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Early Amerind assimilation (Was: Re: Romans in the New World?)
Anthony West (aawest@CritPath.Org)
Mon, 29 Jul 1996 06:53:16 GMT
In article <4te72d$obm@dfw-ixnews10.ix.netcom.com> mbwillia@ix.netcom.com(Mary Beth Williams) writes:
>In <Dv7yt3.FL0@CritPath.Org> aawest@CritPath.Org (Anthony West) writes:
>
>>I'd like to see some discussion and literature refs on the
>>subject of social and genetic contacts between East Coast
>>Amerinds and Old World emigrants.
>
>Of course there was intermarriage, but in many, many cases the
>descendants opted to live as Indian and not *disappear* into white or
>black society.
>
Agreed. Before one asks why an ancient people vanished, one
should ask its living descendants if they really did vanish.
More than 300 years after Contact, scores of contemporary Native
North American communities perpetuate the heritage of Eastern
Amerinds.
>As most Eastern indigenous societies did not recognize
>the construct of *race*, half-breed children, as well as white
>adoptees, were viewed as *full-bloods* and accepted as full members of
>Indian society. I know that my own grandfather, purportedly a
>*full-blood* according to state and tribal documents (going back many
>years), obviously had *white* in him....
>
My question addresses the opposite outcome. Who has explored
the assimilation of some Amerinds into early (1500-1800)
North American "white" and "black" ethnic groups? To what
degree were these groups genetically and culturally modified
by Amerinds?
Hyperdiffusion is very bad, of course. But two-way diffusion
at a real social frontier is to be expected.
Tony West
Philadelphia
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