An interesting question that mann brings up is, why is gold so sought after and expensive. I have actually wondered this myself because gold has no practical purpose. Its very heavy and very easily bent or shaped, this renders it useless for construction or weaponry. The only real purposes it has are decoration and currency. so why do people want it so much? The one unique feature it has is its malubility, if done the right way you can have a sheet of gold one atom thick. This still doesn't serve any real practical purpose other that decoration.
A major reason we think that America was sparsly populated before colombus is because In some cases ninety per cent of Native american tribe populations were decimated by small pox. Those that were left were just a skeleton of what had once been a thriving culture. This is a perfect example of Jared diamonds Guns germs and steel theory. The Native americans had never encounterd small pox so they had no defense against it in their immune systems.
Manns writing is sometimes very hard to decipher sometimes. the point i was talking about in the paragraph above was written very factually and i had to read it atleast twice before I completely understood it. I like reading this book but it is very filling reading I think it will take me a very long time to finish.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
1492 cont.
As i have said before, taking AP world has really helped me to better understand what i am reading. This material is very similar to Guns Germs And Steel by Jared Diamond which i read in that class. Both authors write in a very systematic scientifis way.
In guns germs and steel Jared Diamond says that the reason one society is more succesful than another is because of their Relation with Guns (weaponrary) Germs (disease and famine) and steel (advancements and availability of metalurgy). Mann Bassically points out that the Americas are often over looked because people assume that its societies were primitive and had no impact on the world around them. while Native Americans may not have all these advancements they were still a pevelant cultur with huge settlements, politics, small scale military, religion etc... theyre over looked mostly because they didnt keep records.
An interesting fact that I remember is that North America had a larger population than any European country, before 1645. Also tenochtitlan, the aztec capitol had a larger population than any Wuropean city befor 1492. This is actually really strange to me because before i read this book i thought of the Americas before columbus as a vast wilderness sparsley populated by humans.
In guns germs and steel Jared Diamond says that the reason one society is more succesful than another is because of their Relation with Guns (weaponrary) Germs (disease and famine) and steel (advancements and availability of metalurgy). Mann Bassically points out that the Americas are often over looked because people assume that its societies were primitive and had no impact on the world around them. while Native Americans may not have all these advancements they were still a pevelant cultur with huge settlements, politics, small scale military, religion etc... theyre over looked mostly because they didnt keep records.
An interesting fact that I remember is that North America had a larger population than any European country, before 1645. Also tenochtitlan, the aztec capitol had a larger population than any Wuropean city befor 1492. This is actually really strange to me because before i read this book i thought of the Americas before columbus as a vast wilderness sparsley populated by humans.
Friday, November 6, 2009
The siriono
One thing I really like about Mann is that he knows that archaeologists and other "science types" often have very flawed and poorly opinionated views. "But flaws in perspective often appear obvious only after they're pointed out. In this case they took decades to rectify." In this passage he's talking about an archaeologist from the 1940's who lived and observed the Siriono. He basically clamed that they were just short of barbaric and very inefficient at survival and have no form of government or infasturcture.
Iv'e learned alot about how native Americans affected thier enviroment. Iv'e heared about brush fires but i didn't know they could be used for good. Native Americans particularly, in North America (not tropical regions.) made controlled brush fires. They used these fires to keep the forest healthy and keep the forest clear of scrub vegetation so they could hunt easily.
I wish i could post these pictures I found in the book. theyre an ariel shot of a landscape in Bolivia where the forest was cleared. The land had been turned in to catle ranches in the 1950's but if you look at it from an over head view you can see that it had been home to a long forgotten society. The shape of the land is patterned in a way that looks faintly like the city plans of a place like Rome.
this book has really spike my interest in Anthropology and archaeology. I'm really interested in ancient civilizations and its cool to read about civilizations you didn't even know existed.
