Question: Hi, Mr. LaRouche. I was curious about the history of the migration of people into North America, where the first humans were--that sort of thing? Could you shed any light on that subject?

Lyndon LaRouche: Well, this is an area of a lot of terra incognita, in terms of subject-area. We really don't know. For example, you know how I define the difference between a man and an ape, which is kind of--shall we say--that's rather crucial for following me in anything. And, you probably have some comprehensive, if not a full comprehension, at least, of what I mean by my view of Vernadsky's definition of the Nöosphere; and the distinction among the abiotic phase-space; living, anti-entropic phase-space; and the cognitive, or specifically human Nöospheric phase-space.

But, taking that into account, we can not assume, that mankind as a species did not live on this planet for about the past 2 million years. Now, this is 2 million years, which are defined, approximately, by the way in which the planetary shift of the plates, created the conditions under which we would have this glaciation of Antarctica and glaciation periodically, across much of the Northern Hemisphere.

Under these periods of glaciations, the seas would fall to levels about 400 feet below the present. And then, when the glaciers melted, the seas would come back to approximately their present world levels.

I also know, from studies I've done on this, that the development of civilization did not occur on land, in the sense of, interior of land-areas. Anyone who studied the nature of these things, would appreciate that: That, actually, civilization was developed around maritime cultures. Because the place you could get the greatest amount of food, to feed any concentration of population, was in the mouths of great rivers, near oceans, and so forth. That's where you get the fish. And this supply of fish from the sea, has been very crucial for mankind to get through some rather difficult periods.

Now, also, we know that, looking at the studies of vegetables, as I've looked at some of the work done in India, where they've collected wild seeds from all parts of the world, with the idea of being able to go back to the original, wild seed, because most of the seeds we use for plants are cultivated seeds, and these tend to have problems, after a period of time. So, the tendency is obviously to go back, and let's look at the primary source seed-form, and try to re-trace, re-enact the development of derivatives of that in the form of usable forms of plant life.

So, the way this occurred, is that the seeds came from all parts of the world, into various parts of the world. For example, you have--much of the edible plant life of the Mediterranean region, came from an area at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, in an area which is now northern Morocco, the so-called Atlas region. So, it was the Atlas culture, which provided, over the past 12,000 years or so, most of the food culture of the Mediterranean/European region and Egypt.

On this basis, and on the basis of certain digging deeper and deeper into the past, we don't know how long man has been on this planet. But we do know, the idea of talking about the American Indian as aboriginal, is nonsense. There have been populations moving around in the Americas, over long periods of time. There have been colonizations, like that of Central America, which came from China. There were large-scale maritime cultures, which trans-navigated the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, over thousands of years.

If you look at some of the calendars that survive from ancient times, you find remarkable evidence of the existence of maritime cultures. For example: Why would you find, in some ancient Central Asian calendars, evidence of the magnetic pole shift, which occurs as a long-cycle shift, in the Earth, where the magnetic pole migrates? Now, how would a land-based people ever get the idea of checking the magnetic pole shift? They did--well, obviously. So, the cultures are very ancient, and therefore, we can assume that humanity, as humanity--they may have looked somewhat different; they may have had larger jaws, or different shaped heads, or so forth--but, they're human beings, essentially, with all the capacities of any human being today. Different shapes and sizes, and skin colors, and whatnot. But, they're wandering all over the planet, back and forth, with these migrations. So, that, what we should do, is rejoice to find, that in North America and elsewhere, we can find traces of all kinds of cultural histories of mankind.

For example, take about 1000 A.D., you have a place in part of Newfoundland, which was a village, settled by the Norman-Irish, that is, by the Scandinavian-Irish. You know, the Scandinavians moved into the Ireland, and had a dominant influence in Ireland for a while. And from there, they moved into places like Iceland. In a warmer part of the world's climate, they settled in Greenland; they moved to Labrador; and they had permanent settlements on Newfoundland, among other places.

Many of the Indian tribes, so-called, were actually descended from the Irish, down along the Mississippi Valley. They were wiped out by disease later on, but they were obviously descended from the Irish.

So, the cultures are all over the world. And, for us, it is a fascinating subject, and it is a beautiful subject, to look at the prehistory of mankind, and to see it, and to trace and study and try to understand what some of this pre-history represents, in terms of the relics available to us today. I think it's a fascinating subject; it enriches the mind. And, even if doesn't have much use otherwise, it enriches the mind, and that is very useful.

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