Reading A Fascinating Book

[Minimalist]

Charles Mann's 1493.  It could be subtitled, How Things Got So Fucked Up.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/books/...eview.html

“1493” picks up where Mann’s best seller, “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus,” left off. In 1491, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were almost impassable barriers. America might as well have been on another planet from Europe and Asia. But Columbus’s arrival in the Caribbean the following year changed everything. Plants, animals, microbes and cultures began washing around the world, taking tomatoes to Massachusetts, corn to the Philippines and slaves, markets and malaria almost everywhere. It was one world, ready or not.

One thing for sure is that except to the most determined of pseudo-scientist or conspiracy freaks, this is the death knell to any idea of pre-Columbian contact between the Old World and the New.  The Vikings in L'Anse aux Meadows must have landed in an uninhabited spot else the microbes would have begun their work centuries earlier.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Charles Mann's 1493.  It could be subtitled, How Things Got So Fucked Up.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/books/...eview.html

“1493” picks up where Mann’s best seller, “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus,” left off. In 1491, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were almost impassable barriers. America might as well have been on another planet from Europe and Asia. But Columbus’s arrival in the Caribbean the following year changed everything. Plants, animals, microbes and cultures began washing around the world, taking tomatoes to Massachusetts, corn to the Philippines and slaves, markets and malaria almost everywhere. It was one world, ready or not.

One thing for sure is that except to the most determined of pseudo-scientist or conspiracy freaks, this is the death knell to any idea of pre-Columbian contact between the Old World and the New.  The Vikings in L'Anse aux Meadows must have landed in an uninhabited spot else the microbes would have begun their work centuries earlier.

Good points and so easily overlooked.

[Minimalist]

Another interesting point was that while we all hear of the casualty rate of native americans from contact with Europeans (90% which is staggering) it is less widely known that Europeans died in droves upon reaching the new world - estimates are in the 80% range.  With Indians dying of everything and Europeans dying of malaria in droves the Europeans hit on an ingenious solution:  African slavery.  Malaria was rampant in Africa and those who did not die built up an immunity.  That made them excellent candidates for slave labor.

Lucky bastards.

[Clueless Morgan]

One thing for sure is that except to the most determined of pseudo-scientist or conspiracy freaks, this is the death knell to any idea of pre-Columbian contact between the Old World and the New.  The Vikings in L'Anse aux Meadows must have landed in an uninhabited spot else the microbes would have begun their work centuries earlier.

Isn't L'Anse aux Meadows an island?

In any case, it sounds like an interesting book, I'll add it to my amazon wishlist - thanks for the rec.

Another interesting point was that while we all hear of the casualty rate of native americans from contact with Europeans (90% which is staggering) it is less widely known that Europeans died in droves upon reaching the new world - estimates are in the 80% range.  With Indians dying of everything and Europeans dying of malaria in droves the Europeans hit on an ingenious solution:  African slavery.  Malaria was rampant in Africa and those who did not die built up an immunity.  That made them excellent candidates for slave labor.

Lucky bastards.

Chalk another one up to white-people ingenuity.

[Minimalist]

It's at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland so you could say that it is on an island.  Archaeological reconstructions and models



show no real defenses.  That looks more like a fence to keep animals in rather than a wall to keep people out. They don't seem to have had a fear of an attack.