XPost: alt.banjo, alt.banjo.clawhammer, alt.music.african   
   XPost: rec.music.country.old-time   
   From: Kool@koookright.org   
      
   "P.Roehling"  wrote in message   
   news:12ff0k76n8ifaeb@corp.supernews.com...   
   >> Dan'l sez:   
   >>   
   >>> Please explain once more why, other than having a skin head and   
   >>> different length strings, these West African gourd instruments have any   
   >>> more than a passing resemblance to the 5-string banjo pattern as   
   >>> invented in the United States?   
   >   
   > Other than having wings and a pilot, the original Wright Flyer bears only   
   > a passing resemblance to a Boeing 747. This does not mean that the 747 is   
   > not directly descended from the Wright Flyer, it simply means that normal   
   > mechanical evolution took place between the first successful powered   
   > airplane and it's lineal descendants.   
   > So it is with the banjo, and had the Wright brothers been living in Gambia   
   > when they first flew, we would today refer to the airplane as being an   
   > African invention.   
      
      
      
   Would that then be considered    *Afro - Engineering*   ?   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)