Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => That CAN'T be true! => Topic started by: Alan McDougall on 11/10/2008 18:22:31
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Hi can you explain Bassou
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jrbooksonline.com%2Fbassou.htm&hash=e0e7bced311a48d8c7386655650c5db1)
Bassou lives in the Valley of Dades, near the town of Skoura, in Morocco. He sleeps in the trees there and subsists on dates, berries, and insects. He wears no clothes (although he was persuaded to don a burlap sack for the photograph which appears here), uses no tools, and speaks only in grunts.
The local Berbers have been aware of Bassou's presence for at least the past 25 years, but they shun him in superstitious fear and have been unable to give any clue as to his origin. Western scientists have also been aware of Bassou for a number of years, but, for the most part, they too shun him in superstitious fear. For Bassou's existence raises some very troubling questions for the true believers in the TV religion of universal human equality. It has been hard enough for them to try to fit Blacks and Whites together into that scheme, without having to worry about Bassou.
What is Bassou? No one really knows. He displays both ape-like and manlike characteristics. Those who have studied him, however, have been reluctant to accept the suggestion that he is the product of a mating between a human being –- Negro or Berber -- and an anthropoid ape, all three of which Morocco has an abundance.
Yet, Bassou is clearly something special, and not just a deformed human being. With arms so long his fingers hang below his knees when he stands upright; with massive, bony ridges above his eyes and a sharply receding forehead; with jaws, teeth, chin, and cheekbones all showing pronounced ape-like characteristics, he is a true ape-man.
[Caption: BASSOU, so named by the local Berbers, is an embarrassment to those who insist that every animal which qualifies as "human" is "equal" to every other such animal.]
There have been rumors for centuries -- ever since Africa was opened to European exploration -- of apes raiding African villages and mating with Negro women. Thus, the King Kong legend. Scientists have never been able to confirm these rumors, and it has been assumed that, even if such matings did occasionally take place, there would be no offspring.
But there has never been a scientific effort -- largely for religious reasons -- to actually determine whether a union between some human sub-species -- a Negro, say -- and some species of ape, might be fertile. Numerous other examples of inter-specific matings which yield hybrid offspring are known. The mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey, and the liger is a cross between a lion and a tiger, for example.
If Bassou is indeed such a hybrid -- and no other plausible explanation for him has yet been brought forward -- then his existence throws a real monkey wrench into the neo-liberal theory of the separateness of man from the rest of Nature. It forces us to face the continuity of Nature's hierarchy. And it makes us ask some questions.
What is human? Where shall we draw the line? Shall we include Bassou and begin worrying about whether his "human dignity" has been abused? And if we include Bassou -- and if he is a hybrid -- what of his parents? Shall we include one but not the other? If we include both, are we to turn loose all the chimpanzees and gorillas now in our zoos and register them to vote?
Perhaps we need to re-examine the whole myth of racial equality and begin to face reality.
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Bassou's burlap sack is not doing very much for him, but that aside he probably has a condition from birth that gives him those features you mention and that are quite clear to see.
This may be not be unknown in the West but because of our policy of institutionalising such people they are rarely met with.
Perhaps someone medical can comment
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Bassou does not wear cloths of any kind,
Pleasego to these links for a better picture of him, Whatever he is he is in the zone between us and ??
http://de.geocities.com/anubiscly/Azzo1.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Homo_erectus.JPG
Alan
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I'm not medically qualified but these facial features are a feature of microcephaly. This is possibly due to ossification of the fontanelles in infancy - making the cranial vault small and hindering brain development
I'd be inclined to explore all medical possibilities before consigning him to either a human/animal hybrid or H erectus.
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This is possibly due to ossification of the fontanelles in infancy - making the cranial vault small and hindering brain development
Microcephaly can occur for reasons other than craniosynostosis...
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4373
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2006/08/01/echuman01.xml&page=1
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While we are on the subject of craniosynostosis, these are not space-aliens...
[ Invalid Attachment ]
source (http://declubz.com/blog/2008/08/19/weird-conehead-like-skulls/)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalic_disorder
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I know the are Skulls of Egyptian elite, maybe forced t grow that way by binding the head. Or it might be genetic
Dear Mr. Ape Man is really a human, but I wonder if his DNA has ever been checked?
Alan
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I know the are Skulls of Egyptian elite, maybe forced t grow that way by binding the head. Or it might be genetic
Dear Mr. Ape Man is really a human, but I wonder if his DNA has ever been checked?
The elongated "tower" skulls are genetic,
this is a rare condition but inbreeding in the Egyptian royal families (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding#Ancient_Egypt) would have increased its incidence.
Poor Bassou has microcephaly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcephaly). This condition occurs in all countries, not just those who have wild apes.
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RD
RD,
Looking at those odd Egyptian skulls makes me wonder how the brain fitted into them. I think that people with these extremely elongated almost oval skulls might have had problems with their sight.
If the occipital region of the brain was so far removed from the eyes the optic nerves would have to be extremely long indeed to cross over to the other side of these pushed back brains
Our am I just sprouting a whole lot of nonsense I am no expert in the anatomy department.
Ever curious
Alan
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Craniosynostosis can cause neurological deficits, including blindness, deafness and mental retardation,
(ancient Egyptian royals did not have to pass an eye-test or IQ-test to hold their position).
BTW the photos of "conehead" skulls I posted were Peruvian (http://www.nomorehoaxes.com/content/view/32/1/) not Egyptian.
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Ou young definitely human Mr. Bassou is a very odd human ideed and with repect to him I cant get over the similarity to the picture in the link below
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fa%2Faf%2FHomo_erectus_Steveoc_86.jpg&hash=a085fb0e2397d9c80c45fc2f3e9d3964)