My 5 Most Favorite Video Games

     I came up with this topic thinking it was going to be a cake walk, but as I started to think about the games I've played over the past 20 plus years it got a lot harder. There were two games that I already knew had to be on the list, but the rest I really had to think about and I had to think of good reasons why they needed to be on the list, not just because I thought they were cool, although to be honest that a big part of it. The games are ranked in no particular order except for the number one spot, let's get on with it shall we?

#5 . Tekken
Specifically Tekken 2 through Tekken Tag tournament. I got a hold of these games before I ever even heard of Sega's Virtua Fighter so deal with it.
Reasons why it's good: The story was great. A dystopian future controlled by the powerful Mishima Corporation that holds an anual Iron Fist fighting tournament. Power struggles between father and son for control of the company. The ending videos do a great job of fleshing out the story. The next reason why it's good is because it's not like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, I hate those games. This was a way more realistic way of fighting and Tekken is also known for the diversity of different fighting styles, no cheaty super powers. Also, when Mortal Combat and Street Fighter were still using 2-D levels and fights, games like Tekken utilized 3-d or 360 degree stages and camera angles, you could use the whole stage to fight. The characters in these games had great personality as well, they felt human. There's also some straight up goofy characters in the games too, like that little dinosaur that farts on you, or Bear and Mokujin. Tekken Tag Tournament also had a bowling mode too, that was fun.

#4. Castlevania: Lord of Shadows.
This title is only a year or two old, it's mechanics aren't very original, but oh man is it epic. This title was sort of a reboot of Castlevania because the past titles had a messy timeline that didn't make sense. This game fixed all that. It is also the introductory story for Dracula in Castlevania. The story is fan-effing-tastic, I can't even summarize it properly. Basically you're this medieval Holy Knight named Gabriel searching for 3 masks to stop the end of the word, these masks might also help you reunite with your dead wife too. You battle classic Transylvanian mosters, and some new ones throughout. The levels are beautifully designed works of art and challenging enough to get your money's worth out of it. It's also one of the longest games I've played in a while, which is almost unheard of these days. One final reason that it's epic, Patrick Stewart! He voices a major supporting character in the game, he's also the narrator. You can't get more epic narration than that!

#3. Wrath of the Lich King
This is actually an expansion to the MMO World of Warcraft for those of you who don't know. It's true that MMO's are the tradition video game, but I still categorize it as one because you're still in control of a virtual character.
Anyways, in Wrath, you're finally getting down to the nitty-gritty to confront the Lich King and his armies of the dead. You're taking the battle to him. This expansion had a Norse flare to the storyline and the 5/10/25 man instances/dungeons. They also came up with the random Dungeon Finder during this expansion, which was a GREAT way to get the gear you needed for the endgame content. I also dicovered the joy of endgame pvp using my Death Knight, ah old Grimwraith, I hardly knew ye. Anyways, It was my favorite expansion. I had the most fun with it, I pwned so many people and I was usually the one left standing after my entire guild wiped, gotta love melee dps! Then Blizzard had to ruin it all with Cataclysm. Oh it was a cataclysm alright, just not the good kind. Moving on!

#2. Tomb Raider

Yeah Tomb Raider 1-3 was pretty great, after that it was kind of downhill. There some pretty obvious reasons why people liked it, especially males. In fairness it had some great storylines and I loved the fact that Lara was basically a female Indiana Jones. The game mechanics Eidos introduced were pretty innovated too. The auto-aim and grappling were my favorites. Some of the weapons were funny as well. Overall, they're just some darn fun games.

     And last, but certainly not the least, we come to number one. Ladies and Gentlemen, this one is near and dear to my heart. It's the favorite old flame, that gentle lover, you know, the one that got away. You spend hours upon hours upon hours upon hours romancing it, getting to know all of it's little quirks, it's secrets. You forsake your friends just so you can spend every precious moment with it, what is friendship compared to this love after all. You think you have it all, when, like a Nicholas Sparks novel, tradgedy stirkes. Some cruel digusting twist of fate happens. YOUR GAME SHARK CORRUPTS YOUR MEMORY CARD AND RUINS, ABSOLUTELY RUINS, 80 HOURS WORTH OF PLAYING TIME LEAVING THE END JUST OUT OF REACH!!! The world is over! The devil is laughing at you! You log onto Napster, download your favorite theme music from the game and cry into your chocolate milk inbetween screaming "Why God!?! Why?!!!"
That, my friends, is the story of the number 1 game....


