At 20:23 2001-11-13 -0500, Stacie wrote:
>Hans said: <<What is actually a "native"?>>
>
>I don't know if you are really wondering or if you're making a different
>(and valid) point.

Both! American english is not my mothers toungue. The corresponding
swedish word means what I said in my previous mail, but is often used in
a similar way that you describe.
The point I want to make is that I guess what it actually means in this
thread, is to define a group of people with the same ancestry far back.
Separated into such groups we have, groupwise, some traits in common,
that is, it is more usual with big ears in some groups than in others,
bout everybody in the group does not necessarily have big ears.
Same with sensitivity to getting fat, it is perhaps more usual in
some groups than in others.
But we also have to remember that not only ancestral differences
play a role here, but also social differences between these groups
in a certain community.
Staffan Lindebergs research of the people on the island Kitava (who
have similar ancestry as Hawaians far back in time (1000-4000 years))
shows that *no one* of them living on Kitava, eating close to no
"western" food, was fat, not even a little. And at that time they had
had plenty of food for as long as someone could remember (and they get
really old, Staffan has a picture of a 100 year old man that looks like
a swedish 70 year old). The only Kitavian who was overweight was a man
in his 40ies that lived on another island for several years and had
"western" food. He was just visiting Kitava.

- Hans