Knowledge-base Tool Kit: The Convenient "Illegal Alien"

Many of us in our formative years, or else at some point in our adulthood, have become familiar with the mythical super-human personality known as Superman, amongst a number of other fictional characters with extraordinary strength and/or supernatural powers. The character was reportedly conceived in the early 30s by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, themselves immediate descendants of Jewish immigrants. Superman's first comic publication appearance is said to have occurred in 1938, in an Action Comics No.1. The so-called Superman had soon gained quite a following in American society and other corners of the globe, and had become something of a cultural icon in the U.S.—that is to say, a symbol of the United States of America. Photo stills or renditions of this super-human figure with either the American flag in the background, or the figure holding the American flag, had subsequently become a common sight in this country (U.S.A.). Even the popular Superman movies of the late seventies and eighties, which have somewhat immortalized Christopher Reeve—who played the alter-egos of the super-hero, elements of this jingoism can be detected, like for instance, in Superman's now familiar lines of; “Truth, Justice and the American Way”. This phenomenon had not been lost on observers, like Timothy Aaron Pevey for instance, who reportedly said as follows in his work, From Superman to Superbland: The Man of Steel's Popular Decline Among Postmodern Youth: "an immigrant figure whose desire was to fit into American culture as an American".

Summarizing clade M1

Clade M1 has been mentioned on this site quite a few times, usually in complicated molecular genetics jargon that some may be hard-pressed to understand. At times, the jargon proves to be complicated to the point that some individuals don't even realize it, when their ideological views about this clade are being refuted beyond little to no doubt. So to address this, the goal herein is to simplify basic facts about this clade to the extent possible.

Knowledge-base Tool Kit: What's with all this not Getting "Africa" Right?

It is a familiar name for one of the largest tectonic plates on the planet and something that primary school kids can easily place on the map. There are very few places on the globe where the name "Africa" has not been heard, yet it seems to be the most inexplicably misconstrued and misused name. Thanks to basic geography lessons in schools, kids can pretty much get the basic idea of Africa right; so why can't full grown adults?

Revisiting Body Proportion Indexes of Ancient Egyptians specimens

The question of ancient Egyptian body proportion indexes first appeared on this site under the discussion ""Demic Diffusion" Dynastic models: R.I.P", wherein the strengths and weaknesses of certain published journals was visited upon. It appears to be a topic that recurrently finds its way into internet forum discussions, usually through the initiation of reactionary elements within Eurocentric ideological circles in order to explain away what looks to be a consensus observation, i.e. the generally "tropical body proportions" of pre-dynastic and Dynastic ancient Egyptian specimens, which has also been described by some observers as "Super-Negroid" body proportions. Amongst the authors cited here earlier on, Sonia Zakrzewki's work, "Variation in Ancient Egyptian Stature and Body Proportions". Well, we will take another look at this publication, in light of some idea circling in cyberspace, about "tropical body plans" having no phylogenetic basis—which in this case, is recent ancestry in tropics—and is merely a function of adaptation to dietary quality. Note: Please click on all images to get greater resolution.

Lactase persistence genotypes and malaria susceptibility in Fulani of Mali: Review!

There seems to be a trend amongst 'western' geneticists, to cite third party (not of their own) sources to bolster theories that cannot be sufficiently explained by their own findings. This often leads to the referencing of sources that concern samples of geographic specifics, and possibly, sample sizes that are distinct from those of the research group doing the citing [of the foreign source], without full understanding of the archeological record and linguistic background of the sample subjects under study. A good example of this can be found in the 2009 study by Tishkoff et al. that was the topic of this blog in the same year, wherein the authors cite at least three different external sources on Fulani gene pool, concerning Y-DNA, mtDNA, and lactase persistence-affiliated T-13910 allele of the MCM6 gene, as means of securing support for a theory they envisioned from their limited data. For instance, they speculated that a section of their Fulani samples must have low to moderate levels of "European/Middle Eastern" ancestry, because there was some connection with the "European/Middle Eastern" cluster. Apparently their results were not sufficient enough to make that speculation conclusive, and so, compelled them to call on external sources as means to buttress their estimation of their results.

Modernization of Sahelian/Sudanic Archtectural Traditions

There is an attitude of dismissal amongst personalities who are foreign to and scornful of African cultures, with regards to elements of Sahelian/Sudanic architectural traditions, as merely simple structures of mud. Never mind the multiple layers of design both in physiology and building-material that constitute the Sahelian or Sudanic architectural traditions. In an earlier posting, the long tradition of building in stone in western Africa, along with several mud-built designs, was elaborately covered [see: Before the Ruins]. Perhaps nothing gets the point across better than photography, just how elaborate and sophisticated the otherwise "bland" looking architectural designs are; paint-jobs can do wonders in bringing out the true sophistry of these designs, that perhaps unpainted architecture do not make as apparent.

Getting to Know Ancient Egyptian Art - Continued

Here, we carry-over an ongoing topic on "Getting to Know Ancient Egyptian Art". This section will deal with certain codes which artists appear to have adhered to. These are recurring themes that appear to have then been timeless, in that they spanned several Dynasties despite new artistic styles sanctioned by succeeding rulers.