Dear colleagues and friends,
The finding of a few man-made stone tools suddenly reveals that humans
stepped on that island 40.000 years ago. How and why did they arrive
there? What else did these people bring with them? Their knowledge and
their beliefs, their traditions, their language. And then what
happened? How come that beliefs, traditions and languages were
modified and acquired regional and local patterns? How come that
different cultures came to give specific identities to different human
groups? How come that humans expanded all over the Planet? How are
human abilities, concepts, and traditions born, and how do they travel
and have their course?
These questions arise in almost every study or research in
anthropology and archaeology. It may arise in every event,
conversation, thought or daily habit. It may arise even when you think
about your meal: how was this dish invented, where is it from? After
fire was mastered, grilled meat became the most widespread dish, and
did not need a plate. When the first cooking pot was invented, boiled
food allowed a much-diversified diet. Food today, apart from fire or
heat, requires a plate and a cooking pot. How, why and where did such
habits become part of culture? How did these habits diffuse?
The first homeland of humankind is believed to be a corner of Africa.
Other primates grew there as well and they are still there. Over 2
million years ago the ancestors of man produced the first tools to
enhance the abilities of their hands, and expanded their territory,
reaching Asia and Europe. How? Why?
Human colonization never stopped. High mountain ranges, regions of
thick forest and faraway islands were reached and settled much before
the invention of wheeled vehicles and motor boats. Islands, like
Crete, which has never been connected to a continent, have traces of
human presence already over 100,000 years ago. By then seafaring had
developed enough to allow the landing of entire clans on islands where
they settled down for generations.
From what we know, Australia was first populated some 60,000 years
ago. Some 40,000 years ago humans had crossed Beringia and were
present already in five continents. How and why did this diffusion
take place? In the course of a few millennia, hundreds of islands were
populated in the Pacific and seafaring people introduced and developed
different habits and patterns of culture. Major islands, like
Greenland or Madagascar, became populated by different waves of
migrants. The history of man is made of many stories, many events,
many adventures, many acts of daring and courage that reveal the
marvellous human adventure of curiosity and inquisitiveness. They
reveal your heritage, whoever you are, the identity of your ancestors:
explorers, discoverers, conquerors pushed by the biggest fault and the
biggest gift of our species: curiosity.
The diffusion of cultures never stopped. Clamorous events like the
diffusion of European culture in Australia totally changed its ethnic
identity; the diffusion of Christianity in Latin America or of Islam
in Asia and Africa introduced new values and changed beliefs, cult
practices, behavior, concepts, and social traditions. Society and
human relations were no longer the same. The diffusion of culture
imposes new patterns and eliminates previous ones.
The diffusion of cultures, the colonization of new living spaces, in
deserts, isolated islands, in almost inaccessible mountain ranges, the
expansion of cultural patterns, the elimination of other cultural
patterns, and the meeting and mingling of cultures and traditions
resulted in modern humanity. This reality is made up of an infinity of
adventures. Some may find space in a forthcoming issue of EXPRESSION.
Small details may inspire big thoughts. Even specific and local cases
of colonization or of changing of cultural patterns may contribute to
a more general overview. What is the story behind the diffusion of a
certain kind of pottery or that of a type of sailing boat? How come
that wheeled vehicles reached the four corners of the world?
Culture marks the destiny of humankind. Near Eastern Neolithic
peasants penetrated into Europe, it was an “illegal invasion of
extra-communitarians” that changed the ethnic identity of Europe and
created a new European identity and civilization which, in the course
of time, conquered the rest of the world. The spread and conquests of
the Chan agricultural people submitted pastoralists and hunters and
created the Chinese identity and civilization and the biggest nation
on Earth. The Roman empire submitted “Barbarians”, conquered people
from Iberia, Gallia, the Balkans, North Africa and the Near East, and
created a new cultural and social pattern: it was the base of a
conceptual background that favored the birth and growth of
Christianity. Many other events defined the diffusion of culture.
Every story, every tradition, every archeological testimonial find is
relevant. Even small events of tribal migrations, of cultural
influence, are part of global history.
Queries like the roots of Aboriginal arrival in Australia, the
diffusion of man in Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia, the
colonization and subsequent abandon of early cultural adventures in
the Tassili and other areas of the Sahara Desert, the early
penetration of peoples in the tropical forest of Amazonia or in that
of the Congo, the process of colonizing some tough regions like the
Tibet high range or the Kalahari, the Rub el-Khali or the Gobi
deserts, are significant events revealing the spirit of man. Every
story, every myth, like every archeological find, tells us a chapter
on the diffusion of culture.
Much still remains to be discovered or even understood. The Azores
Archipelago, is considered to have been inhabited first some 700 years
ago, but when the first recorded visitors arrived there they found
domestic goats pasturing in one of the islands. Somebody had been
there before.
Sometimes, a piece of pottery, a rock painting, the introduction of a
domestic animal or plant, or other relics of human action, may reveal
a story of migration or of influence, or of cultural diffusion.
Colleagues and friends having stories, ideas, documents to share are
cordially invited to join and propose their papers.
Please consider that EXPRESSION is not a periodical specialized in a
specific sector or area of archeology, it is a quarterly e-journal in
conceptual anthropology, addressed to institutions and individual
readers in 80 countries around the world. Make your text appealing to
this kind of audience. Avoid dry technical report. Tell your story to
a world of culture, make it interesting to people eager to learn from
you.
A forthcoming issue on “Cultural Diffusion” is planned for 2020.
Proposals or drafts of texts are welcome. Do not leave it to the last
minute. Details on how to present your paper are specified in the last
issue of EXPRESSION which may be requested for free to
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Cordial regards and best wishes for an inspiring new year,
Emmanuel Anati,
(General editor of EXPRESSION)
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