Radiocarbon Dating - Inaccurate & Questionable Results.

Can the results obtained from the 'scientific' Radio-Carbon Dating , be used for a reliable re-construction of History ? 

The systemic flaws in Radio-Carbon dating is detailed by Jared Diamond in his book Guns, Germs & Steel. The relevant excerpt from the book is given below.

"Archaeologists date food production by radiocarbon dating of carbon containing materials at the site.

This method is based on the slow decay of radioactive carbon 14, a very minor component of carbon, the ubiquitous building block of life, into the nonradioactive isotope nitrogen 14. Carbon14 is continually being generated in the atmosphere by cosmic rays. Plants take up atmospheric carbon, which has a known and approximately constant ratio of carbon 14 to the prevalent isotope carbon 12 (a ratio of about one to a million). That plant carbon goes on to form the body of the herbivorous animals that eat the plants, and of the carnivorous animals that eat those herbivorous animals. Once the plant or animal dies, though, half of its carbon 14 content decays into carbon 12 every 5,700 years, until after about 40,000 years the carbon 14 content is very low and difficult to measure or to distinguish from contamination with small amounts of modern materials containing carbon 14. Hence the age of material from an archaeological site can be calculated from the material's carbon 14/carbon12 ratio.

 

Add caption

Radiocarbon is plagued by numerous technical problems, of which two deserve mention here. One is that radiocarbon dating until the 1980s required relatively large amounts of carbon (a few grams), much more than the amount in small seeds or bones. Hence scientists instead often had to resort to dating material recovered nearby at the same site andbelieved to be "associated with" the food remains—that is, to have been deposited simultaneously by the people who left the food. A typical choice of "associated" material is charcoal from fires.

But archaeological sites are not always neatly sealed time capsules of  materials all deposited on the same day. Materials deposited at different times can get mixed together, as worms and rodents and other agents churn up the ground. Charcoal residues from a fire can thereby end up close to the remains of a plant or animal that died and was eaten thousands of years earlier or later. Increasingly today, archaeologists are circumventing this problem by a new technique termed accelerator mass spectrometry, which permits radiocarbon dating of tiny samples and thus lets one directly date a single small seed, small bone, or other food residue. In some cases big differences have been found between recent radiocarbon dates based on the direct new methods (which have their own problems) and those based on the indirect older ones. Among the resulting controversies remaining unresolved, perhaps the most important for the purposes of this book concerns the date when food production originated in the Americas: indirect methods of the 1960s and 1970s yielded dates as early as 7000 B.C., but more recent direct dating has been yielding dates no earlier than 3500 B.C.

A second problem in radiocarbon dating is that the carbon 14 / carbon12 ratio of the atmosphere is in fact not rigidly constant but fluctuates slightly with time, so calculations of radiocarbon dates based on the assumption of a constant ratio are subject to small systematic errors. The magnitude of this error for each past date can in principle be determined with the help of long-lived trees laying down annual growth rings, since the rings can be counted up to obtain an absolute calendar date in the past for each ring, and a carbon sample of wood dated in this manner can then be analyzed for its carbon 14 / carbon 12 ratio. In this way, measured radiocarbon dates can be "calibrated" to take account of fluctuations in the atmospheric carbon ratio. The effect of this correction is that, for materials with apparent (that is, uncalibrated) dates between about 1000 and 6000 B.C., the true (calibrated) date is between a few centuries and a thousand years earlier. Somewhat older samples have more recently begun to be calibrated by an alternative method based on another radioactive decay process and yielding the conclusion that samples apparently dating to about 9000 B.C. actually date to around 11,000 B.C.

Archaeologists often distinguish calibrated from uncalibrated dates by writing the former in upper-case letters and the latter in lower-case letters (for example, 3000 B.C. vs. 3000 b.c., respectively). However, the archaeological literature can be confusing in this respect, because many books and papers report uncalibrated dates as B.C. and fail to mention that they are actually uncalibrated. The dates that I report in this book for events within the last 15,000 years are calibrated dates. That accounts for some of the discrepancies that readers may note between this book's dates and those

quoted in some standard reference books on early food production."