Iv'e learned alot about how native Americans affected thier enviroment. Iv'e heared about brush fires but i didn't know they could be used for good. Native Americans particularly, in North America (not tropical regions.) made controlled brush fires. They used these fires to keep the forest healthy and keep the forest clear of scrub vegetation so they could hunt easily.
I wish i could post these pictures I found in the book. theyre an ariel shot of a landscape in Bolivia where the forest was cleared. The land had been turned in to catle ranches in the 1950's but if you look at it from an over head view you can see that it had been home to a long forgotten society. The shape of the land is patterned in a way that looks faintly like the city plans of a place like Rome.
this book has really spike my interest in Anthropology and archaeology. I'm really interested in ancient civilizations and its cool to read about civilizations you didn't even know existed.
and you thought the native americans were all natural
I'm actually really suprised that I can understand this language, it has so much information and all of it is very densely packed. "stated so badly, this notion-that the indgenous people of the Americas floated changelessly through the millennia changelessly until 1492." If I was a little less expierienced, (not to sound pretentious) this statement would have tripped me up. Mrs embry's AP world class gave me alot of practice reading matierial like this.
The Author has a kind of whimsical tone, he sometimes puts a little bit of humor and whit in his writing. For example theirs a passage where hes talking about a tree that lives symbiotically with ants. So the tree is covered with ant's. the writer says " the ants attack anything that touches the tree-insect, bird, unwary writer." This kind of writing is nice because it provides comic relief from the educational "boring stuff."
The first group of people he describes are known as the Siriano. The Siriano are relevent because the terraformed their suroundings. The planes they live on flood with about six inches or more of water. The sirano and the indeginous people that lived their form a system of mounds and raised pathways, over hundreds of years. This had great benifits mainly for hunting because animals would be isolated on these mounds. And you thought Native Americans didn't effect thier surroundings.
The Author has a kind of whimsical tone, he sometimes puts a little bit of humor and whit in his writing. For example theirs a passage where hes talking about a tree that lives symbiotically with ants. So the tree is covered with ant's. the writer says " the ants attack anything that touches the tree-insect, bird, unwary writer." This kind of writing is nice because it provides comic relief from the educational "boring stuff."
The first group of people he describes are known as the Siriano. The Siriano are relevent because the terraformed their suroundings. The planes they live on flood with about six inches or more of water. The sirano and the indeginous people that lived their form a system of mounds and raised pathways, over hundreds of years. This had great benifits mainly for hunting because animals would be isolated on these mounds. And you thought Native Americans didn't effect thier surroundings.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
1491
My sister suggested this book to me beacause i usually like history and its also a non-fiction book. The bassic point of the book is to explain to the reader what life and civiliazation was like in
America before columbus, and to clear up the misconception that Native Americans had no effect on thier surroundings, or advanced societies.
The language in this book seems very dense and hard to read, each sentence contians lots of information. The author tells the sort of a story from his point of view. he relates everything with the modern day and tells a lot about the actual sites he visits.
most of what he looks for is evidence of land being shaped, by humans. in one of the first chapters he talks about a giant mound made of broken pottery, this was the equivalent of a modern trash heap, rivaling that of a huge civilization like rome.
reading the body rights of the nacerema, has kind of affected how i look at this text. when I see phrases like, "culturally backwards" i ask myself is this really true. the Author is also very concious of this and constantly supports his reasoning.
America before columbus, and to clear up the misconception that Native Americans had no effect on thier surroundings, or advanced societies.
The language in this book seems very dense and hard to read, each sentence contians lots of information. The author tells the sort of a story from his point of view. he relates everything with the modern day and tells a lot about the actual sites he visits.
most of what he looks for is evidence of land being shaped, by humans. in one of the first chapters he talks about a giant mound made of broken pottery, this was the equivalent of a modern trash heap, rivaling that of a huge civilization like rome.
reading the body rights of the nacerema, has kind of affected how i look at this text. when I see phrases like, "culturally backwards" i ask myself is this really true. the Author is also very concious of this and constantly supports his reasoning.
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