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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1595
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 08:05 pm: | 
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Taking slavery a step back. Early Mexican graves hold Africans, UW pair say
By SUSANNE RUST
Posted: Jan. 30, 2006
Within just a few years of Christopher Columbus' journey to the New World, West African slaves appeared in the Western Hemisphere. And researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Autonomous University of the Yucatan, in Merida, Mexico, may have found one of the earliest gravesites of these unwilling travelers.
In a Yucatan church graveyard, dated between 1550 and the late 1600s - around the time of Shakespeare - four bodies of African origin have been discovered. Their racial identity was confirmed by dental chemistry and appearance.
"What's amazing is that two of us came to the same conclusion," about the origin of these skeletons, "based on separate and independent lines of evidence," said James Burton, a UW archaeo-chemist who analyzed the dental chemistry of the 500-year-old skeletons.
The research is reported in the February volume of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
In 2000, excavations in the city center of Campeche, a Yucatan peninsula town and historic Spanish/Portuguese port, revealed the foundations of an early colonial church and graveyard: a multiethnic cemetery used between the mid-16th century and the late 17th century.
"It was a surprise to find Africans, Mesoamericans and Europeans," all buried in the same plot, said T. Douglas Price, a professor of anthropology at UW and lead author of the paper.
Ten of the roughly 180 skeletons discovered appeared to be of African ethnicity. Three of these had a peculiar pattern of tooth decoration - or dental mutilation - never before observed in pre-colonial Campeche: Their front teeth, or incisors, were filed and chipped away to points.
While rare in native people of the Western Hemisphere, this type of dental decoration was not uncommon in West Africa, or among other first-generation slaves who were later brought to the New World.
The appearance of the teeth made Vera Tiesler, an anthropologist at the Autonomous University, guess that these three people were born in Africa.
To be sure, she sent the teeth - as well as teeth from several other individuals, including the seven other people she identified as West African - to Burton and Price at UW.
She wanted them to look at the tooth chemistry and see if they could tell where they had been born.
Price and Burton use strontium isotopes to pinpoint the birthplace of people.
Strontium is an element found in most rocks. It enters the human body through food. As strontium leaches from bedrock to soil and into groundwater, the plant and animal life of a geographical region absorbs it.
Strontium has an affinity for teeth and bone, and it works its way into them. Therefore, the skeletons and teeth of creatures living in a particular region will have the same strontium ratio as the bedrock underlying their ecosystem. And because the enamel on a person's first molar tends to accumulate before birth, the signature found in that tooth will reflect the geography - and geology - of that person's birth.
In general, strontium ratios range from 0.703 to 0.750.
In the Campeche region, which is located on a layer of Eocene limestone, strontium ratios tend to range between 0.7077 and 0.7092. Therefore, Price and Burton predicted that anybody who was born in, or near, Campeche should have ratios less than 0.710.
Before receiving the teeth, Burton did not know about the three individuals Tiesler had definitively pegged as West African. And, because she sent him first molars - the tooth of choice for his analyses - he did not have the mutilated incisors in front of him to indicate anything was out of the ordinary.
That's why he was amazed when he looked at his readings: Five had strontium isotope ratios between 0.7126 and 0.7334. These were some of the highest ratios he had ever measured in humans.
"These values exceed all others that we have measured from throughout Mesoamerica," the authors wrote in their paper, citing the more than 340 samples they have analyzed. And it led Burton and Price to conclude that these five people probably didn't come from Central or southern North America - but instead from West Africa.
West Africa made sense
Price and Burton concede that there are parts of North and South America where such high readings could be found. But given the historical context of Campeche, West Africa made more sense.
That, combined with the fact that another team of archeologists had found similar readings in teeth from first-generation West African slaves discovered in a New York City burial ground, clinched their thinking.
One of the high readings was not quite as high as the other four. The researchers have not yet figured out where this individual is from.
The other five people Tiesler suspected to be of African ethnicity may have been born in Campeche.
Their analyses and conclusions have been well received by the scientific community.
