From: "Andy" <as-AT-spelthorne.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 19:26:24 +0000
Subject: Re: amazonietzsche




> Andy wrote:
> 
> > Nothing particularly anarchistic, but you could get hold of some
> > Kuhn, Polanyi, and Chomsky, and check some mainstream Sociology for
> > cultural relativism. However if Chomsky's linguistics are 'right'
> > then cultural relativism may be 'wrong'.
> 
> If I read the news coming out of my association's recent meeting correctly,
> there is mounting evidence that Chomsky's linguistics theories are 'right..'
> 
> -- 
> Chuck0


Cool. That means we've definitely got the best 20th c. brains on our 
sides: Bertrand Russell, Chomsky etc. etc. Now if we have a 
biologically given capacity for language, and language structures 
thought........there may yet be some eternal verities.....

Anyway what's the evidence? [in maximum 100  words]

I have a linguistics and archaeology background, but both have been 
getting a bit out of date as my job has metamorphosed away from 
teaching these areas. I know that there is mounting evidence from DNA 
which traces the  links of the various peoples of the world, and 
increasingly matches the suppositions of the linguists. A Horizon BBC 
programme a couple of years ago looked at this and even came close to 
solving where Basque came from, but my memory fails me.

Any  listeners from the French/Spanish borders?
>AS