#1. Final Fantasy VII
Yeah that's right, this is it. Playstations first major Final Fantasy title I believe. The one with a heart of gold. I'm getting misty eyed right now just thinking of all the memories I have *Sniff sniff* People who have played this game know what I'm talking about. I don't think there is any reason to go into detail here... now if you'll excuse me. I have to go and listen to Aerith's theme and cry into my chocolate milk.

Her and Cloud will be together one day Damin it!
Friggin Sephiroth. One winged angel my rear end!

Also, how cool are limit -breakers right?

Dad Things

It happens to everyone, it can't be avoided, with age you eventually notice that you're becoming more like your parents. I don't know what it's like for women, but for men it's a curiosity, a quest, and maybe down the road, an acceptance. Suddenly we start to understand ridiculous rules, behaviors and values they tried to install in us as children. Suddenly we understand the folly of youth. Suddenly it makes sense and we rebel less and less against it. Depending if it's negative, we rebel even more and try to break a cycle of abuse or addiction, but hopefully most of the time we embrace the traits we inherit from our parents.

     For me it started when my son was born. I wanted/want to give him the world, protect him, make sure he knew he was/is loved. As he grew it became apparent that he needed structure so I followed my parents example and put in place some of the same rules they had for me. With that came the understanding I mentioned earlier.
    
     Other things happened too though, strange unexpected things I never even thought about. For example, I without knowing it at first, adopted my Dad's fashion sense, a t-shirt and jeans with white tennis shoes. One could argue that that fashion is normal for men, and it is, but you'd have to know my Dad and his sons to truly get it. I found myself sitting like my Dad used to, especially on the couch. Back straight up, legs parted a little, feet on the floor, and arms folded resting on our belly-shelf while comically suffering from the omnipresent hiccup-burp. Sometimes when I'm eating, strange questions pop up in my head like "is this how my Dad chewed?" Next, and this may be a thing for all dads, but I am now able to fall asleep anywhere I am sitting. Whether it's at home, or dare I say, at church, even at the movies. I like to call this ability sleep anywhere "The Dad Syndrome". Women and Moms can talk up a storm all they want about how much they do for their families, and they do provide a lot, but all men know that a man's work is never done. Life saps our energy the most, causing this ability to sleep anywhere. To be fair to the ladies, single mothers may suffer from this too.

     The last trait that put the nail in the coffin for the subject of this blog, is laughter. The other night my wife was telling me a story, there was a funny part and I laughed. I swear on everything that it sounded the same as my Dad's and it shocked me so much that I immediately stopped laughing. It wasn't a bad thing, but after it happened I realized that the traits and other things we inherit from our parents are more profound we think they would be, at least at this current stage in life I'm at right now.

    Some parents get a bum deal, I realize this. Some parents are separated from their children and they worry that they aren't going to teach their kids what they want to teach them. They worry that they wont have enough time to teach them, I know because I have these same worries. The best advice I can give to someone in this situation is to do the best with the time you're given with them. Call them, send them letters, kids LOVE mail. Other parents may have obstacles in their way, maybe they get in their own way even, or maybe they feel like all of hell has put gates in between them and their kids. As a Dad I'm telling you to break down those gates because it's all worth it in the end.

    Lastly, I know that kids can get the crap end of the stick when it comes having parents, or no parents. Maybe one of their parents wasn't around, maybe one or both of the parents were abusive. Maybe you had a string of male or female figures in your life that never ended up being a parent to you. Some people never met their parents so they don't know what traits they inherited. They don't know if they have their father's laugh or their mother's sense of humor. They might worry that when they have kids they wont be good enough because they never learned from example. If any of those things are the case then as a Dad the thing I can tell you is to be like the best image of a parent you always wanted to have and the opposite of the superficial portrayals you see on the TV. Be the father you wanted to have. Be the mother you wanted to have.

In closing I want to wish all the parents, new parents and future parents good luck.

P.S. The Bible is a good instruction manual when properly studied.
    
