Ancient Bones or Political Correctness on Drugs?

10,000 year old bones unearthed on the Southern California coast in 1976, some of the oldest skeletons in the Western Hemisphere and a scientific treasure, are also bones of contention. A local tribe claimed that the bones were their direct ancestors and demanded them back a few years ago. A recent federal regulation apparently sides with the many tribes that want old bones, often being studied or residing in museums, returned to them. At first glance, this might seem reasonable. We do want to give grandma a burial proper to our cultural beliefs.

At second glance, anyone with even a passing knowledge of how populations migrate, shift and blend over many generations will realize that it would be difficult, if not impossible for a group of people to say that their particular tribe descended directly from a group of people who lived in the area 500 generations ago. Even with a highly skilled genealogist, I’d be hard pressed to identify ancestral origins ten generations back. To claim a direct decent from 10,000 year old bones would be to ignore the mass human migrations that have taken place since humans first crossed the land bridge from Siberia.

People move, people invade, and the newcomers mix with the established population. People die off or move away when weather or soil productivity turn against them, and over 10,000 years a lot of changes can occur: Forests can become savannahs and then deserts. Direct descendents?  Well, if you go back far enough, we’re all direct descendents of a small population that arose in Africa’s rift zone. Yet, somehow I don’t feel all that personally connected to those cavemen. Perhaps those advocating for the return of “ancestral bones” do feel intimately connected to 1,000,000 year old cavemen. From reading their point of view, I suspect they might.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that these bones are direct ancestors. Can some tribal member living in today’s Southern California say, with a straight face, while looking at these bones, “Ah yes, I remember great, great, great, great….. grandmother.”

In the hands of tribes, these bones get a ceremonial burial and everyone in the tribe gets a feel good moment. In the hands of scientists, they provide information about the various paths and obstacles encountered by humanity. They also serve to educate those who visit our museums.

However, federal regulations side with political correctness rather than reason and science.