Today, hundreds of articles, listicles and roughly 105% of History Channel content is devoted to asking the question: did them there aliens done did them pyramids? It combines the fun learning of history with the adventurousness of ufology
But alien construction theories are a lot more sinister than they let on. Pull up a random article listing the most likely ancient alien monuments and chances are none of these edifices are located inside of Europe. Many archeologists, like Sarah Parcak, have observed that the (white) historians and conspiracy theorists peddling these hypotheses almost always tend to "focus on places home to black, brown and Indigenous people. They'll also often not dwell on the fact that these marvels aren't actually that old. The Moai are dated between 1250 and 1500 CE, while the impressive Incan fortress of Sacsayhuaman was constructed around 1100 CE. And if the idea that Europeans by then could build aqueducts and grand castles while aliens had to show non-Europeans how to put stones on top of each other sounds racist, that's because it is.
With alien theories having popped up right after the peak popularity of eugenics and race theory, these alien construction mythos often even follow a classic kind of colonialist condescension that non-white peoples have and will always need a superior to give them the gift of civilization. For them, it's valid to be so cynical of non-white achievements, it's fair to wonder if the mathematical majesty that is the pre-Aztek citadel of Teotihuacan or the Nazca geoglyphs are probably the work of some race of extraterrestrial superbeings. Who probably look white. And male. And Anglo-Saxon.
Saying Aliens Built Ancient Monuments Isn't Only Crazy, It's Racist | Cracked.com
But alien construction theories are a lot more sinister than they let on. Pull up a random article listing the most likely ancient alien monuments and chances are none of these edifices are located inside of Europe. Many archeologists, like Sarah Parcak, have observed that the (white) historians and conspiracy theorists peddling these hypotheses almost always tend to "focus on places home to black, brown and Indigenous people. They'll also often not dwell on the fact that these marvels aren't actually that old. The Moai are dated between 1250 and 1500 CE, while the impressive Incan fortress of Sacsayhuaman was constructed around 1100 CE. And if the idea that Europeans by then could build aqueducts and grand castles while aliens had to show non-Europeans how to put stones on top of each other sounds racist, that's because it is.
With alien theories having popped up right after the peak popularity of eugenics and race theory, these alien construction mythos often even follow a classic kind of colonialist condescension that non-white peoples have and will always need a superior to give them the gift of civilization. For them, it's valid to be so cynical of non-white achievements, it's fair to wonder if the mathematical majesty that is the pre-Aztek citadel of Teotihuacan or the Nazca geoglyphs are probably the work of some race of extraterrestrial superbeings. Who probably look white. And male. And Anglo-Saxon.
Saying Aliens Built Ancient Monuments Isn't Only Crazy, It's Racist | Cracked.com
The mental gymnastics that these cacs do in order to not give Black people credit