    

The Fantasy Genre and Me

Eons ago when I was but just a child. I was surrounded by pious dogmas of fear and threats preventing me from using my own imagination, preventing me to discern things on my own, preventing me from keeping my mind open. When I was old enough I broke away from those chains and forsoo-

Ahem, well anyways I guess I should get to the point. To do that, I have to delve into my history of how I got involved with fantasy in the first place, so please, hang in there. I guess you could say the thing that got me interested in fantasy, or magic rather, was church. In the 80s it was the time of the Moral Majority which was a "Christian" movement , I guess, to impose Christian morals on everyone in the country through politics. Their argument was due in part to the AIDS epidemic and the introduction of mistism in cartoon and other parts of pop-culture. Churches ate this stuff up and as a result a lot of the cartoons I wanted to watch were condemned as being evil. IF YOU WATCH CARE-BEARS YOU ARE GOING TO HELL!!!  In most cases the Moral Majority backfired on it's self and backfired on me. I wondered what was this thing called magic that got everyone in such a tizzy at the mere mention of the word. Of course I had seen commercials of all these shows I wasn't allowed to watch and it did nothing but feed my curiosity. I remember this one time around the age of six I was sick on a Sunday morning and I couldn't go to church so my sister elected to stay home with me. It wasn't missing church that was the awesome part, it was being able to watch He-Man and saying to myself "this stupid crap is evil?" that was awesome.

    If church made me interested in fantasy/magic, than it was my Dad that got me hooked when he read The Chronicles of Narnia to my brother and I. It was crammed full of magic-ness and it had the words "Deep Magic" in it and yet was written by a Christian. Wait a minute, I thought magic was evil? But this old Christian guy was writing about it with no problem! DOES NOT COMPUTE! Then secretly my family watched the Disney movie Fantasia and after that what the church said about magic was pretty much an annoying gnat from there on out.

   

  I started slowly to bide my time, watching the BBC versions of the Chronicles of Narnia because to my parents it was pretty much harmless. After that I graduated to some cool Jim Henson stuff like the Labyrinth, which is still a favorite, and there was a smattering of other stuff. Oh yeah, somehow I snuck in some care-bear movies, I think it was in part because of how awesome the Disney channel was back then. Something I didn't see coming happened next. My parents switched churches and suddenly at the age of 9 it was okay to celebrate Halloween, score! Now a lot of things became more accessible to me as far as my interest in fantasy was concerned and even though my Mom still thought somethings like Power Rangers were evil, she didn't stop me from watching it. By this time though I was more in to Superheros and there was a fantastic Uncanny X-men show on as well as an equally fantastic show called Batman: The Animated series.

     High school, yeah nothing happened in high school because I was more interested in Drama Club. I think the first Blade movie came out around that time though and the Matrix, that was rad I guess.

     After high school and I mean right after, I said that if I like fantasy so much I should actually try reading some fantasy books and the movie Lord of the Rings was due to come out soon so I started there. Of course it blew my mind and I became a huge fan and made sure to go into watching the movies a huge fanboy and gripe if they changed anything, the movie was great and it made me become an even bigger fan. Much to the annoyance of my first girlfriend I started comparing everything I saw in real life to the elvish architecture or design in the films. Then there was Harry Potter and the list goes on from there. I read a few other series too and I even tried my hand at a few things, none of them I ever finished, but I enjoy going back to them from time to time. I take that back I did write and finish one issue of a comic book, but I couldn't find an artist so it's sitting on a shelf somewhere. Right now my favorite series is, if you couldn't tell already, The Dresden Files, and I've recently read The Name of the Wind and A Wise Man's Fear which is authored by Patrick Rothfuss.

 
  Here is the important part, even though I don't agree with the way that my old church handled things, I understand why they did it. They were trying to protect us kids from thing they thought were influenced by, well, the devil. Even though I don't believe the magic I read about can exist in reality, I still believe in spiritual warfare. I'll admit that I've stayed away from certain things because I didn't like the cut of it's jib in a spiritual sense. When I read the things I read or watch the things I watch I just remember what is the truth and what is not. The things I write I blend with my spiritual beliefs which you could label as Christian and it balances out better than I thought it could. I want to culivate an environment of understanding rather than fear as I feel I believe it works better. I refuse to feel guilty about the things I read, watch, and write because someone behind a pulpit says I should. I can decide for myself what to like and I think I've done a good job of it so far. I also don't believe I'm going to hell because I watched CareBears 2, which IMO is the best CareBears movie.

