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Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

newscientist.com

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Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

#11

Post by rhino369 »

benbreen wrote: post #9
davidw wrote: post #6

I recall reading about this some in the book 1491, which is quite interesting, and talks about how the Americas were prior to Columbus. http://amzn.to/1HQYgSY

Seconding this recommendation - I'm planning on assigning this book in a college course on the Columbian Exchange next year. It's got the readability of a longform New Yorker article and the scholarly credibility of an academic book. Totally fascinating material that will up end much of what you learned in high school textbooks.

The follow up 1493 is also great.

Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

#12

Post by moultano »

benbreen wrote: post #9
davidw wrote: post #6

I recall reading about this some in the book 1491, which is quite interesting, and talks about how the Americas were prior to Columbus. http://amzn.to/1HQYgSY

Seconding this recommendation - I'm planning on assigning this book in a college course on the Columbian Exchange next year. It's got the readability of a longform New Yorker article and the scholarly credibility of an academic book. Totally fascinating material that will up end much of what you learned in high school textbooks.

Thirded. It took me years to become interested in history, and books like this are what finally broke through.

Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

#14

Post by nostromo »

meira wrote: post #7
patrickfl wrote: post #3

When I first saw this post I thought (Amazon.com) came out with a new product called "rainforest." Anyway, so did the natives breed with the Europeans when they "wiped them out" or did the native people migrate to another part of the continent?

They first tried to enslave them, but finished killing most of them as they obviously fought against it. Europeans behaving just like what we expect from white supremacists.

At least according to Jared Diamond, the primary killer (95% or so) of the natives was communicable disease.

The first smallpox epidemic alone killed about half of the Incas.

Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

#15

Post by Symmetry »

patrickfl wrote: post #3

When I first saw this post I thought (Amazon.com) came out with a new product called "rainforest." Anyway, so did the natives breed with the Europeans when they "wiped them out" or did the native people migrate to another part of the continent?

Basically malaria was unknown in the Americas before western explorers brought it over. From there it became very prevalent in some places such as the Amazon and essentially made mass agriculture impossible there. Then pretty much everyone starved. There were also things like smallpox that devastated people everywhere in the Americas but those were more a one time thing, people were able to rebuild after they passed.

Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

#16

Post by adventured »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #4
patrickfl wrote: post #3

When I first saw this post I thought (Amazon.com) came out with a new product called "rainforest." Anyway, so did the natives breed with the Europeans when they "wiped them out" or did the native people migrate to another part of the continent?

Neither. They died.

That's not correct. There are tens of millions of Native American ancestors living across Latin America today. Latin America has roughly 600 million people, they are not all European and African.

Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

#17

Post by tosseraccount »

side note on Amazon Indians: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dna-search-firs...

DNA Search for the First Americans Links Amazon Groups to Indigenous Australians. a researcher in Reich’s lab, noticed that the Suruí and Karitiana people of the Amazon had stronger ties to indigenous groups in Australasia—Australians, New Guineans and Andaman Islanders—than to Eurasians."

I wonder how much was lost by the Amazon peoples by the invasions of the Clovis peoples from Siberia.

Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

#18

Post by rogerbinns »

I do wish the historians/reporters for this article were more accurate in their use of "decimation". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army)#Curren...

The 1491 book put the death rates at around 1 in 20 surviving - ie 19 out of every 20 people dying from disease etc.

Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

#19

Post by scrollaway »

Symmetry wrote: post #15
patrickfl wrote: post #3

When I first saw this post I thought (Amazon.com) came out with a new product called "rainforest." Anyway, so did the natives breed with the Europeans when they "wiped them out" or did the native people migrate to another part of the continent?

Basically malaria was unknown in the Americas before western explorers brought it over. From there it became very prevalent in some places such as the Amazon and essentially made mass agriculture impossible there. Then pretty much everyone starved. There were also things like smallpox that devastated people everywhere in the Americas but those were more a one time thing, people were able to rebuild after they passed.

Good video on that, which a lot of people might have seen but still worth linking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYh5WACqEk

Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival

#20

Post by MDCore »

rogerbinns wrote: post #18

I do wish the historians/reporters for this article were more accurate in their use of "decimation". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army)#Curren... The 1491 book put the death rates at around 1 in 20 surviving - ie 19 out of every 20 people dying from disease etc.

Are you wishing that the current usage of the word (the title you linked to) would stop, and that usage would revert to the older Latin meaning? Unfortunately that's not how language develops.
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