Talk:Herxheim (archaeological site)

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A fact from Herxheim (archaeological site) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 22 July 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that a Neolithic mass grave discovered in 1996 in the German town of Herxheim contains many human skulls that were split into symmetrical halves, as well as evidence of cannibalism?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2012/July. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Herxheim (archaeological site).

Wikipedia

This statement was at the end of the section titled "Skull cult practices":

If eaten, the tongue may have been regarded as a delicacy, similar to the Paleoindians who butchered bison in this way.[5]

5. Brink, J. W., 2008. "Imagining Head-Smashed-In: Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains". Athabasca University Press, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

What is this all about? What possible connection is there between "Paleoindians" and this article about Herxheim? If a reference is needed for the eating of tongues, then a more appropriate reference might be to the eating of tongues of livestock, such as this example from from www.ehow.com/how_2306864_cook-beef-tongue.html:

"Many people enjoy tongue, whether it is beef, pork or calve's tongue..."

Clearly, there seems to be much more involved here than citing the eating of tongues. The source cited, "Imagining Head-Smashed-In", in reference to "Paleoindians", has nothing to do with either Herxheim or "Paleoindians". The word is not even mentioned in the text, which seems to deal mainly with the historical record. The phrase "Paleo-Indian", according to Wikipedia, refers to people who purportedly entered the continent in pre-historic times many thousands of years ago. Yet by using the phrase "...in this way", the author clearly wants to associate American Indians with Herxheim. Why is this? The title of the cited book seems to correspond with the condition of remains found at Herxheim, as if the author of this Wikipedia article wants to associate historical traditional Native American culture with violence and mayhem such as seems to be indicated by the remains at Herxheim. The use of the phrase "...in this way" appears to be in reference to practices alleged in the article such as cannibalism, dismemberment, butchery, and human sacrifice, as if we should believe that the cultures of Indigenous peoples before European contact perpetrated barbarities similar to those thought to have occurred in Europe five thousand years ago.

Perhaps the author wishes to use the occasion to weigh in on the notion that Indigenous peoples tended their herds in a reckless or improper manner, as asserted by some American writers. The source cited does mention the taking of bison solely for their tongues, but by Anglo-Americans, not Native Americans, as on page 77:

I returned at sunset, having shot a fat cow, the choice pieces of which I brought in. I also killed four bulls, only the tongues of which I took. – Alexander Henry, 1800

and on page 175:

“we had no means of carrying home the meat and after cutting out the tongues we wended our way back to camp, completely disgusted with ourselves and with the conduct of all white men who come to this country.”

and this quotation from John Audubon on the same page:

“What a terrible destruction of life, as it were for nothing, or next to it, as the tongues only were brought in, and the was left to beasts and birds of prey, or to rot on the spots where they fell." [sic]

and this quotation from page 258:

"Certainly meat was sometimes taken. Entire boxcars of ribs and tongues chugged off along the railway tracks to the eastern markets."

There appears to be nothing in the book which suggests that traditional Native American cultures were irresponsible in their conduct with respect to bison, contrary to the implication. The body of Native American literature certainly suggests otherwise on the subject, that the traditional Native American cultures viewed a respect for life as a fundamental requisite for having integrity, individually and culturally.

One may only surmise the motive of the writer. Perhaps the motive is not to disparage, but is merely based on ignorance, in which case the statement should be regarded merely as drivel. In either case, it constitutes racism, and proper conduct demands its removal.

E.N.Stanway (talk) 03:12, 24 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

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herxheim archeology

The dawn of everything by Graeber D and Wengrow D Allen Lane 2021 attempts to put the evidence from site in a broader context of the advent of farming in Neolithic time. H Shaw 2022 2A00:23C7:1F0A:BF01:85A8:FFA:36DE:8B61 (talk) 15:48, 15 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]