Urban Elites, Natives and Settlers....

[Kirkhill]

The Telegraph had an article a couple of weeks back telling Brits to get out of Britain because the situation was so dire. Now they are running counter-point articles.

This one is from a 55 year old who finally bit the bullet after 30 years of hankering and took a job in Newfoundland just before Covid hit.



BLUF

He also took issue with Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, unveiling an Emergencies Act package in order to cope with the trucker protests, which included the ability to freeze their bank accounts.
This situation prompted his concern about the willingness of Canadians to “adopt things that were surprisingly authoritarian”.

“You get people who are locked into a certain political mindset and they won’t change - parts of the UK are like that. They’ve got that same mentality over there. They’ll vote Liberal because they don’t want to vote Conservative,” he said.
“I was allowed permanent residency but I didn’t take it up because I thought it only enabled me to stay in the country.
“It wouldn’t enable me to change any political direction and it wouldn’t enable me to disagree with politics in the country.
“Given Trudeau’s liking for freezing people’s bank accounts, if I had disagreed with anything that was going on they’d have just pulled my residency and I would have been off.
“At that point, I would have sold my house in Britain, my kids would have been in school for a few years and I would have been in a bad way so I was glad [to leave]. Over here in the UK, at least I feel like I’ve got a voice.”

‘The UK is unfairly positioned as a terrible place to live’: returning expats reveal their stories

From job opportunities to political differences, Telegraph readers reveal why they left the UK and the factors that brought them back

www.telegraph.co.uk

Andy Walker: ‘At least it feels like I’ve got a voice in the UK’​

The task of emigrating was an arduous one for Andy Walker, 55, who had his sights set on a move to Canada from as early as his 20s, when he first met his wife. “I was already in the mode of wanting to move to Canada,” he said.
“We actually went and spoke to people at Canada House to try and fill in the forms. But my wife didn’t want to for family reasons and so we put it off for a long time.”
A second attempt to move took place around 2013, but was once again scuppered - this time owing to Canada’s migration points system.
“About 10 years ago, I finally convinced my wife to do it and we filled in all the forms. However, I was one point off being able to get in and that was because of my age,” he said.
Fortunately for Mr Walker, who works as a software developer, a job opportunity arose in 2019 that enabled him to finally make the move in September of that year, and he set off for Newfoundland.
“There was a company called Verafin who were hiring lots of people,” he said.
“Because they are in Newfoundland, which had a specialist status within the Atlantic Immigration Program, they were able to bring more people in a lot quicker. I went and applied for them and they accepted me.”

Andy Walker in Newfoundland, Canada CREDIT: Andy Walker
The NHS was another important factor why Andy chose to leave the UK. He recalled how his father was treated by the NHS leading up to his death and how the urge to avoid a similar experience was a driving factor.
“When my dad died I was with him for a long time and I noticed the way he was treated on the NHS. I didn’t fancy getting old and being treated like that,” he explained.


He also pointed to political reasons for his move. “The country seemed to be in a bit of turmoil - especially after Brexit,” he said.
“There were lots of the same arguments going on, there was no movement in any direction. So I decided that I wanted to bring my kids up in a country that knows where it’s going and so we decided to do it.”
Adapting to life in Newfoundland came naturally to Mr Walker thanks partly to the cultural similarities. “I found Newfoundland to be very welcoming of the British. The flag of Newfoundland is like a butchered Union Jack and so they are still harping back to Britain,” he said.
“You could get fish and chips and there were local pubs – they were like here but just slightly off. So it wasn’t that bad, the people were nice and they all pulled together and helped each other out.”

