11-15-2005, 04:02 PM
I've been reading this thread with great interest.
It took me a while to read through and understand the three of the Kivisild et al. papers (biology's been a while), and although they don't completely dismiss the AIT/AMT, they seem to have decided that it's not that probable:
http://jorde-lab.genetics.utah.edu/elibrar...visild_1999.pdf
"Deep common ancestry of Indian and western-Eurasian mitochondrial DNA lineages"
http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Kivisild2000.pdf
"An Indian Ancestry: a Key for Understanding Human Diversity in Europe and Beyond"
http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Kivisild2003a.pdf
Kivislid 2003 - "The Genetics of Language and Farming Spread in India"
But at least that's Archaeology, Philology, Anthropology, and now possibly Genetic Science on our side. Linguistics still seems to hang in the air. It's absurd that they want to argue for something that goes strongly against the conclusions drawn in the other disciplines.
But considering that people like Michael Witzel and others have devoted their entire life in researching one idea and working towards it, it's not so strange that they're not willing to consider any other alternative even when butting heads with the other disciplines. It's hard to do so when a mindset firmly is entrenched in one viewpoint.
And did anyone know that Witzel and some of his colleagues have decided that the Indus Script is not a script at all? They're offering $10,000 for anyone who cracks the code. In their view, the IVC was a non-literate civilization.
See: http://www.safarmer.com/
Then we'll never know what the IVC language was. And for Witzel et al. a non-literate civilisation is exactly what they need to continue their AMT: after all the Vedas indicate a literate civilisation. Then in their equation IVC != Vedic civilisation.
Guess Witzel and the others don't consider that perhaps the seals might have had nothing to do with the IVC's literary output, and their actual writing was done on other materials which didn't survive the times. That would mean they could have had some other script which we'll never know of. Or it could mean that they were the Vedic Indians and the Vedas was their literary work (still to be written down), while the Indus seals were just some spiritual or sacred artwork (or postal stamps). Maybe kids' walldrawings.
It took me a while to read through and understand the three of the Kivisild et al. papers (biology's been a while), and although they don't completely dismiss the AIT/AMT, they seem to have decided that it's not that probable:
http://jorde-lab.genetics.utah.edu/elibrar...visild_1999.pdf
"Deep common ancestry of Indian and western-Eurasian mitochondrial DNA lineages"
http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Kivisild2000.pdf
"An Indian Ancestry: a Key for Understanding Human Diversity in Europe and Beyond"
http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Kivisild2003a.pdf
Kivislid 2003 - "The Genetics of Language and Farming Spread in India"
But at least that's Archaeology, Philology, Anthropology, and now possibly Genetic Science on our side. Linguistics still seems to hang in the air. It's absurd that they want to argue for something that goes strongly against the conclusions drawn in the other disciplines.
But considering that people like Michael Witzel and others have devoted their entire life in researching one idea and working towards it, it's not so strange that they're not willing to consider any other alternative even when butting heads with the other disciplines. It's hard to do so when a mindset firmly is entrenched in one viewpoint.
And did anyone know that Witzel and some of his colleagues have decided that the Indus Script is not a script at all? They're offering $10,000 for anyone who cracks the code. In their view, the IVC was a non-literate civilization.
See: http://www.safarmer.com/
Then we'll never know what the IVC language was. And for Witzel et al. a non-literate civilisation is exactly what they need to continue their AMT: after all the Vedas indicate a literate civilisation. Then in their equation IVC != Vedic civilisation.
Guess Witzel and the others don't consider that perhaps the seals might have had nothing to do with the IVC's literary output, and their actual writing was done on other materials which didn't survive the times. That would mean they could have had some other script which we'll never know of. Or it could mean that they were the Vedic Indians and the Vedas was their literary work (still to be written down), while the Indus seals were just some spiritual or sacred artwork (or postal stamps). Maybe kids' walldrawings.