Brendan's review
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
Is the delineation of blame at all necessary? Your review seems to suggest as much.
Mann is suggesting, as far as I can see, a qualitative change in the perception of the 'new world'. He suggests that we remove the veil of the noble savage, and the like from our euro-centric mindset.
I think this is his call the western mind - not to feel guilt, are parse responsibility, but to see clearly how this hemisphere's populations existed before the european conflagration.
Mann is only asking us to give respect to these people, not divvy up a flogging list: Spaniards first! Then the english, they were real bastards, then maybe french traders, dirty disease ridden scum!
no. none of that is useful in Mann's thesis, why is it necessary for you?
Brendan's review
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
Brendan's review
rating:
The survey of current thinking on the population of the americas via that Beringia land bridge and the subsequent summary of the evolutions of early american society is interesting.
But the repeated comparisons between american society and eurasian society are really fraught and often belabored. The comparisons between the two hemisphere's agriculture is fine, but the assertion that Aztec (apparently it's more politically correct to call them Mexica) philosophy was as rich as medieval europe's is ludicrous, especially given that such a huge volume of Aztec texts have been preserved and deciphered.
Also, the distinction the author draws between guilt and responsibility (i.e. 'we' should not feel guilty that Cortez introduced smallpox and wiped out 95% of american indians, but 'we' have some responsibility for this) is way too underdeveloped to be taken seriously. Firstly, he never defined 'we,' though it seems he means white europeans. And then he never explains how responsibil...more
But the repeated comparisons between american society and eurasian society are really fraught and often belabored. The comparisons between the two hemisphere's agriculture is fine, but the assertion that Aztec (apparently it's more politically correct to call them Mexica) philosophy was as rich as medieval europe's is ludicrous, especially given that such a huge volume of Aztec texts have been preserved and deciphered.
Also, the distinction the author draws between guilt and responsibility (i.e. 'we' should not feel guilty that Cortez introduced smallpox and wiped out 95% of american indians, but 'we' have some responsibility for this) is way too underdeveloped to be taken seriously. Firstly, he never defined 'we,' though it seems he means white europeans. And then he never explains how responsibil...more
Is the delineation of blame at all necessary? Your review seems to suggest as much.Mann is suggesting, as far as I can see, a qualitative change in the perception of the 'new world'. He suggests that we remove the veil of the noble savage, and the like from our euro-centric mindset.
I think this is his call the western mind - not to feel guilt, are parse responsibility, but to see clearly how this hemisphere's populations existed before the european conflagration.
Mann is only asking us to give respect to these people, not divvy up a flogging list: Spaniards first! Then the english, they were real bastards, then maybe french traders, dirty disease ridden scum!
no. none of that is useful in Mann's thesis, why is it necessary for you?