this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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submitted 11 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 32 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Yeah, it's been linked to systemic racist thought patterns (which are often unintentional but should be acknowledged). I explain it to people like this: take a handful of sand and turn your fist so that your palm faces perpendicular to the ground. Now release the sand slowly... What shape does it form? It isn't rocket science.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Ancient aliens literally has Nazi origins. They didn't just have race-science, but race-history. I guess you could call their thinking ancient-Aryans because they believed that impressive structures built by brown people must have been led by a Northern European diaspora who eventually vanished because of race-mixing.

You can watch the History channel all you want, but nobody is going to question the Parthenon or the Colosseum. Stonehenge is the only one I can think of where Aliens had to help white people.

[–] CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The two things you named were built thousands of years after the pyramids are believed to have been built though. You said it yourself, people think aliens helped with Stonehenge. That's because it's much older and there is no written history from when it was built.

I don't doubt racism is factor in all sorts of aspects in life but this seems like a massive fucking stretch. Maybe come up with better examples.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

https://hyperallergic.com/470795/pseudoarchaeology-and-the-racism-behind-ancient-aliens/

Pseudoarchaeology has a pretty long and not-so-awesome background due to the profession's colonial roots with treasure hunters, adventurers, and the like, especially in antiquarian circles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_archaeology

In the late 18th to 19th century archaeology became a national endeavor as personal cabinets of curios turned into national museums. People were now being hired to go out and collect artifacts to make a nation's collection more grand and to show how far a nation's reach extends. For example, Giovanni Battista Belzoni was hired by Henry Salt, the British consul to Egypt, to gather antiquities for Britain. In nineteenth-century Mexico, the expansion of the National Museum of Anthropology and the excavation of major archaeological ruins by Leopoldo Batres were part of the liberal regime of Porfirio Díaz to create a glorious image of Mexico's pre-Hispanic past.[22]

[–] CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

So that's great evidence for racism being in archeology in general but I still don't see the connection between that and people crediting aliens for things we don't completely understand.

Edit: There are definitely good examples in the article but they also use your argument about things that were built way more recently compared to things that were built before written language. Egyptians definitely built the pyramids, they're in Egypt so by definition that's what happened. But I really don't believe people getting excited over the mystery around how it happened and then pointing to aliens as a possible answer is rooted in racism at all. That being said, there seems be all sorts of nefarious reasons to put that alien explanation on things that are much easier explained without aliens.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah, and it is hard for many people to see the direct correlation of "Chariot of the Gods" etc. with Nazis because it isn't hitting them in the face. I try to show people that people were smart back then, too, instead of punishing these icky mindsets because they tend to be a bit reactionary anyway. Some people just don't know any better for a variety of reasons.

[–] sudoreboot@slrpnk.net 1 points 11 months ago

I was thinking "three ridges" first 😅 (I imagined the sand running between the four fingers of my semi-closed fist)

[–] teichflamme@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

Mind blown