Mr Walker described how the community came together to tackle snowfall in Newfoundland CREDIT: Andy Walker
This satisfaction, however, did not last long. Mr Walker began to grow frustrated with the lack of opportunities presented by his work. “I think my age was a big factor. I was stuck in this team of about five people and they were all in their mid-20s,” he said.
“I’d do the work that they wanted me to do and then I’d be waiting five days for someone to check my work and say it is all okay. It would take them ages to get around to doing it and that went on month after month.
“They would do these peer reviews of your performance within the team and based on these the company would either give you a pay rise or not. They were all fine, everyone was saying I was doing everything alright and I’d get pay rises – but I wasn’t offered any sort of promotion opportunities.
“In the end, I figured out that I was losing my skills in my old career and it didn’t look like I was going to get anywhere.”
Troubles at work led Mr Walker to question whether the move would be of any benefit for his children’s future.

‘I was allowed permanent residency but I didn’t take it up’​

Mr Walker’s decision was made easier when Covid struck and Canada implemented a complete lockdown.
“I was there until July 2020 and the reason I came back initially was because of Covid-19,” he said. “They wouldn’t let my family come and join me. They would let me out but they wouldn’t let anyone in and so I had to come back.”
He also took issue with Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, unveiling an Emergencies Act package in order to cope with the trucker protests, which included the ability to freeze their bank accounts.
This situation prompted his concern about the willingness of Canadians to “adopt things that were surprisingly authoritarian”.

“You get people who are locked into a certain political mindset and they won’t change - parts of the UK are like that. They’ve got that same mentality over there. They’ll vote Liberal because they don’t want to vote Conservative,” he said.
“I was allowed permanent residency but I didn’t take it up because I thought it only enabled me to stay in the country.
“It wouldn’t enable me to change any political direction and it wouldn’t enable me to disagree with politics in the country.
“Given Trudeau’s liking for freezing people’s bank accounts, if I had disagreed with anything that was going on they’d have just pulled my residency and I would have been off.
“At that point, I would have sold my house in Britain, my kids would have been in school for a few years and I would have been in a bad way so I was glad [to leave]. Over here in the UK, at least I feel like I’ve got a voice.”

 

[Brad Sallows]

The UK is land of the anti-social behaviour order and attempting to be a world leader in public video surveillance. I'll take an unnecessary public order emergency every few decades over that, any day.

 

[daftandbarmy]

The UK is land of the anti-social behaviour order and attempting to be a world leader in public video surveillance. I'll take an unnecessary public order emergency every few decades over that, any day.

Especially if China gave you a bargain

Britain to remove Chinese surveillance gear from government sites​

Equipment that could be exploited by Chinese intelligence will be taken down, with CCTV brands Hikvision and Dahua among those flagged by MPs

Britain has announced the removal of Chinese-made surveillance equipment from sensitive government sites as part of plans to address concerns they could be used for spying by China.
The government told its departments last year to stop installing Chinese-linked CCTV cameras in sensitive buildings.

In an announcement about a tightening of procurement rules, the Cabinet Office said: “We will also commit to publish a timeline for the removal of surveillance equipment produced by companies subject to China’s National Intelligence Law from sensitive central government sites.”
Chinese cameras leave British police vulnerable to spying, says watchdog
The statement did not name specific companies but MPs have previously called for a ban on the sale and use of security cameras made by Hikvision and Dahua, two partly state-owned Chinese firms, over privacy concerns about their products being linked to human rights abuses in China. Prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has cast China as the world’s greatest challenge to security and prosperity.

Britain to remove Chinese surveillance gear from government sites

Equipment that could be exploited by Chinese intelligence will be taken down, with CCTV brands Hikvision and Dahua among those flagged by MPs

www.theguardian.com

 

[McG]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1711928058532565058

 

[Kirkhill]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1711928058532565058

The evolution of language.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Being born here, I am a native Canadian. That's it, that's all. No other descriptors required.

 

[OldSolduer]

Being born here, I am a native Canadian. That's it, that's all. No other descriptors required.

I’ve stopped the hyphenating as well. I
Am a Canadian. No hyphenations needed

 

[Brad Sallows]

I’ve stopped the hyphenating as well. I
Am a Canadian. No hyphenations needed

As an alternative, we could start a fashion for attitude, rather than cultural, hyphenation. For example, I might be a Curmudgeon-Canadian.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

As an alternative, we could start a fashion for attitude, rather than cultural, hyphenation. For example, I might be a Curmudgeon-Canadian.