5 Things I Hate About Online Gaming

The release of the new Star Wars game "The Old Republic" has gamers in a blissful tizzy, well at least the ones I know personally anyway. It has restored my interest and optimism in the big MMOs where World of Warcraft had started to drag me down. Even though I love The Old Republic it has also brought back things I absolutely freaking hate about playing online and I narrowed them down to a list of five topics.

1. The Grind

      If you're a gamer, especially an online gamer, than you know what I am talking about.This is a necessary evil because well...you have to level and you have to earn it. A lot of companies do their absolute darnedest to make leveling interesting and exciting with the allure of new abilities and immersing you in the story, but sometimes it's just too long winded. The new star wars game especially is guilty of having long winded cut scenes...but I digress. The grind can come off sick and twisted too by creating an addiction to leveling. Gotta get to the next level, gotta get to the next level, gotta get to the next level. It's like having a gambling problem for crying out loud. Crafting also contributes to the grind. Some people I know just wait until they reach the max level to craft, but people like me who depend on the gear to help get leveled need to craft.

2. Trolling

     Ah yes, the trolls, probably the worst thing ever to come from the Internet, and sometimes the funniest. Most of the time it's just down right mean, some noob seeking honest help in general or trade chat (Barrens chat anyone?) gets lambasted with smart mouthed replies and comments from someone who has low self-esteem and taking it out on that player. Usually the noob falls into the trolls trap giving the troll more power to make fun of them. Oh! They are so brave with their keyboards! So defiant in front of their computer screens! So lonely in their mother's basements! Don't feed the Trolls kids. Luckily for us there is the ever useful ignore option and if you're my brother you just disable the whole general chat system entirely.

3. Group Questing

     Unless I'm in some sort of heroic instance or an endgame raid then I really can't stand questing within a group, it's absolutely frustrating. You have to wait for the people or find the people if they run off some where and you spend half the time in the game typing instead of questing. Sometimes they want to skip quests you don't want to skip, or run into a huge mob that you have no chance of beating, it's lame. Usually I try to be polite and make some excuse why I don't want to quest together, but I guess the cat is out of the bag now!

4. Travel

     In most MMOs for some lame reason they make your character start out traveling very slowly. In WoW if you need to taxi they charge you. Really? Wtf? They just can't have a character start out with faster movement or even a mount? I never saw the point of this. Sure if you want a special mount you have to get the achievement or pony up the dough, but for goodness sake at least make the running speed twice as fast in the beginning. What's it going to hurt? It is a virtual world remember, its fake economy isn't going to get hurt.

5. Guild Politics

     This one is a doosy and has effected most everyone that has ever been in a guild. Usually it happens because the guild leaders don't have the mental faculties to govern a guild or make the appropriate people officers to help divvy out the raiding time. It results in favoritism and then members who haven't gotten the chance to raid and get better gear start throwing a fit and it all goes downhill from there. Other problems with guilds is that the leaders can be unholy douchebags of people who take out there real world problems on people in-game. Also sometimes certain people just don't mix well with other people. You can have instances where something is said that was meant to be taken one way but is taken the wrong way. My advice is have thick skin and don't take things personally. If you are a casual player like myself then find a casual/social guild. If you are or want to be a hardcore gamer than find a hardcore guild, a big one too that has an actual guild application to fill out online.

There yah have it.

Why Archaeology is Relevent for Today.




 

Otto Román, a Guatemalan archaeologist, excavating the cache of
 polished axes that were found in 2009. This ritual deposit marked
the beginning of occupation at Ceibal around 1,000 B.C.

     Most of us have seen the movies of the swash-buckling archaeologist Indiana Jones. It offers up a romantic version of what digging up or hunting down ancient artifacts is like. This past semester in my "Principles of Archaeology" class I learned that portrayal is highly inaccurate, but to be fair, those films are a big reason why I want to study Archaeology.

     When the average person thinks of Archaeology they may think of digging up skeletons, artifacts, or restoring ancient ruins. They may also think that it is a way to see how bye-gone cultures and societies worked, and to a large extent that's part of it. We might not realize how Archaeology is so important for world today though, and how it has helped our current civilizations become what they are now.

   
The last question of my final exam asked me to write any essay giving three examples of, Social, Political, and Economic reasons why archaeology is important for today's society, here and abroad. I'd like to share what I answered and possibly expand all three of those points.

