“So You Believe in Aliens Too?”

 

Chapter 5

Dr. Laurie W. Rush

 “So You Believe in Aliens Too?”

An Anthropologist Looks at Stone Features in the North American Northeast  and the Archaeologists Who Do and Do Not Study Them

https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/our-hidden-landscapes

 “No, I do not believe in aliens, nor do I believe that the people who inhabited the northeastern United States for more than 10,000 years never built anything out of stone.' It is equally incredible to me that farmers of European origin who only inhabited this same landscape for fewer than 500 years could be responsible for the construction of every single stone structure we encounter in the region today. What I also find hard to believe is how many archaeologists in the 21st century fail to apply robust scientific methodology to the analysis of stone features encountered every day in the landscapes of our region. This failure and the associated emotional responses to serious attempts at scientific discourse on the stone landscape issue beg for anthropological and historical analyses of the causes of this phenomenon, along with solutions for approaching more objective research in the future.” 

There are stone cultural features found throughout the landscapes of northeastern North America, and most archaeologists agree that these structures were created by people in the past. The controversy emerges when a new generation of archaeologists and people initiate objective research designed to conclusively determine the ancestry of these features. To accurately understand the true origins of the stone features of the Northeast, archaeologists of northeastern North America need to:

From:

Our Hidden Landscapes

Indigenous Stone Ceremonial Sites in Eastern North America

Lucianne Lavin (Editor), Elaine Thomas (Editor)

Foreword by Laurie Weinstein

Introduction by Lucianne Lavin and Elaine Thomas

 

Part I. Indigenous Perspectives on the Meaning and Significance of Ceremonial Stone Landscapes

1. When the Landscape Speaks for Itself, What Do We Learn? by Doug Harris

2. Markings of Ancestral Pathways: A Native Perspective by Elaine Thomas

3. Unseen Borders and Ways of Knowing: Northeastern Algonquian Sacred Lands by Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling

Part II. Academic Perspectives on Understanding, Protecting, and Preserving Indigenous Ceremonial Stone Landscapes

4. Obligations of Place: Engaging with Tribal Historic Preservation Offices in New England to Preserve and Protect Ceremonial Stone Landscapes by Paul A. Robinson

5. “So You Believe in Aliens, Too?” An Anthropologist Looks at Stone Features in the North American Northeast and the Archaeologists Who Do and Do Not Study Them by Laurie W. Rush

6. Introduction to Stone Removal and Disposal Practices in Agriculture and Farming by James E. Gage

7. Ceremonial Landscapes in the Chesapeake by Julia A. King and Scott M. Strickland

8. Stones and Their Places: An Application of Landscape Theory to Ceremonial Stone Landscapes of West Virginia by Matthew Victor Weiss and Charity Moore Norton

9. Piled Stone Features of Jackson County, Georgia by Johannes H. N. Loubser

Part III. Case Studies of Ceremonial Stone Landscapes

10. A Sacred Space on a Hilltop in Harwinton, Connecticut by Robert DeFosses

11. Interpreting Row-Linked Boulder Sites from Georgia to New England by Norman Muller

12. Historic Ceremonial Structures by Mary Gage

13. A Theoretical Model of the Moon and the Milky Way at Ancient Meeting Places by Frederick W. Martin

14. Mythologies of Light and Cast Shadow Within Northeastern Stone Chambers by Kathleen Patricia Thrane

Contributors
Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling
Robert DeFosses
James Gage
Mary Gage
Doug Harris
Julia A. King
Lucianne Lavin
Johannes (Jannie) H. N. Loubser
Frederick W. Martin
Norman Muller
Charity Moore Norton
Paul A. Robinson
Laurie W. Rush
Scott M. Strickland
Elaine Thomas
Kathleen Patricia Thrane
Matthew Victor Weiss