16.100, Media: Ebu Gogo / Homo Floresiensis Controversy

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-100. Fri Jan 14 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.100, Media: Ebu Gogo / Homo Floresiensis Controversy

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1)
Date: 14-Jan-2005
From: Mark Jones < markjjones at hotmail.com >
Subject: Ebu Gogo / Homo Floresiensis Controversy


-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:36:48
From: Mark Jones < markjjones at hotmail.com >
Subject: Ebu Gogo / Homo Floresiensis Controversy


Dear all,

Back in October I posted some media links concerning the discovery of 7
small hominid skeletons in Indonesia
(http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-3084.html#1). The skeletons were
considered to be a new species of human, named Homo floriensis.

The story did not end there, of course. A report in the Life supplement to
British daily broadsheet The Guardian (13th Jan 2005) provides details of
and links to research which has questioned these initial findings
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1388500,00.html).

Controversy surrounds the interpretation of the skeletons as a new species
of human, as opposed to being dwarf or pygmy Homo sapiens. Some residents
of local islands are around 4 ft (125 cm) tall, but the reason for this
remains to be discovered.

Mark J. Jones
Department of Linguistics
University of Cambridge
http://kiri.ling.cam.ac.uk/mark
Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics
                     Cognitive Science





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