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Originally Posted by Lord Larehip
Firstly, who cares? Secondly, "Negroid" is the proper scientific term as is "Caucasoid" and "Mongoloid."
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I thought that type of classification was outdated. Either way, those groups are arbitrary at best.
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I'll give you that simply because it doesn't make a bit of difference. Obviously, there's been a lot of interbreeding going on between now and the time the Olmec heads were carved so other racial traits are bound to show up sooner or later.
See my above remark.
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You're assuming they 'lost' the other traits due to interbreeding. It's just as likely that they never had them.
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Evolution requires far longer lengths of time generally. Analysis of DNA helps but is not the final word. Analysis of blood groups yield up just as much information. Customs and language similarities are often even better indicators because they can pin down just when contact between two groups took place.
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When you're dealing with people migrating to vastly different environments (arctic vs desert vs jungle etc) then there's no reason why basic facial features and skin tones couldn't diverge in 10,000 years. The short flat nose depicted would correspond perfectly with the hot, tropical environment the Olmecs lived in. It's not even really a 'negroid' feature, as there are black populations that don't live in the tropics which have longer noses.
As for making contact, I am perfectly open to the idea that Polynesians did make contact before Columbus. This was when... like 500 AD? Like 1500 years too late to have seeded the Olmec civilization?