Guest Blogger: SHE

I would like to welcome our new guest blogger, SHE. He doesn't need any introduction.

Going on semi-retirement

I was thinking of taking a break from blogging. But I held on thinking I may miss many exciting genetic studies on India. Broader and deeper in their approach. But I find the same travesty and propaganda repeated in Watkins et al. 2008 and Zhao et al. 2008 studies. I think I can safely take few years break if people are still talking about standard European and East Asian genetic identities or people study Indian muslims as Shia and Sunni groups when in reality one should have been concentrating on Ashraf,Ajlaf and Arzal divisions. I hope I will not miss much.

The English

A gym in Hyderabad.
Days passed.
Weeks passed.
Months passed.
A Year passed.
After one and half year;
She: Bye
He1: Bye...Bye...
She: Bye
He2: Oh..ha...Bye

Next Day:
He1: Hello
He2: Hello

Need Help: Theoretical Anthropology

It would be a great help if somebody writes a blog post(and send me the link) on;
- Anglo-Saxon Literalism
- French Philosophical Anthropology
- Chinese Correlative Thought
approaches to Theoretical Anthropology. I would like to see descriptions and differences clearly explained with a case study.

How to fry without oil?.2

Now the stereotyper-in-chief BBC says fried and salty food are "Western Diet". And I used to think bland food and salad were their staple diet. Of course, that was my impression about China too but I have come across various types cooking that use copious amount of oil and salt. A Taiwanese even apologetically told me their diet wasn't healthy.

However, fried items may be a recent development in South India. Again Telugus maybe the exception here as they appear to fry every eatable vegetable. But I may be wrong about traditional Telugu food. But when it comes to salt and chilly Telugus are a cut above others.

Traditionally, people fried only fish. I haven't come across any other fried meat items. Then few snack food were fried. But snacks are staple diet only in IT industry.

Of course, neither oil nor salt came to India thro' these "Westerners". We have traditional endogamous castes of oil presser (Kan: gANiga) and salt maker (Kan: uppaliga).

We also have a type of Salad called pacaDi in Kannada or caLLi in Malayalam. It's just that we don't have lettuce leaves. I don't think those terms are derived from any IE languages.

But I wonder about this "West" when it comes to diet. Otherwise West encompasses Mediterranean regions like Greece. Then why healthy Mediterranean diet isn't part of Western diet. This in a way isn't all that wrong. I am thinking of genetic input that shaped cultural outlook of Greece and that is clearly West Asian.

In conclusion, BBC could have reported everything without 'Western Diet', 'Oriental Diet' nonsense.

PS: So we have to consume salad instead of salty food. It appears salad itself is derived from Latin Salata meaning 'salty'. Irony...Irony.

Approach to Comparative Anthropology - II

Justification:
5. Neither language nor culture are neutral attributes.
6. Archaeology has limitations due to;
6.1 Scarcity of data due geographical constraints
6.2 Inability to detect assimilations
Drawback:
7. Founder effect
8. Statistical age calculation methods that aren't real
Method:
9. Creation of nodes based on;
9.1 Observation of consistency of haplogroup distribution across isolated tribes
9.2 Observation of haplogroup distribution in surrounding non-tribal population
10. Fitting comparative philology and archaeology data to the distribution of male and female neutral markers.

Online Dravidian Scripts

I used to think kannaDa script was most beautiful as compared to tamizh or malayALam. This of course in handwritten or printed format. But online Kannada font is no match for Malayalam or Tamil. In fact, it is almost depressing. Pathetic pOLekAyi.

Approach to Comparative Anthropology - I

This blog's approach to comparative anthropology takes the following steps.

Data
1. Distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroups and mtDNA haplogroups in diverse groups
2. The isolation of these groups in the historical past
3. The common cultural motifs among these diverse groups
Analysis
4. Application of "convergent evolution" or "common beginning" on (3) based on (1)

Guest Blogger: Ibra

I would like to welcome Ibra as a guest blogger. His core field is mathematics but has a varied interest in Anthropology and Linguistics. He is a Canadian of Caribbean Indian ancestry. He belongs to Y-Haplogroup R1a1 clan.

Lost in translation

"Do you want cream on your Mocha?"
"Ah! No."
.
.
.
"You said, you don't want cream on your Mocha, right?"
"Oh! Yes."

How to fry without oil?

I don't know. I just want to check how many hits I get for this topic.

Help

I am looking for "Payyanur Pattu Pathavum Pathanavum". Author: Skaria Zacharia. Publication: Current Books, Kottayam (now part of DC Books, I suppose). Published only once. Not available in the stores.

Thanks.