SV: [Y-Indology] Explaining discontinuities in culture

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naga_ganesan [sMTP:naga_ganesan] skrev 18. mai 2001

19:46:

> I recall that Lars Martin once mentioned about Brahmins

> with dark skin color recorded even in old times.

> The gene flow must have been a two way path, Manu

> records the one way he likes to have.

 

If I remember the debate on AIT correctly, the point was that a number of

"indigenous" non-Aryan notables were coopted into the Aryan fold, in other

words elites coopting a "native" elite (the theory that Aryanism was

cultural, not racial). Anyway, as far as I remember, there is mention in

the Brahmanas/Upanishads of people moving upwards in the caste system: you

could "become" a brahman, you didn't have to be born one. But I don't know

how much this should be emphasized. If we look at Latin America and the

fate of the Indian cultures in that area, it is clear that Europeans

basically took control. The local native aristocracies were pushed aside.

In the case of India, I suspect that the ruling principle was

"realpolitik". You coopted when you had too.

 

Lars Martin

 

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse

Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,

0674 Oslo

Norway

Phone: +47 22 32 12 19

Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45

Fax 1: +47 22 32 12 19

Fax 2: +47 85 02 12 50 (InFax)

Email: lmfosse