Might be?

 

[daftandbarmy]

As an alternative, we could start a fashion for attitude, rather than cultural, hyphenation. For example, I might be a Curmudgeon-Canadian.

 

[Kirkhill]

As an alternative, we could start a fashion for attitude, rather than cultural, hyphenation. For example, I might be a Curmudgeon-Canadian.

Oo. Oo. Oo.

Me too please sir!

 

[Weinie]

Oo. Oo. Oo.

Me too please sir!

Now we are a tribe......sigh.

 

[Kirkhill]

In my wanderings around the internet I have come across a series of articles that appeared in the Nunatsiaq News in the summer of 1999. They cover a disturbing subject - with humour.

The also highlight the lack of uniformity among the pre-Columbians. The Inuit and the Indians. The Athapaskans (Dene), the Algonkians (including Cree), the Mohawk (Iroquois) and the Aztecs. The Mohawk and the Aztecs are both farmers that subsisted on maize and built forts. One could call them settlers if one were so inclined.

Cannibal: Part One

Newspaper of record for Nunavut, and the Nunavik territory of Quebec

nunatsiaq.com

Cannibal: Part Two

Newspaper of record for Nunavut, and the Nunavik territory of Quebec

nunatsiaq.com

Cannibal: Part Three

Newspaper of record for Nunavut, and the Nunavik territory of Quebec

nunatsiaq.com

Cannibal: Part Four

Newspaper of record for Nunavut, and the Nunavik territory of Quebec

nunatsiaq.com

Cannibal: Part Five

Newspaper of record for Nunavut, and the Nunavik territory of Quebec

nunatsiaq.com

The entire series should be published as one and included in every Canadian grade school history text.

We can add some of the better examples of white settlers making themselves at home in the new land.

https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/01/evidence-of-cannibalism-found-at-jamestown-colony#

https://www.science.org/content/article/anasazi-ate-their-enemies

And, for the record, the word Anasazi is not a word the Anasazi use about themselves. Just like Eskimos, or eaters of raw meat, is a name applied by the Algonkian enemies of the Inuit so Anasazi is the name applied to locals by the invading Dene from Athabaska, the Navajo.

The name "Anasazi" has come to mean "ancient people," although the word itself is Navajo, meaning "enemy ancestors." [The Navajo word is anaasází (< anaa- "enemy", sází "ancestor").]

And a lot of these namings happened in what could be considered historical times - contemporaneous with Europe's Middle Ages.

And ..... given the headlines of the world the past few years perhaps we need reminders like this of how we come to see "The Other".

 

[Kirkhill]

More on the settlement of North America - this time following the introduction of the Bow and Arrow in its various forms.

Abstract​

There were at least four waves of bow and arrow use in northern North America. These occurred at 12000 ( M1 ca 9000 to 11000 BCE), 4500 (M2 ca 2500 BCE), 2400 (M3 ca 400 BCE), and after about 1300 (M4 ca 700 CE) years ago. But to understand the role of the bow and arrow in the north, one must begin in the eighteenth century, when the Russians first arrived in the Aleutian Islands. At that time, the Aleut were using both the atlatl and dart and the bow and arrow (Fig. ). This is significant for two particular and important reasons. First, there are few historic cases in which both technologies were used concurrently; second, the bow and arrow in the Aleutian Islands were used almost exclusively in warfare. The atlatl was a critical technology because the bow and arrow are useless for hunting sea mammals. One cannot launch an arrow from a kayak because it is too unstable and requires that both hands remain on a paddle. To use an atlatl, it is necessary only to stabilize the kayak with a paddle on one side and launch the atlatl dart with the opposite hand. The Aleut on the Alaska Peninsula did indeed use the bow and arrow to hunt caribou there. However, in the 1,400 km of the Aleutian Islands, there are no terrestrial mammals except humans and the bow was reserved almost exclusively for conflicts among them. The most significant event in the history of the bow and arrow is not its early introduction, but rather the Asian War Complex 1300 years ago, when the recurve and backed bows first entered the region, altering regional and hemispheric political dynamics forever. [Figure: see text].