From the Book -GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL, Chapter 5, HISTORY'S HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS , pages 95-97

For further reference two links are provided. The first one is linked to a Christian Organization.
(1) http://www.hydrogen2oxygen.net/en/radiocarbon-dating-and-its-limitation-regarding-the-preflood-world/
(2) http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/radiocarbon-dating-change-archaeology.htm

Himalayas- Climbing the Himalayan Peaks. Does it make any sense to Indians?

The following letter from Gandhiji's collected Works ,( VOL. 21 : 1 JULY, 1920 - 21 NOVEMBER, 1920   Page 1) defines our(Indian) attitude or rather indifference  towards 'conquering ' the Himalayan Peaks (Or similar such physical feats for all time to come, including the mission to MARS) :-

1. “PATH OF TRUTH FOR THE BRAVE ALONE” (1) July, 1920

“The path of truth is for the brave alone, never for a coward.” I realize the significance of this poem(2)more and more as days pass. I also see that it is not for grown-ups only to put the idea of this verse into practice; children and students, too, can do so. If we try to know

and follow the path of truth right from childhood, then alone, on

growing up, shall we be saved from following the path of untruth. Just

as a disease, if neglected, becomes chronic and incurable, so also

untruth, if permitted to take rot in us from childhood, will later grow

into a serious disease and, becoming incurable, gradually ruin our

health. It is for this reason that we find untruth increasing in us.

So the highest lesson to be learnt during one’s student-life is

that one should know truth and act on it.

This path has always been for the brave because a much greater

effort is required to go up the steep slope of truth than to climb the

Himalayas. If at all, therefore, we want to work in this direction and

serve ourselves, we should give the first place to truth and march

forward with unshakable faith in it. Truth is God.

MOHANDAS

[From Gujarati]

Madhpudo, I, ii1

1 This was Gandhiji’s contribution to Madhpudo, the manuscript magazine of

the Ashram School, Sabarmati.

2 By Pritamdas (c. 1720-1798); a Gujarati poet and Vedantin

CASTE AND INDIANS IN THE POST-MODERN AGE- MARRIAGE - The newspaper link is provided here

This is a continuation of the previous post "CASTE AND INDIANS IN THE POST-MODERN AGE- MARRIAGE "


‘Caste no bar’, in words if not in action - The Hindu

CASTE AND INDIANS IN THE POST-MODERN AGE .- MARRIAGE

CASTE - MARRIAGE & JOBS IN PVT. SECTOR

The following report, suggests that the institution of Caste is getting stronger. Caste, a great institution in India, served a benevolent role  till the modern age. -That is before the proliferation of power driven machines. Caste was instumental in providing livelihood on a non-competitive basis. The law of the jungle, ie Darwins law of the 'SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST' ,was impotent when confronted by caste. But now situation has changed, and 'livelihoods' is at stake all over the world.

UPWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND CASTE
The report talks about 'upward' SOCIAL MOBILITY characteristic of India .Quote "conclude that “[t]he…findings point to the fact that in the urban, Indian, middle-class marriage market, a significant proportion of participants and their families is willing to consider crossing caste boundaries if it allows them to upgrade their caste or SE [socio-economic] status.” -Even in modern times, 'upgradation' of CASTE is sought for, and holds it place  against and on par with the Western concept of social mobility, like acquiring house, car, good-education etc.

PEOPLE  of India DESIRE THE BANNING OF INTER-CASTE MARRIAGES.
Quote "The Centre for the Study of Developing Society’s 2009 National Election Study of over 30,000 respondents showed that those who believed inter-caste marriage should be banned outnumbered those who supported it."

PEOPLE of India DESIRE  TO PRESERVE THEIR CASTE IDENTITY
Quote "Moreover, while the option to not state one’s own caste exists on shaadi.com, just about 10% of users choose not to state their own castes." "This is consistent with both micro and macro data that seems to indicate that inter-caste marriage isn’t growing in India"

WOMEN INTERESTED MORE IN  MEN FROM OWN CASTE - The study says
Quote "But nearly all the women who responded, including those who showed an interest in men of other castes, expressed an interest in men of their own caste."