Machu Picchu

Social/Cultural Identity
      Peru has practically built their whole county's Identity around the Inca to show that they have something to offer the rest of the world. One of their most famous sites is Machu Picchu, which is pictured to the right. It's just one of the great historical treasures the country has to offer, they are also famous for mummies. Peru, however is not the only country that has done this. More obvious places like Greece with their fantastic ruins, pottery, sculptures and other artifacts have also built up a culture around their history through the use of Archaeology. Italy has followed suit with their wealth of Roman antiquities that spans most of Europe to show that they have much more to offer than pizza and pasta.
Of course, we can't forget Egypt, which has some of the most recognized archaeological artifacts and sites out there still.

Political Relevance
     This maybe one of the most overlooked uses of archaeology that the general public is aware of, but for a lot of indigenous peoples across the world it has played a vital role their individual cultures. For example, after Australia was colonized by Europe the Aborigines had struggled for basic human rights and freedoms to claim their ancestral lands (Sutton, Yohe II 376). Due to laws passed in the 1960s and 70s, archaeologists sense of responibility to involve native peoples, as well as Aboriginal activist groups, the Aborigines were able to provide strong evidence through archaeological finds to win arguments over land ownership.

     Here in the U.S. the Native Americans lost skeletal remains along with important ceremonial objects from their lands, which were excavated without permission or just plain looted, sometimes by archaeologists. Though, In 1990, NAGPRA which stands for Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed in congress, this allowed Native American groups to reclaim those possesions from various museums and universites(Sutton, Yohe II 365). NAGPRA states that if you are excavating on federal land, or if you are using federal funds and you uncover any Native American artifacts, you must stop everything and contact the proper tribal authorites. It is then up to the Native American group to let you keep excavating or not (Sutton, Yohe II 365).

The Elgin Marbles


    Artifacts can also effect diplomatic relations between counties as well. Take for example The Elgin Marbles which were taken out of Greece from the Acropolis of Athens in the early 19th century and brought to England (Williams). To this day Greece and England are fighting over who legally owns them. Greece is also trying to retrieve more of these artifacts from 8 other countries too (Williams).


Dr. Alexei Vranich with his crew that are
Imara Indians in Bolivia

Economic

     Last month a few fellow students and I got a chance to meet and greet Dr. Alexei Vranich. He worked mainly in Bolivia on a pre-Incan site called Tiwanaku. One of the things he talked about was how the funds to excavate the site helped to employ the local Imara indians who basically live in poverty. He also said how the funds that the site generated from tourists, as well as the annual festivals at the site, help the Bolivian economy. Bolivia, like Peru, is also trying to create a cultural Identity from the past and they are wanting to show the world they have something to offer too. The downside Dr. Vranich said, is that he dare not go there when he doesn't have the funds because the local people would be heartbroken if he were to show up without being able to offer them a job. It maybe be like this in other parts of the world to where tourism of archaeological sites, or the funds to excavate them, is a part of a countires economy.

So archaeology isn't just raiding tombs or taking back religious artifacts from Nazis, but it is larger part of the world than you may have once thought. And also....

 

Sources:  
Sutton, Mark Q., and Robert M. Yohe. "Cultural Rescource Management." Archaeology: the Science of the Human past. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2008. 351-81. Print.

Williams, Sean. "The Elgin Marbles." Web log post. The Elgin Marbles. Heritage Key, 28 May 2009. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. .



                                                                                                                                                                    









EDIT: Aliens built them there pyramid thingies.

A handful of ancient civilizations built pyramid style structures. You know what that means right? Aliens! That's right, tall white beings from the stars told the smaller brown humans how to build them...err...wait, I just realized how that sounded.

The basis for Aliens helping our ancestors was an interesting thing at one time, however now it has evolved into something stupid and borderline racist. Anthropology and Archaeology are ever changing an evolving fields because new finds open up new possibilities we didn't consider before. Mostly it has to do with how we are realizing humans were more developed than we thought and were extremely quick learners, after all, only the strongest survive.