The bow and arrow in northern North America - PubMed

There were at least four waves of bow and arrow use in northern North America. These occurred at 12000, 4500, 2400, and after about 1300 years ago. But to understand the role of the bow and arrow in the north, one must begin in the eighteenth century, when the Russians first arrived in the...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

All dates at BCE (Before the Common Era) so add 2023 years to get the full age.

The Bow and Arrow are an ancient weapons system

-59,000	Earliest evidence of Bow and Arrow​
-59,000	Sibudu bone arrowheads​

-28,000

Aurignacian-Perigordian cave drawings of people being pierced by arrows​

-15,000

Magdalenian cave drawings of people being pierced by arrows​

The M1 Bow and Arrow came to North America from Asia by way of the Arctic.

-9,000	Bow and Arrow M1 introduced to The Americas​
-9,000	The earliest evidence of the bow and arrow in North America is in the Arctic.​

-7,500​

The oldest fossil of a dog that has been found in Japan dates to 9,500 YBP.[123] With the beginning of the Holocene and its warmer weather, temperate deciduous forests rapidly spread onto the main island of Honshu and caused an adaption away from hunting megafauna (Naumann's elephant and Yabe's giant deer) to hunting the quicker sika deer and wild boar in dense forest. With this came a change in hunting technology, including a shift to smaller, triangular points for arrows. A study of the Jōmon people that lived on the Pacific coast of Honshu during the early Holocene shows that they were conducting individual dog burials and were probably using dogs as tools for hunting sika deer and wild boar, as hunters in Japan still do today.[113]​

-6,000

Arabian cultures making fluted spear points and arrowheads​

Megafauna could not be killed with arrows, or even injured. Larger, heavier points were required such as those launched by atlatls, throwing spears and harpoons.

The Bull Jumpers of Crete and the Picadors of Spain may be relics of this hunting tradition where the hunter had to get up close and personal.



The videos at the top are explicit in stating that the bow and arrow are useful only for animals in the 200 lb range - hogs, small deer and people although larger animals can be taken at very close range.

Bows and Arrows were in widespread use in warfare at this time and people were building palisaded enclosures and hill forts.

-5,300	El Trocs Cave in the Pyrenees - Neolithic Farmers - too far north for the usual Mediterranean farmers in Spain - genetics and location suggestion a connection to the Danube-Rhone migration route.​
-5,300	El Trocs Massacre broadly contemporaneous with Les Dogue rock art of battle scene depicting 29 warriors using bows and arrows against each other.​

-5,000	Massacre at Schoeneck-Killianstaedten - 26 Men, Children and Old Women of the Neolithic Farming Linear Ceramic Culture - No Young Women - all victims killed by arrows or blows to the head - shin bones shattered​
-5,000	Fortress Palisade built at Hotnitsa, Bulgaria - arrows found near the wall​

-4,000	Residents of Britain had a 1 in 14 chance of being smashed over the head and a 1 in 50 chance of dying as a result - Violence level decreased after 3200 BC​
-4,000	Wounds mostly made with blunt clubs and antler picks on the left side of the skulls (right handed assailants face to face) - occasionally axe heads, slingshots and arrows - men, women and children​

-3,600

Battle of Crickley Hill (Early Date) - arrows, clubs and spears​

-3,532

Maiden Castle Causewayed Enclosure abandoned after an attack - burnt wood and arrowheads - cache of slingshot at the entrance

-3,500

Cat's Brain Arrowheads

-3,330	Hambledon Hill Causewayed Enclosure Abandoned​
-3,330	Large numbers of flint arrowheads found at the entrance to Hambledon Hill, together with a burnt palisade, suggesting an attack and a violent end​

-3,300	Avebury Pallisades​
-3,300	Crickley Hill - 400 flint arrowheads, houses and gateways burnt​
-3,300	Battle of Crickley Hill (Late) - arrows, clubs and spears at entrance, like Hambledon Hill, suggesting an attack and a violent end​