Michael Blakey, a professor of anthropology and American studies at the College of William & Mary in Virginia - and former director of the New York City African Burial Ground Project - said the team "should be congratulated for successfully reproducing results that strengthen our confidence in the method of chemical sourcing, and for expanding our understanding of the African diaspora in early Mexico."
And James Sweet, a professor of history at UW, who was not involved in the study, said their conclusions correspond with what he knows about the early slave trade in the New World.
But Christopher Moore, a historian and research coordinator for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a program of the New York Public Library, suggested the Africans discovered might not have been slaves, but free men.
"Why not?" asked Moore.
Although it's probably more likely the individuals were slaves - given the history of the region - there were free Africans living in Mexico and Central America during this period, Moore said. He cited a particular African navigator, Estaban Gomez, who sailed Spanish ships.
Sweet mentioned Juan Garrido, a famous Spanish African conquistador from the early 16th century.
But West African slaves started coming to the New World shortly after Columbus, and by the mid-1700s, there were at least 200,000 slaves living in Mexico.
Moore also noted that records from New Amsterdam - New York City's former name - indicate that Campeche-born Mesoamericans were being exported to the city as slaves during the 16th century.
"It's hard to enslave someone at home," he said.
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Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 626
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 09:19 pm: |
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Africans came before then, but maybe on their own. I remember seeing something about (I think) the Olmecs. They had some VERY large stone statues of heads, that clearly had African features. |
Anunaki3600
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Anunaki3600
Post Number: 139
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 02:14 am: |
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prof. Ivan Van Sertima has written a lot about the Olmec civilization and the presence of Africans in the Americas before Columbus. Other authors such as Zacharia Sitchin claim that Africans came to the Americas during the ancient Egyptian times and spread the "Sun God" religion, Astronomy. etc. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4108
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 04:25 am: |
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Tonya,
What does this article mean to you? Should Black foks be especially interested in and/or proud of there were Africans in Mexico prior and subsequent to Columbus? If so, why? |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1605
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 11:25 am: |
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Abm,
"Should Black foks be especially interested in and/or proud of there were Africans in Mexico prior and subsequent to Columbus?"
It depends on what their status was. Were they slaves or free men. This article doesn't answer that though it raises many questions; which happens to be what I found so interesting about it. It supplies more questions than answers. I was hoping that it would prompt alot of replies from other posters so that I could gain more insight.
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 619
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 11:46 am: |
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Well, I hope this helps for insight:
http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/ancientamerica.htm
This one's got some nice pictures of today's black mexicans:
http://www.afromexico.org/
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/feature/ethnic/bv/vaughnindex.html
http://www.afromexico.com/
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/feature/ethnic/bv/photo.htm
all courtesy of Nubianem's website:
http://dalitstan.org
And a few articles from runoko rashidi's:
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/america.html
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/america2.html
One would assume that africans came to america as free men prior to columbus. Not every black person that crossed the ocean came AS CHATTEL. |
Mrs_hart
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mrs_hart
Post Number: 285
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 02:25 pm: |
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Were Osama's and Kola's "love children" found in the mix? ooooh! I forgot!!! "Handsome and Brilliant" Osama raped Kola.
Maybe he thought she needed something to do since she was hanging about in hotel lobbies in the capacity of partygirl/model/hostess/actress/escort... |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1612
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 02:53 pm: |
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Now that's what I'm talking about Roxie!!!! Thanks a milllion!!! |
Mrs_hart
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mrs_hart
Post Number: 286
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 03:00 pm: |
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"One would assume that africans came to america as free men prior to columbus. Not every black person that crossed the ocean came AS CHATTEL"
If you are from America, then you would have learned about the Conquisitors in grade school, who had Black people on board with them when they reached South America.
This information is not so new. Only new to those who weren't listening the first time around, or are simply from some other country.
As a matter of fact, this was recently broadcast on PBS. |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 628
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 03:52 pm: |
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Mrs.Hart,
Guess what? Very few children learn this stuff in school and even fewer voluntarily watch PBS. I learned about Esteban (a black man who traveled across the SW and mexico w/ the spanish in 1526 ) NOT in school, but in my public library, and not until I was 16. Nowadays kids don't bother to go to their library unless they have to.
