Pre-Siberian American Aborigines
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The name American Aborigines has been proposed by some archaeologists and anthropologists[attribution needed] for hypothetical peoples who lived in the Americas long before hunter-gatherer migrants from Siberia crossed the Bering Land Bridge to become the Paleo-Indians.
This theory is mainly supported by a number of archaeological finds, the dates and anatomical features of which do not fit into the more established Siberian migration or "Clovis First" theories. On the basis of that evidence, it has been speculated that those hypothetical American Aborigines could have come from other points of origin, including Oceania or southeast Asia, and spread through much of South America before being nearly exterminated or assimilated by the ancestors of today's Amerindians. However, this theory is still somewhat controversial, and the evidence is still being analyzed and published.
The proposed name collides with other established uses of "Aborigine" in American contexts; see American Aborigines (disambiguation).
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[edit] Possible Evidence of Early Migrations to the Americas
[edit] Cave paintings
One indication of possible American aboriginal settlement of South America came from cave paintings in Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil. The paintings, which some archaeologists claim are older than the supposed date of arrival of the Siberian migrations to the area, are in a style not seen elsewhere in native American art. Researchers also point to both the physical traits of human remains found at the sites and tool-making technology as highly distinct from that associated with the Clovis culture.
The elaborate ritual costumes shown in the paintings exhibit similarity to those used by Australian Aborigines as well as those used by the Fuegians, the natives of Tierra del Fuego. According to some researchers, such as Walter Neves of the University of Sao Paulo, the Fuegians (who were reduced to only one woman as of 2004) may be descendants of intermixing between American Aborigines and American Indians, and therefore the last surviving remnants of the original settlers.
[edit] Monte Verde
Monte Verde is an archaeological site in south-central Chile that pre-dates the earliest known Clovis culture site of Clovis, New Mexico, by 1000 years. One layer at Monte Verde is estimated to date to 12,500 years before present, making it one of the earliest inhabited sites in the Americas. At that time, the Bering Strait route was blocked by huge glaciers, suggesting that Monte Verde's inhabitants arrived long prior to dates associated with the Clovis culture, or via a different route. Another layer at Monte Verde has been radiocarbon dated to 33,000 B.P., although some archaeologists have questioned the methodology used to determine the older date.
[edit] Lagoa Santa
More solid evidence was found in the 1970s by anthropologist Anette Laming-Emperaire. In limestone caves of Lagoa Santa region in central Brazil, she unearthed the skeleton of a 20-year old, 1.50 m tall woman, later nicknamed "Luzia" (or "Lucia"). Laming-Emperaire died before she had a chance to study it. Some 20 years later, Walter Neves found the skull in the Quinta da Boa Vista National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, and found that its measurements were quite different from those of the later peoples descended from the Siberian migration(s), and more similar to those of Australian Aborigines, Melanesians, and Negritos. This find, dated between 10,500 and 9,500 BC, was greeted with much skepticism by the anthropological community. However, the find was eventually confirmed by remains of over 70 individuals with similar characteristics found in that same region. This matter [1] [2] has been discussed at great length by Dewar (2001) These findings have been linked to the widespread Jigue legend [3] to suggest African San migrations to the New World.
[edit] The Pericúes
Another boost to the theory came when anthropologist Rolando González-José of the University of Barcelona demonstrated that the remains of the Pericúes, a tribe that lived in Baja California Sur until the 18th century, were morphologically more similar to the Lagoa Santa finds than to any other group tested, and both were closer to the Australian Aborigines and Melanesians than to Siberians. The anomalous appearance of the Pericúes had already been noted by European visitors to the area.
In 1909 French ethnologist Paul Rivet first proposed a trans-Pacific origin of the Pericúes, although a more recent settlement of Pacific islanders (i.e. within the last few millenia) would not be considered a pre-Siberian migration.
