417 interconnected Mayan cities discovered in Guatemala dating back to around 1000 BC.

[wnylib]

14. Agree that for a very long time both

anthropology and archaeology were Eurocentric and discounted other cultures and their achievements. The reason for the passage of NAGPRA was that archaeologists were robbing graves of Native Americans in order to classify them by cranial size as an "inferior race."

My interest in cultures, anthropology, and archaeology began in childhood. I can remember, as a child in the 1950s, reading articles that claimed to identify 4 races in the world and to rank them from superior to inferior according to intelligence, present abilities, and past achievements. Caucasian, of course, was ranked the highest. Even as a child I recognized that it was BS.

Arch and anthro have outgrown those heavily biased and inaccurate ideas.

I am not in any way excusing the ethnocentrism of the "western" world, but ethnocentrism is a human trait that can be found in many parts of the world. There are Asian nations and cultures that feel superior to other Asian cultures and to Europeans and Americans. Ethnocentricity is alive and active on Africa, too.

But among scientists, reason should prevail.