Long time reader of Archaeoligica

[Forester]

Hi all,

I have enjoyed reading the news posts at Archaeologica for a couple of years, but only noticed this forum recently. I see many excellent topics and posts here, some of which I hope to contribute to.

Some background: through the twists and turn of life, I am a cognitive neuroscientist, but my first "love" was early human evolution, paleoanthropology in general, and the archaeology of early Native Americans in particular.

Ironically, I discovered only a couple of years ago that my mother was actually Navajo (Dine), but was taken from the reservation as an infant in the 1930's and adopted by an Italian-American family in Baltimore. She was raised as if from Italian descent, and passed off as Italian because of her dark complexion. My brothers, sisters, and I went through most of our lives believing that we were of Italian decent on our mother's side.

I have since confirmed the NA ancestry through DNA testing. I should add that I make no claims to special knowledge of Dine culture. I was raised as one of European ancestry, and have not had any formal training or exposure to NA culture, history, or traditions. I am first and foremost a research scientist, with a strong background in brain evolution and structure. But of course my curiosity has now been piqued, even more so about NA prehistory.

In any event, I look forward to contributing to this forum, now that I have found it.

Andy

[Frank Harrist]

Welcome, Andy. Don't be shy. Ask questions, post theories, argue with idiots. It's all good. Have fun with it and maybe learn something too.

[Forester]

Thanks for the welcome! I can only post in the evenings, so if I do not reply to a post right away, have patience.

My girlfriend was a paleoethnobotanist before she switched tracks and became a lawyer. I will see if I can persuade her to pop in, I think she would like it here.