A very recent and interesting paper is available on line
Because I have so much interest and fascination with writings from the past this article, sent to me by my daughter, has completely captured my interest. It is an example of Citizen Science coupled with Academic experts. For some people, looking at various ideas arouses in them a strong interest, like mine in H11 subclade mitochondrial DNA, and results in a good deal of time being spent on that particular item which just isn't always available to academics. Their teaching load, PhD students to advise and assist, masters students, under graduates, committee work makes their research time less available to them. I would not consider myself a citizen scientist, I dabble away at what I do, publish it and hope that it benefits my readers. It is just a very small part of genetic genealogy but this field itself was founded by citizen scientists with academic being part of it in that a number of the founders were academics albeit not necessarily with a medical/biological flair.
I am busy reading through this paper today and found it very interesting reading. Myself, I believe that mankind makes its greatest advances when man and woman work together in unison. I have great respect for people to name themselves as they desire but in essence we are mostly born as male or female with few exceptions where the XY chromosome reception by some individuals does not obey the usual path. How that transpires thoughout our lives has more to do with our brain than our biological body I would say and I hope that no one feels left out by my statements.
Interesting as I get into this article that the Citizen Scientists and Academics have written - this proto-writing - and interpreted it for the moment as dots or lines for months and a Y shape denoting birth. In a capsule that is a look at what is really important in our world - time on a yearly basis (in this case time begins each new year with the coming of spring) and the birth of species generally early in that spring period to guarantee the longevity of life on this planet. Visiting the Lascaux Caves in France was on one of our tours although we did not visit the actual Lascaux Cave with the original cave paintings but rather a perfectly recreated duplicate of that cave which is a great idea so as to preserve the original for many generations to come for research. Knowing one's past is a window to the future. Although I studied the images for as long as I could given departure times of the bus, I did not feel that I had seen enough to be honest. There was so much to take in. To be in the presence of these images drawn by our ancient ancestors was a treasure that will be forever with me. I could visualize children sitting on the floor of the cave being instructed which in itself was an amazing feeling as this idea that a proto-writing was on the diagrams is amazing. I simply assumed that the children would learn everything verbally in this time frame of our civilization but to find that in the Upper Palaeolithic written language may well have been available and hence children may have actually written items down in the ground around them or on a slate. There would have been boys and girls together I am sure - always cautious of sudden death our ancestors would have taught all skills to all members of the group I am sure - it may be women who have to carry on a group if all the men are lost. Teaching girls is so very important for that just in case scenario and because life flows best when men and women are in unison working together for the betterment of society. Why do I think that boys and girls were educated together; it was my grandfather who taught me that men and women do best in this world when they work together.
Back to reading and perhaps more thoughts later.
This is Bible Study day and I have been looking forward to the discussion. I may not contribute although I did follow the suggestion of creating a "Mapping the Journey" word file. It does take me time to be part of a group. It was also suggested that one might have an image file as well but my images are all internalized - I am by and large not a person to share images except those that contribute to my dedicated work on my parent's surnames.
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