UPPER CASTE CANDIDATES PREFERRED FOR JOBS IN PVT SECTOR
Quote "...a 2010 labour market study by economist Sukhadeo Thorat, who is now chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and sociologist Paul Attewell, who posted fictitious resumes in response to job advertisements for private sector companies, and found that the fictitious applicant with a scheduled caste last name was by far the least likely to be called for an interview, despite being qualified."

ALL INDIANS MUST HAVE 'CONSCIOUS' UNDERSTANDING OF THE Raison-de-etre of  CASTE!!
Deepen our understanding regarding  the 'science' underlying caste evolution (organization), Respect the institution of Caste and frame policies based on these for all round social harmony. Do not ape the West and belittle Caste. For Caste had provided a stable, secure and peaceful  life for Indians, till the advent of Modern Machines. Those countries who had adopted Modern methods of production and distribution are in deep-trouble. eg. nations of Europe, US, Japan etc.We will follow suit if we insult our ancestors and do away with the social organization(incl. of production and distribution) that they recommended. From the report we are sure that Caste is not going to vanish in India. And Indian politics in the post modern age is dependent on Caste parties and Caste equations.

LINKS TO THE REPORT IN THE HINDU NEWSPAPER
PART 1 on the FRONT PAGE- http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/caste-no-bar-in-words-if-not-in-action/article4990268.ece
PART 2 in the INSIDE page -http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/caste-no-bar-in-words-if-not-in-action/article4990421.ece

CHOMSKY - How India was deflowered and reduced to penury after the invention of POWER-driven MACHINES !

The following interview of Shri Noam Chomsky, happened on/between  December 16, 1992 and January 14 and 21, 1993.

This interview with Chomsky provides additional strength to the view that , in the pre-modern age India was a prosperous country.  The significance of that age is the non-dependence on power driven MACHINES. Even without such kind of machinery, India was far ahead in manufacturing, and if we use the modern yardstick of GDP, was contributing to 25% of WORLD GDP, which was substantial.(This data/figure is from the West, and is cited on my blog-page.The graph below is additional)

 

The following passages also illustrates the ‘Evil Propensity of Machinery’. As we read the sentences, that ‘small inner voice’, insistently tells us that ‘Machinery is necessarily Evil’. It(machinery) soils the mind, and it(mind) becomes like a soiled mirror, incapable of reflecting the soul.

That work performed manually in the right spirit (nish-kama-karma), provides adequate concentration (eka-gratha), resulting in  purification of the mind (chitta-shuddi) , which further results in quality workmanship and products is beyond doubt, considering the Indian experience. Because Indian temperament towards work was based on knowledge contained in our shastras. That religion determined Indian life is beyond doubt.

Thinking further on the subject, it is said that Thiruvalluvar belonged to the weaver community. (I) not sure whether he was the regular practitioner of the art of weaving, and produced fine clothes. But ‘The Thirukkural’ is a concrete example of the fruits of his mental concentration (eka-gratha). (Another example we can consider is that of Kabir-Das)

Now the interview-

“ (Q)David Barsamian : India today is torn asunder by various separatist movements. Kashmir is an incredible mess, occupied by the Indian army, and there are killings, detentions and massive human rights violations in the Punjab and elsewhere.

I'd like you to comment on a tendency in the Third World to blame the colonial masters for all the problems that are besetting their countries today. They seem to say, "Yes, India has problems, but it's the fault of the British -- before that, India was just one happy place."

(A) Chomsky : It's difficult to assess blame for historical disasters. It's somewhat like trying to assess blame for the health of a starving and diseased person. There are lots of different factors. Let's say the person was tortured -- that certainly had an effect. But maybe when the torture was over, that person ate the wrong diet, lived a dissolute life and died from the combined effects. That's the kind of thing we're talking about.

There's no doubt that imperial rule was a disaster. Take India. When the British first moved into Bengal, it was one of the richest places in the world. The first British merchant warriors described it as a paradise. That area is now Bangladesh and Calcutta -- the very symbols of despair and hopelessness.

There were rich agricultural areas producing unusually fine cotton. They also had advanced manufacturing, by the standards of the day. For example, an Indian firm built one of the flagships for an English admiral during the Napoleonic Wars. It wasn't built in British factories -- it was the Indians' own manufacture.

