There is rather
an esoteric article published on the CNN site. The article talks about archaeology which
per se should not seem unusual. The link to the article is tweeted
by the CNN Africa twitter handle. That again should not sound unusual. But what
is unusual is the content of the article. It talks about the long standing
esoteric theory of aliens responsible for civilization and thus many wonders of
the ancient world thus attributed to them. These include the pyramids in Egypt
to stone built structures in remote Easter Island as also in Stonehenge to
Nazca lines in Peru. This unusual sort of an article is enough to rile up
archaeologists across.
It is natural
for archaeologists to criticise these theories that seem outlandish. There is
enough work done by archaeology that seem to point to the human origins to the
building up of these ancient works. Yet the tone rather than pointing to the
evidence for the human origins is pointing towards something else. This is the
era of perhaps the white woke and woke seems to have infiltrated archaeology
too. An archaeologist Stephen Halmhofer tweeted
the alleged racist motives behind the story.
In fact, he has an article
written earlier by him on the alleged whiteness predominant in archaeology. In
fact, visiting his TL one finds many others archaeologists linking the CNN
story to the racist motives. Implied in their assertion is the story is an
alleged act to further white supremacy and deny the intelligence and ingenuity
of the non-whites. They further point out that most of the aliens created
civilisation stories are linked to the structures found in the non-European
regions thus a proof of its alleged racist underpinnings.
There is no
doubt a strong underlying white supremacy existing in many social sciences
disciplines. It would be unsurprising if one does not find so in archaeology as
in everywhere else. For varying reasons primarily through Schelling’s
segregation principle, not many non-whites have penetrated into some of these
areas in the Western world. The eugenics theory does get a setback or perhaps a
death knell on account of human tribal construction of these structures. Yet,
archaeology has advanced considerably and acknowledge the construction to be
the works of the ancients. They have been able to build good evidence and
reasons for the construction rather than being carried by the alien work. Yet
the theory of aliens seeding human earth civilization continues to attract a
certain following in niche circles.
Implied in this
are two major points. The first is obviously identifying the progenitors of
aliens seeding human civilization theory and secondly, why they command
attention. In other words, why as humans, we are fascinated by something
extraordinary happening in ancient times. The answers are not far to seek. They
lie in the nature of the subject and the way subject information and knowledge
gets transmitted across the domains and to the common man or woman in a
society.
The key figure
in propagating the alien theory is Erich Von Daniken. He is the one referred
too in the CNN story also. Yet he was far from an archaeologist. He was writer
and perhaps a good writer of fiction. At no point in his or after his death has
any archaeologist of worth accepted his theories. The theories which were
propagated by Daniken were more in the realm of popular circles rather than the
scholarly circles. One can hardly find any research paper of Von Daniken being
published in any reputed journal or publication. Therefore, the thought that
Von Daniken was romanticised by the mainstream archaeology to propagate white
eugenics would be erroneous and out of order. Von Daniken perhaps never
intended to publish in a scholarly journal and his objective was to gain TRPs
to borrow from the current jargon in the public. He was ostracized and
ridiculed throughout his life. In fact, it was found that many of things he
argued were made up and it is alleged he did not even visit those places. So
attributing the article and invoking Daniken mentioned therein to allege propagation
of white supremacy is something too farfetched and seeing conspiracy where
perhaps none exists. It would have been in order had Von Daniken been accepted
as a key scholar in the area despite shortcomings one too many in his thesis to
build a case for white supremacy.
It would be moot
at this juncture why Von Daniken gained popularity. His books were the
bestsellers of their times. This has to do with human tastes, preferences and
their yearning for something extraordinary and nostalgia for the ancient. These
books were published in an era where internet was unheard off. People did not
access to scholarly journals. Even the subject experts did not have adequate
access to scholarly papers leave alone the common man. The common man further
had no idea about geographical locations of these places. So therefore when
they read about the statues in Easter Island or Nazca lines in Peru, they would
no doubt be fascinated. The epics across the universe offer insights onto the wisdom,
knowledge and technology of the ancients attributing supernatural powers to
them. This fits well with the availability heuristic. There is mention in the
epics of the super human abilities in the ancients and somewhere this must be
connected to these ancient wonders. If human progress was gradual, this might
have been the work of aliens. Every epic or ancient mythological work refers to
the aliens or visit to alien planets and stars. All these factors no doubt
played in the minds of the readers thus leading to acceptance or at least
acknowledgement of such things to have been possible. This is pure human
nature. Furthermore, intrinsically, human nature is prone to beliefs in
conspiracies. Thus everything fitted well with the popularity of Von Daniken was
advocating as ancient astronaut theory.
As one surveys,
the basic human nature, it is the behaviour that created the beliefs rather
than an underlying logic to demonize the non-whites and their expertise in
construction technologies. Secondly, as discussed above, Von Daniken was hardly
an archaeologist and was hardly considered one. Therefore, what one is seeing
today the reaction of archaeologists is also perhaps to gain a certain social
desirability points among the liberal circuit and paint anything contrary as
reflection of white men’s supremacy? In fact, given the way these ancient
astronaut theories have evolved it is to cater to conspiracy seeking attitude
in a common man or woman that seeking to ascribe supernatural motives to whites
or deny such attributes in the non-whites.
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