And if you bothered to click the links you would have learned that the black presence in america PRE-DATES the european presence. We never need white men to cross the ocean. But then with that ego of yours........... |
Serenasailor
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 210
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 04:29 pm: |
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Mrs.Hart,
Guess what? Very few children learn this stuff in school and even fewer voluntarily watch PBS. I learned about Esteban (a black man who traveled across the SW and mexico w/ the spanish in 1526 ) NOT in school, but in my public library, and not until I was 16. Nowadays kids don't bother to go to their library unless they have to.
And if you bothered to click the links you would have learned that the black presence in america PRE-DATES the european presence. We never need white men to cross the ocean. But then with that ego of yours...........
I have a friend who as an authentic statue of an African featured god in Mexico. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1615
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 05:46 pm: |
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Mrs. Hart, nobody's disputing the fact that there were some free men. I think we're all interested in knowing if there were settlements of them; did they form communities ect. And if you know so much, why do you enlighten us instead of talking all that bullshit? Jeez!
(I'm seriously not looking forward to menopause. Seriously.) |
Mrs_hart
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mrs_hart
Post Number: 297
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 07:44 pm: |
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Enlighten yourself, dear. Think back to the fourth grade (if you made it that far)when this was introduced to you.
You're not from some old scuzzy country in Africa are you? Oh then, so sorry.
Anyway, Einstein, since you are on the Net, enlighten your OWN self. Oh, yeah that has been an ABSYMAL failure in itself, hasn't it?
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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1622
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 02:58 am: |
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I don't know what country you're from but I went to one of the best schools in philly and this shit was NOT taught to me in no fourth grade. From K to 12, my majority white, upper/middle class schools taught me that there weren't any black people on the PLANET...... until slavery, when the white man CREATED them. And that ain't no lie.
So please sis, let me get my black history on without your pickaninny Condi Rice ass blowing my flo. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4156
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 03:01 am: |
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Tonya,
What's that of yours Condi Rice is blowing? |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1623
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 03:07 am: |
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"What's that of yours Condi Rice is blowing?"
You talking about the real Condi or Mrs. Hart? |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4159
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 03:19 am: |
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Either or both.
You pick. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1625
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 04:10 am: |
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Abm,
Condi's name came about because I wanted to call Mrs. Hart an Uncle Tom. But since Mrs Hart's a woman, and Uncle Tom is clearly a man, I couldn't do that. So I had to pick a female (dead or alive) to serve as a fill-in. Quite a duty, isn't it? Can't say it's a noble one but it's a duty nonetheless. Anyway, Condi Rice, a black female whose political philosophy comes closest to our current poster child's for Uncle Toms, Clearence Thomas, seemed suitable enough for my liking. She'll get a bling-bling studded medallion from me for her service.
As for Mrs. Hart, I got her message, and I know she's sending it for my own good. For that I thank her. But as Babygirl often says to Kola, a good message can sometimes get lost if it's not sermonized appropriately.. with tact, for example. That's my beef with Mrs. Hart. That, and the fact that she smells like fart, tee-hee.
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 631
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 08:44 am: |
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Mrs. Hart's sense of logic: "If it happened to me, it happened to everyone." |
Mrs_hart
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mrs_hart
Post Number: 302
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 09:10 am: |
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You're not from some old scuzzy country in Africa are you? Oh then, so sorry.
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Mrs_hart
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mrs_hart
Post Number: 303
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 09:15 am: |
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"So please sis, let me get my black history on without your pickaninny Condi Rice ass blowing my flo."
You have NO "flo". You have already explained above that you were poorly educated. Better go back to mopping that "flo" girl. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1626
Registered: 07-2005
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 01:21 pm: |
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A scuzzy country in Africa ???
Naw you ain't black.
From now on you have to either get ignored or get that ass spanked.
