Posted on 06/22/2003 9:14:54 AM PDT by blam
I've tried to connect these refugees to the 4,000 year old Caucasian mummies found in the Chinese desert. Some have even speculated that they are the same people who became the Ainu in ancient Japan (10K remain today) that replaced the previous Caucasian featured people there known as the Jomon.BTW, the present day Ainu are the hairiest humans on earth.
I didn't know that about the Ainu! Due to my fascination with ancient migratory routes, I find this very interesting. I wonder if there's been any DNA tests and other research to see if there's a link between them and the following people?
"Hypertrichosis is the general name for a group of conditions characterised by either localised or generalised excess hair. Its most extreme form is 'congenital generalised hypertrichosis' or 'hypertrichosis universalis', which medical researchers have traced it to a genetic problem which affects only one extended family in rural Mexico. [snip] ... Many of them seem to come from China, for some unknown reason." [That certainly fits with YOUR theory, doesn't it!!]
[scroll down at the website to read the rest of this.]
http://www.bizarremag.com/ask/freaks.phpAlthough some might make a connection to Bigfoot in the following article, maybe not. It's about giant, cannabilistic, hairy man-beasts from Native American mythology (maybe THEY are the ones who ate those people that's causing such a controversy in Archaeological/NA circles - and since the scat at the digs is "human", perhaps the mythological creatures were actually hairy men and not beasts.):
http://www.n2.net/prey/bigfoot/sbs/foster.htmHere's a real person, the Canadian "wolf boy":
http://jaronbs.com/coronation.htm
Don't you know that 'big' hair is a genetic trait of redneck Southern women, especially those who host programs on Christian broadcasting networks! Sheesh!! (LOL in case anyone thinks I'm serious).
The so-called "hairy" Ainu were given the name because they have abundant body hair like some Europeans and often have long, flowing beards in contrast to the Japanese people. If they're the "hairiest people on earth" I haven't been able to find a citation to that effect. Here's a comment from a site I just located:
"The Ainu are somewhat taller than the Japanese, stoutly built, well proportioned, with dark-brown eyes, high cheek-bones, short broad noses and faces lacking length. The hairiness of the Ainu has been much exaggerated. They are not more hairy than many Europeans. Never shaving after a certain age, the men have full beards and moustaches, but the stories of Ainu covered with hair like a bear are quite unjustified by facts. Men and women alike cut their hair level with the shoulders at the sides of the head, but trim it semicircularly behind."
Their origin is indeed mysterious but there's abundant evidence that shows they've been in the Japanese islands much longer than the Japanese themselves. Hokkaido and Honshu have many Ainu place names. Even the sacred volcano Fujiyama, is named for their fire goddess Fuji.
Ainu definitely have skins as light as Europeans and lack the Mongoloid epicanthic eyefold which gives Asians the appearance of slanted eyes. Yet to date no one knows where they came from originally. Their language is unlike any other and contains no clues so far as I can tell. DNA tests will probably tell the story some day. Some experts say they definitely have Mongoloid origins but it's unknown whether they may have Caucasoid genes.
I've only read once and recently that they were the 'hariest humans' on earth. Maybe not, huh?
The photos I've seen show them as normal-looking people but the men wear long, flowing beards. I think their religious practice of not shaving as adults has led to an exaggerated view of their "hairiness." The sites I visited seem to combine a lot of myth with actual observations.
It's interesting that anthropologist Christy G. Turner III (of Anasazi/Toltec cannibalism renown), an expert on tooth shapes, did a study comparing the teeth of the Ainu and Japanese. His conclusion (some years old now) was that the Ainu teeth are similar to prehistoric Japanese (Jomon?) but that modern Japanese teeth are similar to those of ancient Chinese. I haven't succeeded (so far) in finding any investigations of Ainu DNA. Possible connections with the Caucasion mummies of Tarum, China, are intriguing but so far as I can tell no definite connection has been established.
I'm somewhat familiar with the dental work of Christy Turner as David Chatters covered some of it in his book, Ancient Encounters. (Kennewick Man.)
Turner also proved that some of the ancient American Indians practiced cannibalism when he found a mummified corpolite (a turd) that contained human protein.
An interesting aside, the Jomon pottery is called 'cord' pottery and 'cord' pottery has been found in some of the Olmec sites in Mexico.
I've not seen and DNA on the Ainu either. However, Kennewick Man was declared to have a 23% (the majority) Ainu 'element' to his DNA. That would imply that there is Ainu DNA somewhere.
900AD paintings of Tocharians from the caves of the Buddhist Monestary at Bezeklik, Turfnan, central Asia. (Offering bags of money)
"An interesting bundle of traits occurs among the Ainu of northern Japan, who have light skin and thick brow ddges [sic], and are the hairiest people in the world."However, the source you cite sounds reasonable in its assertions.
http://www.msu.edu/course/iss/215/demers/howold.html
On the other hand, I also found this:
"On Murray River in South Australia, they were described as extremely hairy of chest and body, which puts them in a class with western white Europeans, who are probably the world's hairiest people."http://www.creationism.org/symposium/symp5no1.htm
I also found this:
"Blonde people have the most hair per inch, with an average of 140,000 hairs a head. Brunettes are next in line with an average of 110,000 hairs a head, then come people with black hair with an average of 105,000 hairs a head, and finally redheads, with the least hair averaging 90,000 hairs a head."My redheaded daughter would certainly dispute that allegation. She has the thickest head of hair I've ever seen. When she was little, I used to thin it out and would get a large grocery bag FULL of hair!http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/
Marvin Harris (bless his soul, he died last year at age 74) is one of my favorites and I have a number of his books my favorite of his that I have is Cannibals And Kings. Here's a link to that site.
Count Hayahsi, Japanese Minister Of State For Foreign Affairs, 1908. (An Ainu)
Yup. I lived in San Jose for years (I left in 1973). I remember those H.A. characters well.
I lived briefly in S.J. in 1971 but ended up in San Leandro where I found work a couple of months later. It was always interesting to drive to Oakland along the 580 at 70 mph or so and watch the little specks behind you become H-A's on their choppers. They must have been traveling at least 100 mph. They always got off on Golf Links Road where H-A president Sonny Barger reputedly kept a lion chained in his back yard. It was a colorful time to live in the Bay Area!
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