Mythology and oral history

I think we are foolish to discount the value of oral tradition and history. And because of that, our understanding of the past is often quite wrong. I don't read Razib Khan much anymore, but the Bell Beaker Blogger pointed out this article, where he discusses a recently published paper. I'll quote a few parts of it, recounting how it's likely that much of the stories of the Irish mythology probably do in fact represent genuine encounters between pre-Celtic Bell Beakers and the even earlier megalithic EEF peoples who were on Ireland before the arrival of the Bell Beakers.

https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2020/06/17/the-genetics-of-the-tuatha-de-danann/

First, let's address what remains of Marija Gimbutas' absurd "feminist archaeology" of Old Europe.  

 

There’s a lot of moving parts in this research, and the most interesting element isn’t the genetics, but the social structure that you can infer from the genetics. It seems entirely likely that the “Megalithic civilization” of Atlantic Europe was hierarchal. But this pretty much confirms it. As noted in the paper violations of first-order incest taboos as a cultural norm (as opposed to deviancy) are strongly associated with very stratified preliterate or semiliterate societies (with the possible exception of Zoroastrianism). Additionally, this research highlights that a set of individuals, likely paternally related, seem to be enriched in elite burials.

In a few circles, there are ideas that Neolithic Europeans were peaceful and matrilineal. The existence of stratification like this and the likelihood of ‘god-kings’ makes that very unlikely in Ireland. Though there was no doubt some variation in Neolithic Europe, the existence of “long-houses” in Germany from contemporary cultures is ominous. The matrilineal element is distinct. There are matrilineal societies that are quite warlike (e.g., the Nairs of Kerala or the Iroquois). But the possibility of common Y chromosomes suggests that this was a patrilineal society, which is, on the whole, more common anthropologically.

Patrilineal, violent male hierarchies among Old Europe are starting to look much more and more common. The TRB and GAC cultures were not Indo-European, but were arguably more savage and violent in spite of their incipient "civilizational" "urban" centers and whatnot. To be fair, the more urban centers were further south in the Tripolye and Cucuteni areas of the Balkans, but still. They were clearly often warlike too; those are fortified cities after all. The narrative of the Indo-Europeans being the bringer of oppressive violence is just cultural Marxism rearing its ugly head again. It's a just-so story of "your ancestors were evil, just like you are, therefore give all of your stuff to the Jews and other minorities." If it wasn't so deadly serious, it would farcical to really see what the gist of the prevailing narrative really boils down to. It's no wonder that I now say that racism is a hoax. Along with a great many other things.

Secondly, on oral histories:

This is incredible. Unless you are set in your ways I think it is hard to deny that the medieval Irish were passing on a recollection in their myth from an encounter between Bell Beakers and the late descendants of the Newgrange people. In The Isles Norman Davies argues that the Irish, unlike the English and the British more generally (Brythonic), kept their own mythology, and so have a sense of their past in a way that is uncommon among Northern European peoples. The Irish legends imply that there were multiple waves of people, and it is assumed that the people who live in the great mounds are the Tuatha Dé Danann, who became ancient Irish demigods.

I suspect that the early Bell Beakers viewed the monuments of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Newgrange people, like how some Americans view “Indian graveyards.” Even among modern people, there is superstition, so what can we expect from the ancients? The Greeks forgot their heritage and assumed that the cyclopean citadels of their ancestors were built by giants. No doubt agro-pastoralist Bell Beakers looked at the massive ruins, and perceived the work of the gods.

And we shouldn’t underestimate the ability of oral tradition to recall events for premodern people. Mount Mazama blew 7,700 years ago, but native people in the area have legends of that explosion. Australian Aboriginals have myths that clearly outline and detail landmarks that are now underwater due to rising sea levels. The point is that it’s plausible that facts that are 3,000 years old could persist down to Christian Ireland, and be recorded by priests.

Where this becomes relevant, I think, is that scientists should be very, very careful about being cavalier in brushing off the oral histories of native peoples, such as in the United States, because it disagrees with the establishment narrative. We already know that the establishment narrative was established by John Wesley Powell, and hasn't changed much, and much of the evidence collected by the Smithsonian during and before his time remains locked up and unanalyzed. John Wesley Powell was the son of a Methodist minister in upstate New York. He had two complementary ulterior motives for creating such a narrative: he didn't want to credit anything Joseph Smith had said or published in the Book of Mormon, which said that in the past there were high civilizational societies in the area, and he wanted to promote Manifest Destiny, which required that the Indians all having been savage, stone age barbarians into antiquity. Therefore all kinds of evidence of metalworking, cities, complex social structures, complex technology comparable to what was in the Old World, particularly with regards to the Hopewell remains, which farmers were digging up all over the place, was pushed aside, buried in the Smithsonian basement, written off as a hoax or other weird mystery that simply didn't fit and was ignored, etc. I could point to dozens if not hundreds of material evidences found of burial mounds, metal swords and armor, walled cities, written scripts, and evidence of sustained contact with the Old World, and more found throughout the Midwestern region of the United States, but most people simply aren't aware of at all, because it doesn't fit the prevailing establishment narrative and therefore it's all ignored and dismissed.

The same is true for evidence of megafauna lingering considerably longer than is credited after the ending of the Ice Age too, for that matter. But that's a whole 'nother discussion.