-3,239

Death of Oetzi - Died by arrow after a fight and a chase - stomach full of 50% goat fat and the remainder a mix of goat meat, red deer meat and whole wheat with traces of ferns and spores

The M2 Bow and Arrow was also introduced to North America from Asia by way of the Arctic

-3,500

Bow and Arrow M2 introduced to The Americas​

-3,482

Arrival of the Bow and Arrow in the Arctic along with the Paleo-Eskimo of the Denbigh and others​

-3,000

Bow and Arrow Technology in the Lower Yukon of Alaska​

-3,000

Across a vast area from northwestern Alaska to Greenland, the Arctic Small Tool Tradition encompasses a number of Iocal and regionally specific artifact complexes. These complexes share a core and microblade technology used in the production of lanceolate, side and triangular end blades that were inserted into slotted antler foreshafts. One of the earliest of these regional manifestations is the Denbigh Flint Complex, known from Onion Portage in northwestern Alaska. Found there were narrow, long microblades and " ... tiny bipointed end and side blades for inserting into antler arrow and spearheads ... " (Anderson,1984:84). MacNeish (1958:93) identified this complex, which he estimated to date from 9000 B.C.-to 3000 B.C., as the earliest evidence of the bow in the New World. Recent area syntheses date this complex from ca. 3000 to 1600 B.C. (Anderson, 1984). After 1600 B.C., the microblades no longer occur, but are replaced by antler and chipped stone projectile points. These Arctic sites are identified with a tundra and seasonal sea mammal hunting economy (Anderson, 1984:83).​

-3,000

After 6000 B.C. in intep,," Alaska and northwestern Canada, the microblade technology is infused with an Archaic technology of more southerly origins to form the Northern Archaic -Tradition (Dumond, 1978:57). These microbIades may have paralleled Mesolithic usage as arrow barbs but there is no direct evidence; and a series of Ianceolate, leaf-shaped, side-notched, and stemmed large points were used throughout this long sequence. While bow technology may have occurred in these early traditions, clear evidence appears only after 3000 B.C​

-3,000

Paleo-Eskimo admixture with resident notherners yield Saqqaq culture of the Na-Dene (Athabaskans)​

-2,500

Bow and Arrow M2 introduced to The Americas​

-2,500

Arrival of the Paleo-Eskimo Saqqaq culture in Saqqaq - 2500 BC to 800 BC - 70 N​

-2,500

major innovations in bow and arrow technology ca. 2500 BCE might have coincided with the arrival of the Paleo-Eskimos​

-2,500

Initial dates for the bow appear progressively later from west to east across the Arctic. In the central Canadian Arctic, defmite evidence of the bow occurs in the Pre-Dorset period, ca. 2500 to 800 B.C. (Harp, 1978; Maxwell, 1984). Antler bow braces and handle fragments of small, recurved composite bows have been found along with thin triangular points (Maxwell, 1984:361). These sites exhibit evidence of seasonal exploitation of both coastal and interior tundra resources.​