Pyramids in Egypt
The first pyramids were carved from bedrock and were tiered, not like the smooth looking pyramids you might think of. The shape of the pyramind is said to represent sunbeams coming down from the heavens which they believed how you got into the afterlife in their solar religion. So, they were tombs, and it was a way to show everyone at that time who was boss (Maitland). To cut the limestone for the later pyramids they used copper tools and a hard marerial called Dolerite, also limestone is soft enough to be cut by stone tools in it's bed, after it is removed and exposed to the sun it dries and hardens (NatGeo). Next, the Pharoh would consult a commitee on where to place the pyramid with the help of astronomers to make sure the axis of the pyramids lined up correctly with the constellations. Then a gigantac workforce of about 20-30 thousand people constructed the pyramids using flotation techniques to get the massive stones out of the quarries and about 20 men to drag or push the stones up ramps to place them (National Geographic). You could think of the ramps as scafolding. Many bakeries around the pyramid sites have been excavated which could have produced thousands of loafs of bread to feed this many people (National Geographic).

Quarry for pyramid stones.

"Alien theorists often say that the pyramids couldn’t have been built by such ‘primitive’ ancient people and it’s strange that the pyramids suddenly just appeared out of nowhere" (Maitland). The archaeolgical evidence is enough on it's own to oppose that claim, plus Egyptologist actually have day-to-day records of the goings-on during pyramid building recorded on papyrus paper (Maitland). Some people have a tendency to think that because these things were built a long time ago that there wasn't enough people on to do it, however that's just ignorance. In anthropological terms ancient Egypt was/is considered a state, which means it had a population of hundereds of thousands with a complex social system etc...Also, the poeple of Egypt at that time had different priorities and since they had only one supreme ruler, the Pharoh, he was able to mobilize a project of that magnitude with no questions asked (Maitland).

Another thing, if aliens built the pyramids then why are the cores of the pyramid constructed very sloppy, I thought aliens had super advanced technology? According to Archaeologist Mark Lehner the builders didn't join the stones of the core very accurately and filled the seems with a bunch of mortar. Do you think aliens would be that sloppy? Further proof that men built the pyramids is the fact that the divisions assigned to buld them actually graffitied their divisions name onto the building  such as ‘Friends of Khufu’ and ‘Drunkards of Menkaure’(Maitland), the second one is my favorite.

Mayan Pyramids
The Mayans built "pyramids", that were also made from limestone, to be closer to the gods. They too like the Egyptians were big into astronomy and incorporated that into a religion. Unlike the Egyptian pyramids, most of the Mayan ones had stairs that led up to a temple which housed important members of their society like priests and nobles. The Mayan pyramids were also built to be used as land marks, as most of them were made high enough to protrude out of the jungle, so that Mayans who used trade routes or perhaps even an army could tell were they were in relation to their position. The Mayans, like the Egyptians, were also good record keepers and alot of the information I'm giving you has been translated for their heiroglyphs. - Most of this was provided by Crystal-links.com, but there is other of information on other websites that shares the same. Plus there is more information readily availible in a local library.

Chinese Pyramids
They're burial mounds and tombs. Enough said.

My Theory
I'm big on how environmental factors played/plays a part in past and present cultures. It's obvious that the people who built these things wanted them to be majestic. The human imagination is often inspired by what they see around them, so what in nature is looks like a pyramid, is majestic and possible close to the gods? A mountain. There have been archaeological finds of how mountains were used for a variety with things, but by making your own mountain you can control what it's used for and where to put it. However that's just my theory and I'm still an undergrad, but it's a possibility.

My rant about this alien crap.
When you say that Aliens built all this stuff, you are basically saying humans aren't or weren't smart enough to do any of it. Also there is this idea in western society that people of another color that aren't European couldn't possibly have done anything like that because they didn't have the technology so they had to have help from aliens, when in fact archaeologists are finding that past cultures had more technology than previously thought. Any archaeologist claiming that aliens help build these things and backs it up with a photo of a slab of ancient text is only showing you part of the picture. That slab most likely came from a larger piece and the archaeologist is using out of context to make a name for himself and get money. Lastly, why in the fudge would aliens only show us how to build stone monuments? Wouldn't they rather teach us something else like gee let's say....Inter-stellar travel, or super advanced technology?

Sources:
Maitland, Margret Ph.D. "The Eloquent Peasant » Blog Archive » Why the Aliens Did NOT Build the Pyramids." The Eloquent Peasant. 24 Aug. 2006. Web. 07 Dec. 2011.  I strongly recommednd reading this article.

National Geographic: Egypt Pyramids--Facts, Photos, Diagrams."National Geographic - Inspiring People to Care About the Planet Since 1888. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. 

