December 23, 2004

The real Santa Claus

Unlike the story about the alleged face of Jesus which used a random 1st century AD Jewish skull, a new forensic reconstruction of Santa Claus uses the actual relics of St. Nicholas to give an idea of what the original Santa Claus (who bears little resemblance to the Santa Claus of popular culture) looked like. It is unfortunate however that St. Nicholas is identified as "Turkish" in the article and other news stories. Tunderscores the difference between the traditional concept of nationality based on blood vs. the modern concept of nationality based on place of birth. Needless to say, "Turks" did not exist in 4th century AD Anatolia.

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