You can read about what happened in Adam Smith, who was writing over two hundred years ago. He deplored the deprivations that the British were carrying out in Bengal. As he puts it, they first destroyed the agricultural economy and then turned "dearth into a famine." One way they did this was by taking the agricultural lands and turning them into poppy production (since opium was the only thing Britain could sell to China). Then there was mass starvation in Bengal.

The British also tried to destroy the existing manufacturing system in the parts of India they controlled. Starting from about 1700, Britain imposed harsh tariff regulations to prevent Indian manufacturers from competing with British textiles. They had to undercut and destroy Indian textiles because India had a comparative advantage. They were using better cotton and their manufacturing system was in many respects comparable to, if not better than, the British system.

The British succeeded. India deindustrialized, it ruralized. As the industrial revolution spread in England, India was turning into a poor, ruralized and agrarian country.

It wasn't until 1846, when their competitors had been destroyed and they were way ahead, that Britain suddenly discovered the merits of free trade. Read the British liberal historians, the big advocates of free trade -- they were very well aware of it. Right through that period they say: "Look, what we're doing to India isn't pretty, but there's no other way for the mills of Manchester to survive. We have to destroy the competition."

And it continues. We can pursue this case by case through India. In 1944, Nehru wrote an interesting book [The Discovery of India] from a British prison. He pointed out that if you trace British influence and control in each region of India, and then compare that with the level of poverty in the region, they correlate. The longer the British have been in a region, the poorer it is. The worst, of course, was Bengal -- now Bangladesh. That's where the British were first.

You can't trace these same things in Canada and North America, because there they just decimated the population. It's not only the current "politically correct" commentators that describe this -- you can go right back to the founding fathers.

The first secretary of defense, General Henry Knox, said that what we're doing to the native population is worse than what the conquistadors did in Peru and Mexico. He said future historians will look at the "destruction" of these people -- what would nowadays be called genocide -- and paint the acts with "sable colors" [in other words, darkly].

This was known all the way through. Long after John Quincy Adams, the intellectual father of Manifest Destiny, left power, he became an opponent of both slavery and the policy toward the Indians. He said he'd been involved -- along with the rest of them -- in a crime of "extermination" of such enormity that surely God would punish them for these "heinous sins."

Latin America was more complex, but the initial population was virtually destroyed within a hundred and fifty years. Meanwhile, Africans were brought over as slaves. That helped devastate Africa even before the colonial period, then the conquest of Africa drove it back even further.

After the West had robbed the colonies -- as they did, no question about that, and there's also no question that it contributed to their own development -- they changed over to so-called "neocolonial" relationships, which means domination without direct administration. After that it was generally a further disaster.”

http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/More_Books_and_Reports/Noam_Chomsky-5_books.pdf - From the Chapter 7 named ‘Gandhi, Non-violence  and India’ of the  book ‘The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many’ (Interviews with Noam Chomsky) Copyright 1994 by David  Barsamian.

Subjugated Territory - Hindu Law

ANECDOTAL ..... How subjugated people are to be treated ? - HINDU LAW

"342. Of a newly subjugated territory, the monarch shall preserve the social and religious usages, also the judicial system and the state of classes as they already obtain.[31]"

EXCERPT FROM
Yájnavalkya. “Hindu Law and Judicature / from the Dharma-Sástra of Yájnavalkya.” iBooks.

STRICTLY  NO RELIGIOUS CONVERSION, NO TAMPERING WITH THE ORIGINAL/EXISTING SOCIAL STRUCTURE. NO new laws imposed by the conqueror. Let us be aware of such NOBLE  values, upheld through laws, by our ancestors !!!!!

Anecdotal - Yajnavalkaya -Hindu Law

ANECDOTAL......

The following order is reversed in the modern age.

"116. [Men] are to be honoured in the gradation following,—in respect of learning, conduct, years, family, property. Even a Śúdrá, if he excel in these respects, is in old age worthy of honour. (P 19 of 143)

EXCERPT FROM
Yájnavalkya. “Hindu Law and Judicature / from the Dharma-Sástra of Yájnavalkya.” iBooks.