[edit] Fuegians
The Fuegians of Tierra del Fuego at the extreme tip of South America are thought to be physically, culturally and linguistically distinct from other Native Americans. Some proponents of this theory suggest they may be the descendants of both the relative newcomers from Asia and American Aborigines. Both Tehuelches and Selk'nams practiced body painting in a way not unlike that of Australian aboriginals. In contrast to most other Amerindian peoples, Fuegians appeared to be taller than most Europeans (See: Patagon myth).
[edit] Kennewick Man
Kennewick Man, whose remains were found in Washington State, does not resemble today's Amerindians. Researchers suggested South-East Asian, Polynesian, Ainu or Caucasoid-like ancestry based on measurements of the skull. If confirmed, this would lend support to a theory that an important migration route lay along the North Pacific shoreline from Asia to America during a time when inland routes were blocked by ice. DNA analysis, which some Native American groups oppose, could help resolve this mystery, should there be enough left intact to extract from the bones.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Lagoa Santa group, from an Andaman site by George Weber.
- The Pericu group, ibid.
- Luzia, the first Brazilian from Veja magazine (in Portuguese).
- 11000 ans sur une carte at Science Presse (in French).
- The First Americans: Were They Australians? Augusto Cardich interview with The Mammoth Trumpet
- First Americans were Australian from BBC News
- Americas Settled by Two Groups of Early Humans, Study Says from National Geographic
- Cranial morphology of early Americans from Lagoa Santa, Brazil: Implications for the settlement of the New World Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 'Clovis First Doesn't Fit the Rich Prehistory of the Southern Continent' by Ruth Gruhn
[edit] References
- Adovasio, James and Jake Page (2003) The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology's Greatest Mystery. Modern Library
- Daley, Laurence (Larry) 2005 Is Luzia recorded in the myth of the Jigüe, Güije, Wijili, Jakuí, July 11, 2005 Amazon.com reader reviews of Dewar, Elaine 2001 Bones: Discovering the First Americans. Random House Canada, 2001, Carroll & Graf Publishers, US, 2002 Carroll and Graf
- Dewar, Elaine 2001 Bones: Discovering the First Americans. Random House Canada, 2001, Carroll & Graf Publishers, US, 2002
- Jones, Peter N. 2004 American Indian mtDNA, Y Chromosome Genetic Data, and the Peopling of North America. Boulder: Bauu Press.
- Jones, Peter N. 2005 Respect for the Ancestors: American Indian Cultural Affiliation in the American West. Boulder: Bauu Press.
- Mendes Corrêa, A. (1928) Nouvelles hypothèses sur le peuplement primitif de l'Amerique du Sud. Annaes, Faculdade de Sciencias do Porto 15 : 86-112. L’Anthropologie 38: 565-7.
- Neves, Walter; J.F. Powell; A. Prous; E.G. Ozolins and M. Blum (1999) "Lapa Vermelha IV Hominid I: Morphological affinities of the earliest known American"; American Genetics and Molecular Biology 22(4): 461-469.
- Neves, W. A., J. F. Powell, A. Prous, E. G. Ozolins, M. Blum – 1999 Lapa Vermelha IV Hominid I: morphological affinities of the earliest known American. Genetics and Molecular Biology 22(4) 461-469. http://www.scielo.br/pdf/gmb/v22n4/0929.pdf
- Neves, Walter A. and João Paulo V. Atui 2004 O mito da homogeneidade biológica na população paleoíndia de Lagoa Santa: implicações antropológicas Rev. Antropol. 47(1) 159-205 http://www.scielo.br/pdf/ra/v47n1/a05v47n1.pdf
- Pucciarelli, Héctor M. (2003) "Migraciones y variación craneofacial humana en América". Departamento Científico de Antropología del Museo de La Plata.
- Rivet, Paul (1943) Los orígenes del hombre americano. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
- Rivet, Paul (1909) "Recherches anthropologiques sur la Basse-Californie". Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris 6:147-253.