Which ever way the wind blows me... |
Enchanted
Veteran Poster
Username: Enchanted
Post Number: 55
Registered: 11-2005
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 01:24 pm: |
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I told you all before. Mrs. Hart is a white homosexual male or a biracial one. Just read his posts over and over again and you will find a pattern.
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Mrs_hart
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mrs_hart
Post Number: 306
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 03:27 pm: |
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OOOH! Are you are still USING that SUPER-DE-DUPER SPY-O-RAMA COMPUTER THAT ALLOWS YOU TO SEE WHAT EVERYONE LOOKS LIKE? DON'T GEORGE BUSH AND THE CIA (WHO LET KOLA BORROW IT FROM OSAMA'S CAVE) NEED IT BACK BY NOW?.
Really, I'm GLAD you it have and I don't because I suspect that the reason that time is wasted on this board complaining over and over again about actresses, is because you don't have the talent, beauty and brains that these women display. I am betting that you people are some of the most ugliest and terriblest looking bogus fat and ugly things around!
I notice you never diss the fat and the ugly on a routine basis, but have lots of time on your hands to put down people who have the brains, beauty and talent you wished you had.
Psychiatric case, Kola, has to create so many different personalities in a pitiful attempt to bolster herself.
I guess this is what one has to do when one is an Internet creation! It is also the modern way of "hand puppetry."
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Prettybabygirl
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Prettybabygirl
Post Number: 197
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 03:34 pm: |
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Well, Enchanted. As much as you hate Kola--now you see what we're saying. None of us are fooled.
She also accused of "Cynique" of all people of being Kola.
Yes, you read me right. She/He accused Cynique of being Kola.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3694
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 03:47 pm: |
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Whoever Mrs. Hart is, she is in very good company on this board which is populated by a cast of characters who are simply role playing. |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 640
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 06:02 am: |
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--"OOOH! Are you are still USING that SUPER-DE-DUPER SPY-O-RAMA COMPUTER THAT ALLOWS YOU TO SEE WHAT EVERYONE LOOKS LIKE? DON'T GEORGE BUSH AND THE CIA (WHO LET KOLA BORROW IT FROM OSAMA'S CAVE) NEED IT BACK BY NOW?.
Really, I'm GLAD you it have and I don't because I suspect that the reason that time is wasted on this board complaining over and over again about actresses, is because you don't have the talent, beauty and brains that these women display. I am betting that you people are some of the most ugliest and terriblest looking bogus fat and ugly things around!
I notice you never diss the fat and the ugly on a routine basis, but have lots of time on your hands to put down people who have the brains, beauty and talent you wished you had.
Psychiatric case, Kola, has to create so many different personalities in a pitiful attempt to bolster herself.
I guess this is what one has to do when one is an Internet creation! It is also the modern way of "hand puppetry."
I guess this is what one has to do when one is an Internet creation! It is also the modern way of "hand puppetry."---
(what the hell was all that?! o_O)
Oh, SOMEONE here is a definite "psychiatric case", but it AIN'T KOLA. -_-' |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 641
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 3 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 06:16 am: |
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Mrs. Hart,
This is getting just a bit out of control. You're looking pretty desperate now.
Is Kola's influence negativley affecting your life in any way?
Did she scorn you in the past?
Are you an old childhood/adolescenthood rival to Kola?
Are you an old boyfriend?
A former classmate of hers?
In matters of career opportunities, Has she achieved what you still cannot reach?
Are you also an author who's fustrated with your own stalmate career and need someone to lash out at?
Is she gaining what you still cannot: Praise, infamy, and a face in the public eye?
I'm not trying to be mean this time,I just want to know.....Why so OBSESSED?
We have all aired abit of our own dirty laundry from time to time on this board. If you have any (which you clearly do),you can air yours too.  |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3704
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 11:37 am: |
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Yea, Mrs. Hart, the only person more obsessed with Kola than you are, is Kola. tsk-tsk. Step aside so Kola can bombard the board with more pictures of herself and more shameless plugs for her new book. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz |
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