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>The names, languages, and cultures of many native groups are completely unknown due to genocide and forced integration. This is post hoc ergo propter hoc. The

by scythe 5y ago

>The names, languages, and cultures of many native groups are completely unknown due to genocide and forced integration. This is post hoc ergo propter hoc. The history was lost because the Spaniards burned all the books, with the exception of stuff that was never written down in the first place. The Romans did plenty of genocide and forced integration but we didn't lose the history of their predecessors because they didn't intentionally destroy it all. >Much of the time, they lacked resources for widespread access to fire, clothing materials, or sedentary farming This bears little resemblance to the actual history of the Southwest, which was absolutely agricultural: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_agriculture_in_the_Southwestern_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_agriculture_in_the... and one of the few civilizations to independently develop the use of cement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Grande_Ruins_National_Monument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Grande_Ruins_National_Mon... (e.g.) They also made clothing not only from animal hides but from furs and yucca fibres. Native trade networks extended nearly across the continent, although mostly by local connections. Durable goods such as fiber could easily have made it to the desert. However, they did often wear little clothing, because it's damned hot in the Southwest.

ncmncm 5y ago
Most American cultures were wiped out largely by smallpox, measles and other Eurasian diseases before the Spanish got around to most places.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  I'd be careful with language like this. My impression is that "they were wiped out by smallpox" is the sort of thing that infuriates native Americans, because it is implies that their cultures were destroyed, a claim they very much dispute. Yes, populations were massively reduced by european diseases, but in most cases (all? I don't know) it did not wipe out the cultures. It have a dramatic impact on them, and did set the stage, of course, for the subsequently arriving colonialists to attempt to continue the process in person (with varying degrees of success).
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    Certainly all the cultures that were wiped out are not here to object; and those that weren't weren't. But many even of them might have been, after. We have no record of them, so cannot count them. Those still around to object are subject, necessarily, to survivorship bias, and rather more starkly than is usual.

by scythe 5y ago

ncmncm 5y ago

Most American cultures were wiped out largely by smallpox, measles and other Eurasian diseases before the Spanish got around to most places.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
I'd be careful with language like this. My impression is that "they were wiped out by smallpox" is the sort of thing that infuriates native Americans, because it is implies that their cultures were destroyed, a claim they very much dispute. Yes, populations were massively reduced by european diseases, but in most cases (all? I don't know) it did not wipe out the cultures. It have a dramatic impact on them, and did set the stage, of course, for the subsequently arriving colonialists to attempt to continue the process in person (with varying degrees of success).
- ncmncm 5y ago
  Certainly all the cultures that were wiped out are not here to object; and those that weren't weren't. But many even of them might have been, after. We have no record of them, so cannot count them. Those still around to object are subject, necessarily, to survivorship bias, and rather more starkly than is usual.