Talk:First contact (anthropology)
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I took this out, because it seems pretty speculative, the articles referenced do not really support the idea, plus, it does a not really seem that the relationship is a rosy as presented here. It is hard to know what dolphins think of the releationship. Guttlekraw 14:42, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
We do have one inter-species analogue here on Earth. Dolphins are highly intelligent non-human species (Cetacean intelligence, John Lilly) with whom we've interacted for millenia. Encouragingly, the human-dolphin relationship is accommodating and even cooperative; shared intelligence has created a kind of mutual respect. At the same time, the fact that scientists have yet to unravel dolphin communication or fully quantify dolphins' cognitive abilities underscores how blind we are in conjecturing how an intelligent extra-terrestrial might behave; if we do not understand our neighbours we should not expect to understand visitors from afar without enormous effort.
[edit] More examples needed!
Besides the voyages of Columbus, the only example that comes to my mind is the supposedly recent (i.e. 1930's) "discovery" of certain people in Papua New Guinea. While I have personally heard of this before, it is only mentioned in First contact (science fiction), not any of the articles pertaining to New Guinea itself. What's going on here? Also, can anyone else think of some other good non-Americas examples? (Well, it's all right to include the Americas if you must.) I suppose part of the issue is that it's hard to find a time when the cultures of the West and East weren't in some way aware of each other, and the whole "New World" idea kinda arises precisely because of this. Hmm...—Lenoxus 01:22, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