Debunking "Race" as a Biological Concept

For a while now the mainstream public has been under the assumption people of another culture maybe biologically different than themselves. Some of us remain unaware of the history of how biology and the discovery of different cultures became intertwined. This is helped along by published health studies conducted by the government and health insurance companies that focus specifically on race. Often times we hear on the news that the African American community is more likely to get hyper-tension or diabetes. While the cases of hyper tension have climbed in that community, the actual reasons behind it are being over shadowed by race.

First, let's look at the history of how this came to be. Early European scholars wanted to classify humans into subspecies/races based on morphology (appearance) and geographical locations (Haviland et al, 134). A man named Carolus Linnaeus classified Europeans as "White", Africans as "black", American Indians as "red", and Asians as "yellow"(134). Years later a German medical doctor named Johann Blumenbach placed those groups into a hierarchy. His reasoning was formed by observing a human skull from the Caucaus Mountains, which had the most perfect symmetry in all of the skulls in his collection. He judged that since that specimen was so perfect, and that it was from a place close to the lands of creation stated in the Bible, that it must have matched God's original design (134). He dropped the European label of "whites", renamed them as "Caucasian", and ranked them as superior. Blumenbach then stated that other races were a result of "degeneration" as they had moved away from their place of origin and they were deemed physically and morally inferior (134).

In the early 20th century these views of racial superiority started to come under much criticism by scientists and anthropologists. These scientists were claiming that different cultures didn't have exclusive possession of specific variants or genes (136). In fact it is a lot more likely that a person has a significant difference in genes with a person in their own culture and geographic location than they would with a different one. A lot of people have learned that chimpanzees share 98% of our genes, as humans, we share 99.6-99.8% with each other (Tishkoff, Kidd 21). So, just because two people have a different skin color that doesn't mean they are a different species of human.

Now getting back to the mis-leading health statistics. Right now in the Native American community there is a diabetes epidemic, but it's not because of a genetic pre-disposition it's because of diet. Many Native Americans are abandoning their cultural diets and adopting a western style diet, which contain high amounts of sugars, preservatives, and other complex carbohydrates. This can be said for any culture that has no history of a disease like this with a traditional diet only to go to a western one. Also, whites have been dealing with heart issues and diabetes for so long that it is not as culturally significant and therefore it does not get as much attention as it would in other cultures. There was a debate about how sickle cell anemia proved that places were biologically different as it only showed up in Africans and African Americans. Upon further investigation however it was found that sickle cell anemia is a mutation of malaria and malaria is mostly found in equatorial regions like much of Africa (Cooper, Kaufman, Ward 1167). So it his not hard to see how it could be passed down through heredity.

There have also been incidents of health studies that use race specific therapies to create medicine or medical devices. In one case ACE (inhibitors) used for preventing heart attacks was were interpreted as being more beneficial to African Americans, but the actual results were inconclusive. It turned out that the drugs used in the trial benefited both blacks and whites equally (Cooper, Kaufman, and Ward). This can show doctors and the public that medicine should be treated on the individual level rather than in a group setting. Another study I found on Kaiser Permanente's website was that Korean women were 13% more likely to get gestational diabetes when they were pregnant than women of another ethnicity. The study was not very clear on why this happened; it didn't discuss diet or cultural stress, or environment, just that they were 13% more likely to get it.

I'm not saying that we aren't different from each other, because culturally we are, but next time you hear about a study where once race is more likely to get a certain condition over the other I want you to think critically and maybe follow up on the research methods that were used. There are also theories and studies on how labeling races through biology has created disparities for some ethnicities than others, but I'm not going to get into that frying pan, however you may want to consider it. I think tackling an issue like this can break down a lot of boundaries that we face socially as well as medically, we all have a responsibility to learn what the real truth is, ignorance is not always bliss.

Cooper, M.D., Richard S., Jay S. Kaufman, Ph.D., and Ryk Ward, Ph.D. "Race and             Genomics." New England Journal of Medicine 348.25 (2003): 2581-582. 1166-1167. Print.

Haviland, William A, et al. “Modern Human Diversity: Race and Racism.” The Essence of             Anthropology. Belmont, CA: Thompson Wadsworth, 2007. 134-136. Print.

Tishkoff, Sarah A., and Kenneth K. Kidd. "Implications of Biogeography of Human         Populations for 'race' and Medicine." Nature Genetics 36.11s (2004): S21. Print.