-1,500

Bow and Arrow M2 in Eskimo Inuit territory.​

-1,400

Bow and Arrow M2 in Athabaskan Na-Dene Territory​

-2,200

Rise of the Sintashta Cultures of the Southern Ural Steppes​

-2,200

"The Sintashta bow, in our opinion, is a compound long bow with a number of special parts to enhance mechanics and expand functionality. Tests and simulations showed that the effective shooting of large Sintashta arrows required a bow tension of more than 28 kilograms, versus just 25 kilograms for a modern Olympic bow for men. The result of our experiment was a bow 187 cm long with 29.03 kg of tension. It can be used for target shooting at a distance of about 80 meters," said Ivan Semyan, head of the SUSU Laboratory of Experimental Archaeology. The penetration ability of this type of bow was so high that it could pierce even bone and horn plate armor, the scientists told us. This bow was likely an elite weapon of a chariot warrior, but could also be used by aristocrats to hunt large animals. The asymmetric shape of the bow, compensated by the balance of the horn parts, may have given the lower arm of the weapon special combat ergonomics, allowing it to be fired from the body of a war vehicle, experts believe. The researchers from South Ural State University reconstructed the four-thousand-year-old bow in a unique experiment. The foundation of the reconstruction was horn parts found in three burial complexes of the Sintashta people, an ancient Indo-Iranian tribe. They were located in the Southern Urals at the turn of 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, to which the famous Arkaim can be dated. The original bow elements found by archaeologists show a high quality of grinding and polishing. Horn parts are complex in shape and require many hours of drilling, sawing, cutting, and grinding with bronze tools, the scientists explained. Also, the creation of a quiver set, for example, required at least three specialists: a caster, a flint-splitter, and a bone carver.​

About 500 BCE there was a change in regime in the Arctic with the rise of the Dorset Culture. They did not use the Bow and Arrow at all.

-500	Neo-Eskimo Dorset Culture - 500 BC to 1000 AD​
-500	Dorset Culture doesn't use the Bow and Arrow or a drill previously employed by the earlier Paleo-Eskimos of the Independence Fjord and Saqqaq - North American Bow M2​

But it didn't take long before a new Bow and Arrow culture came into North America from the north.

-400​

Bow and Arrow M3 introduced to The Americas​

That seems to have been associated with the Caribou hunters and was then applied to hunting Buffalo on the plains. And applied to warfare.

200​	Bow and Arrow M3 in Salishan (Missoula) Ute (Great Basin) Territory​
200​	In the Northern Plains of Saskatchewan and Alberta, small side-notched Avonlea projectile points thought to represent arrow tips appear by 200 A.D. or slightly earlier. Kehoe (1966:839) associates these points with the southerly movement of Athabascan speakers onto the northern plains, where they readily altered their Caribou hunting pattern to take advantage of bison.​

300​	Bow and Arrow M3 in Mayan (Mexico) Territory​

500	Bow and Arrow M3 on the Plains, the West Coast and the BC Interior​

600	Bow and Arrow M3 in Mound Builder Territory (Caddoans, Mississippians, Great Lakes and St Lawrence)​
600	Late Woodland Period - fortifications, increased rates of violent death and traumatic injury in the skeletal record, population growth, agricultural intensification, increased sedentism and the appearance of the bow and arrow​
600	Earliest building of fortification in the Southeast coincides with the beginning of the Late Woodland Period 600-1000​

700	Bow and Arrow M3 in SE Woodlands​

700	The origin of Northern Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) is controversial though linguists tell us that their closest relations are Cherokee of the southern Appalachian Mountains.​
700	Proto-Iroquois began migrating north by 650 CE.​

1000

Owasco Culture of Central New York, Vermont and Eastern Pennsylvania started building villages surrounded by palisades on defensible hilltop sites around 1000 AD and by 1300 AD a recognizable Iroquois Culture had spread into New York. Between 1350 and 1600 the Old Iroquois Culture, centred in the lower Great Lakes region and New York constructed, on hill tops (and promontories?) villages that were sometimes enclosed by a low earthern wall upon, or in which was constructed a wooden stockade. The Whittlesey Culture in northwestern Ohio (Serpent Mound? As at Rice Lake?) between 1400 and 1650, protected their villages with a stockade of upright posts or earthern walls and upright posts combined. From 1300 to 1650 the Aztalan Culture in Wisconsin surrounded their settlements with palisades of upright logs covered with clay or grass. Bastions were placed at intervals along the stockade walls. Fire arrows were a threat.​

Finally around 700 CE the M4 Bow and Arrow of the Asian War Complex arrived in North America with the Inuit who proceeded to remove the Dorset culture at approximately the same time as the Vikings were also coming into the Dorset territory.

