(December 4, 2015 at 7:35 pm)Minimalist Wrote: 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.
(December 10, 2015 at 9:59 pm)Minimalist Wrote: 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.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
