Posted on 03/02/2014 9:13:24 AM PST by ckilmer
Edited on 03/02/2014 3:00:55 PM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
The scene, discovered by archaeologists in Illinois more than 40 years ago, depicts one of the most extravagant acts of violence ever documented in ancient America: A thousand-year-old pit found under a tall earthen mound, lined from corner to corner with skeletons — 53 in all — neatly arranged two bodies deep, each layer separated by woven fiber mats.
(Excerpt) Read more at westerndigs.org ...
Well, I think the media in cahoots with the Democrats absconded with the blue. There’s really no other reason for it that I can think of.
The debates rankle me too. Why do the moderators have to ask questions? All that does is allow them to decide what issues will be discussed. Let the candidates ask each other questions. And by grace from heaven, please quit allowing some person wearing Berkenstocks and carrying a copy of the almanac and a global warming calculator to ask questions that were carefully selected weeks before the debate.
As if U. S. Citizens care about what will be done to increase the volume of ice cubs in the Arctic.
I like your 45 minute each idea. The moderator can then do all that he is good for. He can interrupt when the candidate’s time is up. Then shut up again...
Turn them loose, and let them go at it.
Read 1984 especially the part about newspeak.
LOL!
Pssst, don’t offeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend the muzzies and atheists.
yeah I noticed the same thing
but this is actually pretty typical of the rise and fall of civlization throughout history and prehistory everywhere around the world. Think the great and terrible wars of the 20th century won’t happen again. Think they have not happened over and over again throughout history and prehistory everywhere?
Think again.
LOL
Burning the place would eliminate pests/pathogens, and keep others from being affected as they might be if they occupied the structures or used the resources.
..................
They didn’t understand this kind of cause and effect at that time. Similarly, the black plagues of the 14th(?) century spread throughout europe and killed off half the population because no one understood what was causing the die offs.
yeah that’s what I was thinking.
It gets me how people will cuss like drunken sailors on a public forum while talking about Christ and the decay of the culture.
Even at the level of knowing something there was evil, causing sickness, that might be reason enough to try to purge it, something commonly done with fire.
While herbals are a significant side of traditional American Indian medicine, there is a spiritual aspect as well.
Not much of their medical literature survives--especially in an oral tradition--it is handed down from medicine man/woman to their apprentice(s), that does not stop them from understanding insect bites (and the presence of a new insect in their lodgings), or being able to see mold where there was none and put two and two together.
I would buy your arguments if it were not well known and documented that the Indians of central and south america variously practiced human sacrifice and or cannibalism. For that matter human sacrifice was standard in all parts of the world until the introduction of Christianity—which in this regards was just a popularization of what God told Moses and Joshua. For instance Cortez reaction to the Aztec was pretty much the same as that of Moses and Joshua,
The reason that the whole world stopped the practice of human sacrifice was that it seems everyone understood that the sacrifice of a man was not much better than a chicken or pig compared to the sacrifice of God’s own son.
I read that the Aztec priests were homosexuals in a book called the Conquest of New Spain by Cortez’s oldest lieutenant Bernal Diaz. Its only been translated into the english in the last 100 years or so.
Maybe but there was a huge die off of indians in south central and north america in the 1500’s from various diseases that Europeans brought to the new world. The Indians never knew what hit them.
For example there is now a heated argument over the fate of the Anasazi who faded out in roughly the same time period as Cahokia. In this case archaeologists have found lots of bones that clearly show the effects of cannibalism.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/06/0601_wireanasazi.html
I’ve read older documents in which Mexica law is described as having extreme penalties for homosexual behavior.
There are newer histories which portray them as being tolerant and accepting. I’m suspicious of these because they generally have a fairly obvious intent of contrasting the superiority of ancient cultures to today in this regard.
I believe there are conflicting stories both from the Nahuatl and Spanish stories of the time.
It is, however, beyond dispute that the Spanish used sodomy by the natives as one of their justifications for conquest. How accurate this was cannot probably be determined now.
For example there is now a heated argument over the fate of the Anasazi who faded out in roughly the same time period as Cahokia. In this case archaeologists have found lots of bones that clearly show the effects of cannibalism.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/06/0601_wireanasazi.html
It is, however, beyond dispute that the Spanish used sodomy by the natives as one of their justifications for conquest. How accurate this was cannot probably be determined now.
..........
It was also the case in the ancient near/middle east that human sacrifice and homosexuality in the priesthood went hand in hand. They were the twin abominations that God held against the Caananites. God told Moses and Abraham that he would give Caanan to them not because they were so good but rather because the Caananites were so bad.
That would be like saying the people of Mexico speak Spanish, so the Canadians do too.
Different tribes have different traditions, and even languages, and apparent similarities can be developed independently for different reasons.
The best reason I can think of to have a high mound in wooded terrain is to be able to observe the stars, solstices, and determine when to plant crops and when winter is coming. There are defensive reasons as well (observation of approaches to the town), and the ever-present 'deep religious significance'.
There is no reason to conclude that the people in Illinois/Missouri lived one way just because other people elsewhere did.
That doesn't mean they didn't practice sacrifice, whether those people be captives, slaves (oh, yes, the Indians had slaves), convicts, or other members of society sacrificed for whatever reason.
However, IF the bodies in the grave were indeed captives from other tribes the idea that the dental morphology of the locals would provide a baseline to determine sex of the bodies of people from other gene pools, which can differ in dentition and appearance beyond the normal gross similarities found in humans, is questionable. Without a baseline established from the other population(s) involved, the writer would be making a comparison which is invalid because of dental differences brought by diet and traditions in other bands/tribes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.