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1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
by Charles C. Mann
1491 challenged my preconception of American life before it was “discovered” by Columbus. In school I was taught that Indians had minimal impact on the world we know today. The Indians I was told were few in numbers, they were weak as proved by how they were thoroughly conquered by opposing forces a fraction of the population of Indian, they were hunter/gatherers who had no impact on their environment and that as a whole they did not have much of an impact on European society.
The book challenges these misconceptions with current archaeological findings. This book gathers much of contemporary research describing the day-to-day lives, their intellectual progress and the manipulation of the environment. For example, it is now apparent that these societies developed sophisticated farming methods from the tip of South America to the high mountains of the Andes. The Amazon that I have been led to believe is a virgin forest, has actually been manipulated by its inhabitants to grow the type of food that they needed and vast swath of forest were converted to this use. We find that these peoples build complex societies before civilizations began appearing in the Fertile Crescent by the Tigris River.
The contact between the Settlers in North America and the Algonquin Nation may even have contributed to the type of government that the USA has today.
1491 is well written and well sourced. The author knows that some of the conclusions are controversial, and he makes a point to include both the archeological evidence for and against these. Some of the conclusions that are presented by the author are still being challenged by well-respected archeologists. On some conclusions that the author supports more evidence needs to be gathered before they are definitely accepted. But on other theories, such as the reasons for the precipitous decline of the Indian population, the author shows that based on the current evidence the only likely conclusions that one can infer is that the Indians were the victims of waves of epidemic of organisms which the Indians had no defenses.
Good book.
A review can be found here:
http://dir.salon.com/story/books/revi...
The book challenges these misconceptions with current archaeological findings. This book gathers much of contemporary research describing the day-to-day lives, their intellectual progress and the manipulation of the environment. For example, it is now apparent that these societies developed sophisticated farming methods from the tip of South America to the high mountains of the Andes. The Amazon that I have been led to believe is a virgin forest, has actually been manipulated by its inhabitants to grow the type of food that they needed and vast swath of forest were converted to this use. We find that these peoples build complex societies before civilizations began appearing in the Fertile Crescent by the Tigris River.
The contact between the Settlers in North America and the Algonquin Nation may even have contributed to the type of government that the USA has today.
1491 is well written and well sourced. The author knows that some of the conclusions are controversial, and he makes a point to include both the archeological evidence for and against these. Some of the conclusions that are presented by the author are still being challenged by well-respected archeologists. On some conclusions that the author supports more evidence needs to be gathered before they are definitely accepted. But on other theories, such as the reasons for the precipitous decline of the Indian population, the author shows that based on the current evidence the only likely conclusions that one can infer is that the Indians were the victims of waves of epidemic of organisms which the Indians had no defenses.
Good book.
A review can be found here:
http://dir.salon.com/story/books/revi...
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