I know this is silly, but I can´t help myself linking to it. I never actually seen an emu IRL. There used to be a farmer somewhere outside Stockholm who actually owned an emu and showed it to the paying public once a year, but I never bothered trying to find the exact time and date for the glorious exhibition...
Some entertaining pseudo-anthropology, this time related to New Zealand. Kind of funny that a guy who believes in UFOs doesn´t believe in the fairy, but simply must claim that they were "Aryans"?! ChatGPT have the true story, LOL.
Area for further research: could Maori legends about some families having a Middle Eastern background be inspired by the Book of Mormon? The LDS Church regard Polynesians as "Lamanites" and have tried to convert them for a very long time...
Yes — there are Māori legends about “white” or pale-skinned fairy-folk (often called Patupaiarehe) who lived in the forests and misty hilltops of Aotearoa before or alongside the arrival of the Māori. Here are what I found about the original sources, how reliable they are, and what to keep in mind.
The entry in the Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand says that Patupaiarehe “had light skin, and red or fair hair… unlike Māori, they were never tattooed.” teara.govt.nz+2teara.govt.nz+2
A journal reference: J. White, The Ancient History of the Maori (1887-1891) collects many of these folk-stories. For example, White mentions fair-folk on Mt Moehau with white skin and red hair. haurakiiwihistory.blogspot.com+1
Another early source: E. R. Tregear's Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (1891) records terms like tūrehu (fair folk) and pakepakehā used for such beings. teara.govt.nz+1
So yes — there are documented Māori-language and early European-Māori collected versions of the legend.
Main features:
The Patupaiarehe live in deep forest or mountain mist, often in hill-forts or mist-hideouts. teara.govt.nz+1
They tend to have lighter skin or fair hair (red, blonde or light) compared to typical Māori. teara.govt.nz+1
They avoid sunlight and fire. They’re more active in mist or night. teara.govt.nz+1
They have magical music, play flutes, seduce or abduct humans in some legends. teara.govt.nz+1
These legends do not uniformly say that the Patupaiarehe were a pre-Māori race of “white people” in the sense of Europeans. The descriptions are symbolic, mythic, and often vary between iwi (tribes).
Many early collectors (19th-early 20th century) interpreted the “fair skin” or “red hair” as evidence of “pre-island pale invaders,” but this is not a scholarly consensus and often reflects colonial or folkloric reading rather than validated archaeology or DNA evidence.
The legends function as pūrākau (traditional narratives) with symbolic meaning about the land, the supernatural, and human-spirit relations; reading them directly as history is risky.
The legends are recorded in Māori oral tradition, by tribal elders and tohunga (priests/expert storytellers).
They were first collected by scholars like John White, Edward Tregear, and others in the late 19th century.
Later compilations include works like Maori Tales and Legends (early 20th century) and contemporary ethnographic summaries (e.g., the Te Ara website).
Example source: “The Hill Fairies” in Wikisource (publishing of older folklore collections) en.wikisource.org
If you like, I can look up specific tribal versions (by iwi) of the Patupaiarehe legend (for example Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou, etc.) and give you exact tribal names, place-names, and published citations. Would that be helpful?
Yes — there are and have been Māori individuals with naturally lighter hair, sometimes even blonde or reddish-blonde, but this has natural and cultural explanations within Polynesian genetics — not evidence of any “lost white race” or European ancestry before contact.
Let’s unpack this clearly:
Polynesians, including Māori, occasionally have naturally lighter hair — typically reddish-brown, auburn, or sandy-blonde, especially in childhood.
This trait is not due to European ancestry in most traditional cases. It’s seen in other Polynesian groups such as Samoans, Tongans, and Fijians, who had little or no early European contact.
Genetic studies show this is linked to a recessive variant in the TYRP1 gene, common among Melanesian and Polynesian populations.
The variant produces lighter pigmentation in hair, even when skin tone remains brown.
