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The curious thing about the Amazonian peoples is that a lot of them are refugees on the run. We don't really know a lot about what the continent looked like bef
by sprout 16y ago
The curious thing about the Amazonian peoples is that a lot of them are refugees on the run. We don't really know a lot about what the continent looked like before the European conquest because most of the indigenous peoples were slaughtered or integrated into Spanish/Portuguese society as slaves.
So there's actually a lot of evidence that these hyper-insular tribes are products of the conquest, and did not have this extreme a society before Europeans arrived. In some ways, this man might be the last remnant of a hodgepodge guerrilla army of sorts that has been fighting a losing battle for centuries.
- jseliger 16y agoDo you have any evidence / citations for this idea? I've never heard of it, even in articles like 1491 from the Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2002/03/mann.htm http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2002/03/mann.htm .
- philwelch 16y agoThe same author has a book, also titled 1491, which apparently goes into many of these issues. It's been on my to-read list for awhile.
- sprout 16y agoIn addition I'd just say read up on Latin American history in general. Slavers and missionaries worked all over the continent for centuries. It's hard to imagine that any society survived unchanged in that environment, especially as new societies were built up. And when I say guerrilla army I'm being more figurative than literal. It seems fairly obvious there wasn't a serious power structure in place outside of the Andes, but I think that it's definitely true that the cultures we see today do not look much at all like the pre-colonial Amazonian culture.
- alabut 16y agoI've heard similar descriptions of the aboriginal people of Australia - they only have their tribal grounds in the bush because the prime real estate they used to inhabit is taken.
- scott_s 16y agoI just finished reading The Lost City of Z by David Grann. Archeological evidence supports the conclusion that pre-invasion Amazonians did have larger societies than they do now, and what we previously thought.