous groups whose displacement could be readily justified. In a similar vein, some of the arguments for large population sizes have been motivated by a desire to underscore how disastrous the arrival of Europeans was for Indigenous people.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2020/12/23/opinion/dna-caribbean-genocide.html

Shades of complexity: New perspectives on the evolution and genetic architecture of human skin – Quillen – 2019 – American Journal of Physical Anthropology – Wiley Online Library

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Shades of complexity: New perspectives on the evolution and genetic architecture of human skin – Quillen – 2019 – American Journal of Physical Anthropology – Wiley Online Library
— Read on onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajpa.23737