A 2012 study (Science, Vol. 336, p. 554) showed that this blonde trait evolved independently in the Pacific, not from European admixture.
So — “blonde Polynesians” are an indigenous genetic variation, not evidence of earlier outsiders.
Many Māori children are described in oral traditions as having flaxen or tawny hair, which may darken with age.
Sun exposure and saltwater can also lighten hair naturally, especially in coastal communities.
Even traditional legends sometimes describe individuals or spirits as having “light” or “reddish” hair (uru kōwhai = yellow head, uru kehu = red or fair-haired).
These phrases occur in traditional songs and genealogies, and they simply reflect natural variation within the Polynesian phenotype — not a foreign race.
Early European collectors (like Elsdon Best and J. White) sometimes romanticized this into ideas about “prehistoric white Māori” or fairy races, but that was a projection, not how Māori themselves understood it.
Genomic studies (e.g., Skoglund et al., Nature, 2016) show Māori share their ancestry with other East Polynesians and, ultimately, Austronesian peoples mixed with older Papuan-related ancestry.
No trace of pre-European European or “Caucasoid” genes appears in ancient DNA from Polynesian remains.
| Observation | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Some Māori have naturally light or reddish hair | Polynesian TYRP1 gene variant |
| Seen throughout Polynesia | Indigenous, not European |
| Mentioned in Māori tradition | A natural human variation |
| No ancient DNA evidence for pre-contact Europeans | None at all |
So yes — some Māori can naturally be “blonde” or “light-haired”, but it’s a native Polynesian trait, not evidence for mythical “white fairies” or lost peoples.
Would you like me to show examples of how Māori texts describe uru kehu (“fair-haired”) individuals and what symbolic meanings those descriptions had in pre-contact times?
Är vårt östra grannland världens lyckligaste land? Kanske, kanske inte. Se länkad artikel nedan!
Den här meningen är sanslös: "I våras utsågs Finland till världens lyckligaste land för åttonde året i rad. Nyheten brukade tas emot med misstro men möts numera snarast med en axelryckning. Här kommer ett nytt faktum att smälta: Finländarna är också minst arga jämfört med resten av världen."
Ingen i Finland bryr sig alltså om att landet enligt en global undersökning är bäst i världen på något?!
"Sherlock Holmes" (2009) is surprisingly uninteresting. I say surprising, since the plot does contain intriguing elements, including a secret Masonic order which practices sex magick and seems to control the entire British Empire! The psychotic villain is an Anti-Christ figure and claims to have supernatural powers. One of his plans is the reconquest of the United States. In the background lurks Professor Moriarty and (more in the foreground) Irene Adler.
And yet, the entire thing feels boring, despite all the special effects...or perhaps precisely for that reason. Holmes is just as annoying as usual (although not borderline mad as in some other adaptations) but he also comes across as an impossible superhero figure. I almost expected him to don a red cape and start flying! Every superman needs some kryptonite to keep the story interesting, but Holmes´ infatuation with Adler doesn´t really fill that role.
In the end, Holmes fights the Anti-Christ (Lord Blackwood) on an unfinished Tower Bridge and reveals that the latter´s Hermetic-alchemical magick was just naturalistic trickery. Meanwhile, Moriarty steals the *really* important part of Blackwood´s doomsday machine: a coil generating radio waves...and sets the scene for a sequel. That is, the more well-known movie "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" (2011).
Despite the shortcomings, Holmes is right. Imagine the power somebody could wield by controlling machines from afar by mysterious radio waves.
Or the power of, you know, mass media. No need for secret societies...
Can we please stop talking about the Torenza passport woman, Lafufus and Your Party? Not to mention flat earthism. Let me finish my chocolate shake for crying out loud!
This is my 12,000th post, btw.