700	Bow and Arrow M4 introduced to The Americas​
700	Neo-Eskimo 2 arrival in Na-Dene (Athabaskan) territory 650 to 850 (e.g. the founding population of the Inuits who were part of the Birnirk and Thule cultures) in western Alaska​

1000	Thule Inuit Eskimos displace Dorset Eskimos - 1000 AD to 1500 AD - Bow and Arrow reintroduced​

The era is significant in that it coincides with the settlement of the Dene Navajo in the territory of the Anasazi, the Iroquois in the Eastern Woodlands and the westward spread of the Algonkian Anishinaabe.

In Eurasia if was the era of the Gokturks, Magyars, Bulgars and the Khazars on the steppes.

 

[FJAG]

Actually that's an interesting tangent you went off on.

Several years back I was researching for a book I was contemplating set in North America in the aftermath of the recession of the glaciers and in particular along the Lake Champlain basin after the Lake Agassiz drainage - so around 7-8,000 BC. Just for the fun of it I was planning on weaving in the discredited, if not fully rejected, Solutrean theory.

But I digress. In order to be realistic I researched a wide variety of tools, structures, foods, - how far salt water and ocean creatures came up the St Lawrence in those days etc. I was quite surprised to find that in this region (as in much of North America) the bow and arrow really made no inroads until about 6-700 AD (based on Lavanna points) and maybe as early as 2980 BCE (based on some speculative Brewerton points at a limited site in NY State).

In any event far after my selected era so atlatls it was.

I might get back to that one some day.

 

[Kirkhill]

Actually that's an interesting tangent you went off on.

Several years back I was researching for a book I was contemplating set in North America in the aftermath of the recession of the glaciers and in particular along the Lake Champlain basin after the Lake Agassiz drainage - so around 7-8,000 BC. Just for the fun of it I was planning on weaving in the discredited, if not fully rejected, Solutrean theory.

But I digress. In order to be realistic I researched a wide variety of tools, structures, foods, - how far salt water and ocean creatures came up the St Lawrence in those days etc. I was quite surprised to find that in this region (as in much of North America) the bow and arrow really made no inroads until about 6-700 AD (based on Lavanna points) and maybe as early as 2980 BCE (based on some speculative Brewerton points at a limited site in NY State).

In any event far after my selected era so atlatls it was.

I might get back to that one some day.

The Solutrean Hypothesis fascinates me. The timelines are all wrong for the Solutreans but I think, to borrow a Scottishism, the East to West movement hypothesis is Not Proven. It might or it might not be wrong.

I think southern anthropologists fail to grasp the possibilities of the ice, and in particular, the ice edge where the water meets the ice. Activity on the ice leaves no trace so it is hard to prove but with all the melting ice these days there certainly seems to be a lot of artifacts found that were deposited on the ice.

I think that it is not impossible, nor even improbable, that the people of the ice were circumnavigating the north, following the sea mammals at the ice edge by kayak and dog sled, and jumping both the Pacific and the Atlantic that way.

As late as the 1600s Inuit from Greenland turned up in Scotland in kayaks. They were sighted in the Orkneys and a couple made it as far south as Aberdeen.

 

[Spencer100]

People move! End of story.

Demographics! Everyone forgets to think about demographics

Almost everything going on boils down to demographics.

China is running out of time because if demographics....they are growing before they have grown rich...they have destroyed there age group tree. They are running out of time to do something about Taiwan.

Russian same problems as they are running out if time and people. The UKraine gambit was in part to dress some of these issues.

Gaza is also a demographic crisis at its heart.

Europe is growing old fast too..but offset by importing mid east and African populations that are not integrating.

Back to this topic...
The FNs here a demographic problem too....are the imported populations Canada has brought in feel the same toward FN issues and costs going forward? If I was a FN leader I would be moving very fast as the future does not look as favorable on big solutions and costs. But that is just a take on future population trends.


OT but related......We are also at peak "woke" (using this as catch all term for the current cultural zeitgeist) Many of the current trends will change with the demographic change in NA and Europe. Will Feminism as it currently is survive the coming change in demographics? Will other current touchstones of the 21st century? I don't think so...and it's not going to be pretty.