(1) Kinda amazing – the NY Times decided to have the public chew on a dendrogram – pretty damn cool 🙂
(2) Among other reasons, I also post this because this topic is of great import to the ungoing study of the origins of Western Civilization and Western Legal Thought. In particular, this is part of an important active conversation in the legal academy community – (see e.g. Rob Kar’s paper On the Origins of Western Law and Western Civilization (in the Indus Valley). Also, check out – The Early Eastern Origins of Western Law and Western Civilization: New Arguments for a Changed Understanding of Our Earliest Legal and Cultural Origins – Part I, Part II and Part III. They are a real tour de force!