The Hobbit Enigma examines one of the greatest controversies in science today. Just what did scientists really find when they uncovered the tiny, human-like skeleton of a strange creature on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003?
Watch at ABC
Full Version: The Hobbit Enigma
The Hobbit Enigma examines one of the greatest controversies in science today. Just what did scientists really find when they uncovered the tiny, human-like skeleton of a strange creature on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003?
Watch at ABC
My money has always been on insular dwarfism, I'm about to check the doc out now, cheers.
Damn that was quick, video unavailable.
QUOTE(mark8 @ Nov 10 2008, 02:34 PM) 
Damn that was quick, video unavailable.
The ABC link in Post #1 is still working.
Very good program. Puts and interesting twist in human evolution.
I hadn't been able to watch this documentary until now. My dang Comcast connection has been spotty for a few weeks.
I was very excited to watch this documentary to see if there was any association with the Polynesian cultural stories of the first people. Ancient Hawaiians called the first people of Hawaii Loa, Menehune.
Menehune, according to the stories of Hawaiian ancestors were tiny people of extraordinary engineering skills. Their existence in Hawaii is obscured by falsified missionary propaganda to convince the rest of the world of the need to tame Hawaiian savages through Christianity. The existence of dwarfism went counter to the claim that savage Hawaiians sacrificed babies with birth defects.
Ancient Hawaiians did not have a written language. Books came in the form of people trained to remember vast amounts of knowledge, the Kahuna cast.
There is census evidence of a small community of Menehune people living on the island of Kauai in 1820. By the time the monarchy of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893 by American businessmen, the term Menehune had acquired the derogatory stigma of "lowly people."
The earliest wave of Polynesian explorers had beginnings in South East Asia 3000-4000 years ago as evidence not only of linguistic similarities but also of the non-indigenous plants which were brought with the Polynesians to be cultivated. The latest wave of Polynesian explorers to settle in Hawaii found the islands already populated by early craftsmen of tiny stature.
I was very excited to watch this documentary to see if there was any association with the Polynesian cultural stories of the first people. Ancient Hawaiians called the first people of Hawaii Loa, Menehune.
Menehune, according to the stories of Hawaiian ancestors were tiny people of extraordinary engineering skills. Their existence in Hawaii is obscured by falsified missionary propaganda to convince the rest of the world of the need to tame Hawaiian savages through Christianity. The existence of dwarfism went counter to the claim that savage Hawaiians sacrificed babies with birth defects.
Ancient Hawaiians did not have a written language. Books came in the form of people trained to remember vast amounts of knowledge, the Kahuna cast.
There is census evidence of a small community of Menehune people living on the island of Kauai in 1820. By the time the monarchy of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893 by American businessmen, the term Menehune had acquired the derogatory stigma of "lowly people."
The earliest wave of Polynesian explorers had beginnings in South East Asia 3000-4000 years ago as evidence not only of linguistic similarities but also of the non-indigenous plants which were brought with the Polynesians to be cultivated. The latest wave of Polynesian explorers to settle in Hawaii found the islands already populated by early craftsmen of tiny stature.
This was great! Thanks for the post!
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