1. I have a few thoughts on Atlantis and other "lost" civilizations, ancient mound builders, Abraham Lincoln, Ezra Pound, the anthropologist Leo Frobenius, West African art and space aliens. Maybe also Jack Kirby.
-
-
6. A classic example of this tendency are the many theories about the mound builders of North America (. Were they vikings? The lost tribe of Jews? Abraham Lincoln in 1848 thought they were "species of extinct giants" pre-dating Adam and Eve.
Show this thread -
7. Now, Frobenius was not a Nazi (and in fact his positive view of African history was an inspiration for anti-imperial revolt). But of course some Nazis used his ideas to argue that Atlantis was the Aryan homeland.https://twitter.com/ExplorationBlog/status/1102285617076060163 …
Show this thread -
8. With his search for Atlantis in Africa (which inspired Nazi expeditions), Frobenius seems like a character out of pulp fiction: H. Rider Haggard, Lovecraft or the Indiana Jones movies. But of course, those fictions drew on figures like Frobenius.
Show this thread -
8. I think it's the Lovecraftian tradition that wedded the idea of ancient advanced civilizations with the science fiction conceit of alien visitations (from either other planets or dimensions). The up-lifting advanced white civilization became the advanced alien civilization
Show this thread -
9. I think with the creation of Black Panther in 1966, Jack Kirby was trying to see if this rather dismal tradition could be repurposed to anti-racist ends, with the role of the advanced hidden civilization being taken by Wakanda, a black nation.
Show this thread -
10. As a science fiction or pulp conceit, the idea of ancient astronauts is fun. But I do think people who palm it off as an actual theory (i.e von Däniken) are doing a lot of harm: poisoning our ability to appreciate these ancient cultures on their own terms.
Show this thread -
11. At bottom, these theories always show a fundamental failure of imagination: an inability to believe that there existed human communities outside the western tradition who created strange, wonderful, complex artifacts, sometimes beyond our skills.
Show this thread -
New conversation -
-
-
Hyphenated "crack-pot" is the most deliciously Jeet Victorianism I've read all weekend
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Mayanism was likewise the belief the Mayans were Atlantan. A racist 19th Century projection onto their culture.
-
*Atlantean. Atlantans are ppl from ATL, GA.
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.