I have heard nothing but raves about 1491. Max said he bought it. What
do you think?
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
I bought a couple of days ago and have been skimming through it. I have to
wrap up a couple of articles and then will turn my full attention to it
with a lengthy review. Mann's essay in Atlantic Monthly a few years back is
incorporated in the book. It is a fantastic piece:
Pre-1492 America wasn't a disease-free paradise, Dobyns says, although in
his "exuberance as a writer," he told me recently, he once made that claim.
Indians had ailments of their own, notably parasites, tuberculosis, and
anemia. The daily grind was wearing; life-spans in America were only as
long as or a little longer than those in Europe, if the evidence of
indigenous graveyards is to be believed. Nor was it a political utopiathe
Inca, for instance, invented refinements to totalitarian rule that would
have intrigued Stalin. Inveterate practitioners of what the historian
Francis Jennings described as "state terrorism practiced horrifically on a
huge scale," the Inca ruled so cruelly that one can speculate that their
surviving subjects might actually have been better off under Spanish rule.
I asked seven anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians if they would
rather have been a typical Indian or a typical European in 1491. None was
delighted by the question, because it required judging the past by the
standards of todaya fallacy disparaged as "presentism" by social
scientists. But every one chose to be an Indian. Some early colonists gave
the same answer. Horrifying the leaders of Jamestown and Plymouth, scores
of English ran off to live with the Indians. My ancestor shared their
desire, which is what led to the trumped-up murder charges against himor
that's what my grandfather told me, anyway.
As for the Indians, evidence suggests that they often viewed Europeans with
disdain. The Hurons, a chagrined missionary reported, thought the French
possessed "little intelligence in comparison to themselves." Europeans,
Indians said, were physically weak, sexually untrustworthy, atrociously
ugly, and just plain dirty. (Spaniards, who seldom if ever bathed, were
amazed by the Aztec desire for personal cleanliness.) A Jesuit reported
that the "Savages" were disgusted by handkerchiefs: "They say, we place
what is unclean in a fine white piece of linen, and put it away in our
pockets as something very precious, while they throw it upon the ground."
The Micmac scoffed at the notion of French superiority. If Christian
civilization was so wonderful, why were its inhabitants leaving?
full: http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Chumash/Population.html
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