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[quote=diogenes2;32239790]The story of the Picts must be one of the most tantalizing mysteries for those who study human origins and culture.
1. Some Scottish clans trace their heritage to the Picts rather firmly, such as Ross, Brodie, Graham, Keith, Ferns, &ct. -- mostly to the east. The clans even know their pre-"Scotland" patriarchs like Graeme, who fought the Romans, and Bruide, a Pictish King.
2. I thought that Brian Sykes of Oxford reported results indicating 2/3 of the Celtic genes in Scotland were Pictish in origin, the remainder being the Dal Riada Argyll/N. Ireland Gaels/Celts (beside the Norse & Anglo-Sax).
3. I still can't figure the relationship of the Picts to the Britons, such as the Strathclyde Britons. Both seemed to have the P-Gaelic tongue, and evidence suggests that southern Picts straddled the Borders, but some historians put a stark line of separation, claiming that the Strathclyde, Britons, Cornish, and Welsh were unconnected to the Picts.
In what ways were the pre-civilization tribes of Britain (Picts, for example) analogous to the American Indians, in terms of their lifestyles and their relationship with invading advanced cultures? The Pictish retained their culture and language as late as the tenth century, but up until then, did the Christianized and industrialized British see them in much the same way as they regarded the Indians in America?
It's a whole different animal. Even American Indians don't fit in a neat box... you can't compare Goshutes to the Hopewell or Anasazi cultures for complexity, for example.
Back to Europe, you have to go much further back than the Dark Ages (or even the Classical Age) to see European culture anwhere close to our stereotypical view of "Old West" era and earlier Indians.
Christianity didn't just sweep over Europe and wipe out all other cultures in it's path either... it was quite different by itself in the beginning, was slowly integrated into local cultures through syncretism over time and eventually evolved into the Christianity we recognize today.
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