The world has been conditioned to believe that early European societies were the only advanced and highly populated nations for centuries. No one ever really tried or cared to look into what was happening in the New World, and when people did start to care, much of the Western Hemisphere’s culture had been erased. It has only happened within the past couple of centuries that real, fundamental research has gone into what the New World was like before Europeans set foot on it. Despite what society has been conditioned to believe for hundreds of years, Mann’s book 1491 stresses that American Indians have been around for much longer and were much more numerous than originally thought, and they had highly advanced societies that ultimately met their downfall by diseases brought by Europeans.
Theories such as the Clovis-first theory and research based on skeletal and tool findings has helped to establish that the New World was inhabited much earlier than society once thought. For centuries, many scholars turned to the “Lost Tribe” theory to reason where Native Americans had come from. The Bible references that the Hebrew tribes had split and many were never heard from again. This, along with Ussher’s chronology, which states that God created the world in 4004 BC, created the idea that American Indians were just …show more content…
Contrary to popular belief, the Western Hemisphere had been inhabited for thousands of years and had been inhabited by millions of people and multiple societies with rich, advanced cultures that were ultimately brought down by European disease. Mann’s book goes through centuries of lives lived and societies risen and fallen that school textbooks barely even scrape the surface of. However, because of people like Mann actively researching the history of the New World, we can all begin to learn about what life was like for these Indians before Columbus sailed across the
Theories such as the Clovis-first theory and research based on skeletal and tool findings has helped to establish that the New World was inhabited much earlier than society once thought. For centuries, many scholars turned to the “Lost Tribe” theory to reason where Native Americans had come from. The Bible references that the Hebrew tribes had split and many were never heard from again. This, along with Ussher’s chronology, which states that God created the world in 4004 BC, created the idea that American Indians were just …show more content…
Contrary to popular belief, the Western Hemisphere had been inhabited for thousands of years and had been inhabited by millions of people and multiple societies with rich, advanced cultures that were ultimately brought down by European disease. Mann’s book goes through centuries of lives lived and societies risen and fallen that school textbooks barely even scrape the surface of. However, because of people like Mann actively researching the history of the New World, we can all begin to learn about what life was like for these Indians before Columbus sailed across the