De flydde slavarbete, svält och offentliga avrättningar i Nordkorea
Our man Sheridan is angry again. Apparently, some Wokies claim that the Goth subculture is "cultural appropriation" because it´s vaguely Egyptophiliac and since the ancient Egyptians were Black or colored...well, you get the point. I think Sheridan himself was into "post-punk" in his insufficiently misspent youth, hence his reaction here. I also asked ChatGPT about the Goth scene and its alleged connection to (ancient) Egypt...
Is the so-called Goth subculture to some extent based on ancient Egyptian culture as depicted in Hollywood movies and so on?
That’s a fascinating and perceptive question — and yes, there is a real (if indirect) link between the Gothic subculture and the Hollywood–Egyptian aesthetic, though not in a simple historical or genealogical sense. It’s more about shared symbols, moods, and imagery that entered Western pop culture through 19th–20th century art and film.
Let’s unpack it clearly:
The Goth subculture that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s — around post-punk bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure — drew mainly from:
Victorian mourning culture (black lace, death imagery)
Romanticism and Decadence (Byron, Poe, Baudelaire)
Gothic fiction (e.g. Dracula, Frankenstein)
German Expressionist film (Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
However, the visual and mystical side of Goth also absorbed a broader occult–Egyptian–esoteric imagery that had already been circulating for a century.
Starting in the 19th century, after Napoleon’s campaigns and the decipherment of hieroglyphs, Egyptomania swept Europe. Ancient Egyptian motifs — ankhs, pyramids, mummies, scarabs, eye symbols — became associated with:
Death and the afterlife
Mystery and immortality
Secret knowledge (occultism, Hermeticism)
Groups like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and later Aleister Crowley’s Thelema explicitly incorporated Egyptian deities (Horus, Nuit, etc.) into Western esotericism. These symbols filtered into art deco, cinema, and popular occultism — and eventually, into the visual lexicon of Goth.
Hollywood reinforced this link between Egypt and the “darkly romantic”:
The Mummy (1932) with Boris Karloff established the mystical–erotic–deathly Egyptian archetype.
Egyptian imagery (tombs, amulets, eyes, mummies) became shorthand for death, magic, and eternity.
These visuals reappeared in music videos, fashion, and album art by later Gothic and darkwave bands — often via the Art Deco revival of the 1980s.
So while Goths didn’t take their cues directly from Pharaonic religion, they inherited an Egyptianized visual language from 20th-century Western media — which had already mythologized Egypt as the “cradle of ancient mystery and death.”
The ankh — Egyptian symbol of life — became a Goth and vampire subculture emblem (notably through The Hunger [1983] with David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve).
Egyptian motifs appear in the fashion of artists like Siouxsie Sioux (black kohl eyeliner inspired by Egyptian art) and in darkwave album covers.
Occult rock and Gothic literature sometimes merge Egyptian and Christian funerary motifs — both expressing fascination with the threshold between life and death.
| Influence Source | Contribution to Goth |
|---|---|
| Victorian Gothic | Death imagery, mourning, melancholy |
| Romanticism | Emotional intensity, the sublime |
| Egyptomania / Hollywood Egypt | Mystique of death, eternal life, esoteric aesthetics |
| Occult revival | Symbolism (ankhs, eyes, tombs) and ritual imagery |
| Post-punk art | Stylized darkness and theatrical identity |
So, to your point:
→ The Goth subculture isn’t “based on” ancient Egyptian culture itself,
but it absorbed Egypt’s cinematic and occult reinterpretations — the version filtered through Western romanticism, 1930s Hollywood, and the occult revival.
Egypt thus became part of Goth’s shared symbolic vocabulary of death, beauty, and mystery — one of several mythic sources (alongside medieval, Christian, and Romantic ones).
Would you like me to trace how The Mummy (1932) and The Hunger (1983) specifically shaped Egyptian aesthetics in the Goth scene? Those two films are key bridges between Egyptomania and Gothic style.
This YouTube clip is 18 years old and apparently taken from a documentary about the two last Jews in Kabul, Afghanistan. OK, let me guess. There are *no* Jews left in Afghanistan today? Bizarre stuff.
