There was a need/compulsion in early colonization and later expansion to assert that the indigenous and their ancestors (particularly outside of meso-america as you note) were complete savages, incapable of something like the mass deployment of organized generational labor to fundamentally alter the landscape and favor agricultural production associated with civilization. This was reenforced by the perception (on part of the european colonists) that they'd stumbled onto some sort of primordial virgin land..which america most certainly was not by 1500. More recently, that they were noble savages...unwilling to do so out of respect or concern for mother earth (or somesuch hippy shit, lol).
Neither assertion was ever true. A dispassionate comparison would probably land them, at contact, somewhere between late medieval and pre-war. They were first rate permaculturalists..and we today...post chem rev, are finding that borrowing a few pages from their book could go a long way towards addressing some of our modern problems.
The only difference between what I do and champas-culture..for example...is that I have a greenhouse and an airlift pump.
Neither assertion was ever true. A dispassionate comparison would probably land them, at contact, somewhere between late medieval and pre-war. They were first rate permaculturalists..and we today...post chem rev, are finding that borrowing a few pages from their book could go a long way towards addressing some of our modern problems.
The only difference between what I do and champas-culture..for example...is that I have a greenhouse and an airlift pump.
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