1491 Essay- Singles
1491 by Charles Mann tackles controversial theories about the Native American population before the arrival of Columbus and other Europeans. His thesis supports the claims that there were more Indians in America than expected by scholars, that they came over at an earlier time, as well as the belief that they were more complex and that the Natives greatly controlled the land around them.
Mann provides evidence both before and against his thesis claims. He begins with the ideals of archaeologists Clark Erickson and William Balee. Erickson believes that Amazon was created by Native peoples around two thousand years prior to the present day; Mann states that Balee leans towards this conclusion as well, however, he is not …show more content…
He notes that in William Bradford’s Plymouth Colony, the settlers would rob Indians in order to survive throughout the harsh winter once they got off of the Mayflower. Diseases brought over by the Europeans also aided in wiping out many of the Native cultures living there as well; before the Mayflower, Europeans had already been exploring the Americas. These diseases would, therefore, have wiped out a vast amount of Indian cultures before many of the colonists ever arrived, skewing their views on the Americas and who inhabited them. Mann then brings up the debate of how many Natives actually lived in the Americas ‘at the time of contact’. James Mooney in 1910 wrote that 1.15 million people were inhabiting the Americas in 1491; however, in 1966, Henry F. Dobyns published a paper that completely changed anthropologists’ views on the number of Native societies in the Americas. Dobyns noticed through his research how many deaths occurred due to European contact through the form of diseases; he then released his conclusion that before European contact to the Americas, more people lived there than in Europe. He came to the idea that many Europeans who explored America came across “...places that were already depopulated.” Dobyns also stated that there were plentiful epidemics that spread in the Americas; however, these ideals were highly …show more content…
Charles R. Clement noted how planting trees was a far more effective way to supply food and crops, therefore leading him to the conclusion that the Amazon was probably more man-made than not. Meggers from the Smithsonian published Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise, which stated that the forest had little nutrients in the soil, forcing Native societies to be small. Anna C. Roosevelt of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History published a completely opposite take on the Amazon. She stated that Marajo, a site that Meggers said was a failure, was actually a success that lasted over a thousand years, and that it improved the forest rather than destroying it. Roosevelt and her team also discovered soil below the sterile surface that indicated habitation that should not have been present. The soil is called terra preta, and it was created by humans in order to plant and raise crops. Terra preta does not deplete and can, on some level, ‘regenerate’. Charles Mann ends by stating that modern societies need to do what the Native Americans did and control the land how they see fit and that if environmentalists want to return to 1491, they must ‘...find it within themselves to create the world's largest
1491 by Charles Mann tackles controversial theories about the Native American population before the arrival of Columbus and other Europeans. His thesis supports the claims that there were more Indians in America than expected by scholars, that they came over at an earlier time, as well as the belief that they were more complex and that the Natives greatly controlled the land around them.
Mann provides evidence both before and against his thesis claims. He begins with the ideals of archaeologists Clark Erickson and William Balee. Erickson believes that Amazon was created by Native peoples around two thousand years prior to the present day; Mann states that Balee leans towards this conclusion as well, however, he is not …show more content…
He notes that in William Bradford’s Plymouth Colony, the settlers would rob Indians in order to survive throughout the harsh winter once they got off of the Mayflower. Diseases brought over by the Europeans also aided in wiping out many of the Native cultures living there as well; before the Mayflower, Europeans had already been exploring the Americas. These diseases would, therefore, have wiped out a vast amount of Indian cultures before many of the colonists ever arrived, skewing their views on the Americas and who inhabited them. Mann then brings up the debate of how many Natives actually lived in the Americas ‘at the time of contact’. James Mooney in 1910 wrote that 1.15 million people were inhabiting the Americas in 1491; however, in 1966, Henry F. Dobyns published a paper that completely changed anthropologists’ views on the number of Native societies in the Americas. Dobyns noticed through his research how many deaths occurred due to European contact through the form of diseases; he then released his conclusion that before European contact to the Americas, more people lived there than in Europe. He came to the idea that many Europeans who explored America came across “...places that were already depopulated.” Dobyns also stated that there were plentiful epidemics that spread in the Americas; however, these ideals were highly …show more content…
Charles R. Clement noted how planting trees was a far more effective way to supply food and crops, therefore leading him to the conclusion that the Amazon was probably more man-made than not. Meggers from the Smithsonian published Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise, which stated that the forest had little nutrients in the soil, forcing Native societies to be small. Anna C. Roosevelt of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History published a completely opposite take on the Amazon. She stated that Marajo, a site that Meggers said was a failure, was actually a success that lasted over a thousand years, and that it improved the forest rather than destroying it. Roosevelt and her team also discovered soil below the sterile surface that indicated habitation that should not have been present. The soil is called terra preta, and it was created by humans in order to plant and raise crops. Terra preta does not deplete and can, on some level, ‘regenerate’. Charles Mann ends by stating that modern societies need to do what the Native Americans did and control the land how they see fit and that if environmentalists want to return to 1491, they must ‘...find it within themselves to create the world's largest