

The Bearded Gods Speak (1971) - bayonetz
http://www.whiteindians.com/diffusionism/bearded-gods.html

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dalke
Thor Heyerdahl, author of that piece, is well known for his diffusion
hypothesis. His work with Ra and Kon-Tiki shows that migration was _possible_
with even early technology. It doesn't mean it happened, or that the
hypothesis has any truth to it. (FWIW, I enjoyed his books about the two
journeys, and his book on Easter Island.)

The idea of an Egyptian/Aztec connection is often categorized as
"hyperdiffusion", and has the unfortunate tendency to highlight similarities,
without estimating if there were independent origins, or investigating
differences. See [http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2010/11/04/thor-
hey...](http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2010/11/04/thor-heyerdahl-
and-hyperdiffus/) for a more modern commentary on Heyerdahl.

Hyperdiffusion is nearly abandoned by academic research, for lack of evidence.

~~~
A_COMPUTER
The irony of writers like Rundkvist lumping Heyerdahl in with frauds like Von
Daniken is that Von Daniken's theories were predicated on the assumption that
"primitive" peoples didn't have the ability to accomplish such achievements,
and critics of Heyerdahl predicated their criticism on the same assumption. He
also didn't make any truly ridiculous leaps of plausibility that the ancient
astronauts theory requires. Hyperdiffusionism doesn't have any adherents today
because there wasn't enough evidence to sustain it, and inside the confines of
the scientific method Heyerdahl was not a scientist. But for the life of me I
don't understand the continued pathological need of people to disrespect the
man and his accomplishments.

------
teilo
I thought this was going to be about Unix administrators.

~~~
bayonetz
I hear you, man. That's why I intentionally changed the title to "Ever wonder
about Egyptian / Aztec connections?" so people would understand what it was
roughly about since the real title is so opaque. A moderator apparently did
not appreciate my intentions.

