1491
New Revelations of the Americans Before Columbus. With a new afterword
(Sprache: Englisch)
A groundbreaking analysis of America prior to the European arrival in 1492 describes how the latest research of archaeologists and anthropologists has transformed long-held myths about the Americas, revealing that not only was the population of the...
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A groundbreaking analysis of America prior to the European arrival in 1492 describes how the latest research of archaeologists and anthropologists has transformed long-held myths about the Americas, revealing that not only was the population of the hemisphere greater than previously known but that the cultures were far older and more advanced.
Klappentext zu „1491 “
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492 from a remarkably engaging writer (The New York Times Book Review).Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them. The astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city. Mexican cultures created corn in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man s first feat of genetic engineering. Indeed, Indians were not living lightly on the land but were landscaping and manipulating their world in ways that we are only now beginning to understand. Challenging and surprising, this a transformative new look at a rich and fascinating world we only thought we knew.
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Why Billington SurvivedTHE FRIENDLY INDIAN
On March 22, 1621, an official Native American delegation walked through what is now southern New England to negotiate with a group of foreigners who had taken over a recently deserted Indian settlement. At the head of the party was an uneasy triumvirate: Massasoit, the sachem (political-military leader) of the Wampanoag confederation, a loose coalition of several dozen villages that controlled most of what is now southeastern Massachusetts; Samoset, sachem of an allied group to the north; and Tisquantum, a distrusted captive, whom Massasoit had reluctantly brought along as an interpreter.
Massasoit was an adroit politician, but the dilemma he faced would have tested Machiavelli. About five years before, most of his subjects had fallen before a terrible calamity. Whole villages had been depopulated indeed, the foreigners ahead now occupied one of the empty sites. It was all he could do to hold together the remnants of his people. Adding to his problems, the disaster had not touched the Wampanoag s longtime enemies, the Narragansett alliance to the west. Soon, Massasoit feared, they would take advantage of the Wampanoag s weakness and overrun them.
Desperate threats require desperate countermeasures. In a gamble, Massasoit intended to abandon, even reverse, a long-standing policy. Europeans had been visiting New England for at least a century. Shorter than the natives, oddly dressed, and often unbearably dirty, the pallid foreigners had peculiar blue eyes that peeped out of the masks of bristly, animal-like hair that encased their faces. They were irritatingly garrulous, prone to fits of chicanery, and often surprisingly incompetent at what seemed to Indians like basic tasks. But they also made useful and beautiful goods copper kettles, glittering colored glass, and steel knives and hatchets unlike anything else in New England. Moreover, they would exchange these valuable items for cheap furs of
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the sort used by Indians as blankets. It was like happening upon a dingy kiosk that would swap fancy electronic goods for customers used socks almost anyone would be willing to overlook the shopkeeper s peculiarities.
Over time, the Wampanoag, like other native societies in coastal New England, had learned how to manage the European presence. They encouraged the exchange of goods, but would only allow their visitors to stay ashore for brief, carefully controlled excursions. Those who overstayed their welcome were forcefully reminded of the limited duration of Indian hospitality. At the same time, the Wampanoag fended off Indians from the interior, preventing them from trading directly with the foreigners. In this way the shoreline groups put themselves in the position of classic middlemen, overseeing both European access to Indian products and Indian access to European products. Now Massasoit was visiting a group of British with the intent of changing the rules. He would permit the newcomers to stay for an unlimited time provided that they formally allied with the Wampanoag against the Narragansett.
Tisquantum, the interpreter, had shown up alone at Massasoit s home a year and a half before. He spoke fluent English, because he had lived for several years in Britain. But Massasoit didn t trust him. He seems to have been in Massasoit s eyes a man without anchor, out for himself. In a conflict, Tisquantum might even side with the foreigners. Massasoit had kept Tisquantum in a kind of captivity since his arrival, monitoring his actions closely. And he refused to use him to negotiate with the colonists until he had another, independent means of communication with them.
That March Samoset the third member of the triumvirate appeared, having hitched a ride from his home in Maine on an English ship that wa
Over time, the Wampanoag, like other native societies in coastal New England, had learned how to manage the European presence. They encouraged the exchange of goods, but would only allow their visitors to stay ashore for brief, carefully controlled excursions. Those who overstayed their welcome were forcefully reminded of the limited duration of Indian hospitality. At the same time, the Wampanoag fended off Indians from the interior, preventing them from trading directly with the foreigners. In this way the shoreline groups put themselves in the position of classic middlemen, overseeing both European access to Indian products and Indian access to European products. Now Massasoit was visiting a group of British with the intent of changing the rules. He would permit the newcomers to stay for an unlimited time provided that they formally allied with the Wampanoag against the Narragansett.
Tisquantum, the interpreter, had shown up alone at Massasoit s home a year and a half before. He spoke fluent English, because he had lived for several years in Britain. But Massasoit didn t trust him. He seems to have been in Massasoit s eyes a man without anchor, out for himself. In a conflict, Tisquantum might even side with the foreigners. Massasoit had kept Tisquantum in a kind of captivity since his arrival, monitoring his actions closely. And he refused to use him to negotiate with the colonists until he had another, independent means of communication with them.
That March Samoset the third member of the triumvirate appeared, having hitched a ride from his home in Maine on an English ship that wa
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Inhaltsverzeichnis zu „1491 “
List of MapsPreface
INTRODUCTION / Holmberg’s Mistake
1. A View from Above
PART ONE / Numbers from Nowhere?
2. Why Billington Survived
3. In the Land of Four Quarters
4. Frequently Asked Questions
PART TWO / Very Old Bones
5. Pleistocene Wars
6. Cotton (or Anchovies) and Maize (Tales of Two Civilizations, Part I)
7. Writing, Wheels, and Bucket Brigades (Tales of Two Civilizations, Part II)
PART THREE / Landscape with Figures
8. Made in America
9. Amazonia
10. The Artificial Wilderness
11. The Great Law of Peace
Appendixes
A. Loaded Words
B. Talking Knots
C. The Syphilis Exception
D. Calendar Math
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Autoren-Porträt von Charles C. Mann
Charles C. Mann
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Charles C. Mann
- 2006, 576 Seiten, Maße: 13,1 x 20,3 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Vintage, New York
- ISBN-10: 1400032059
- ISBN-13: 9781400032051
- Erscheinungsdatum: 10.10.2006
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
A journalistic masterpiece. The New York Review of Books
Marvelous.... A sweeping portrait of human life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.... A remarkably engaging writer.
The New York Times Book Review
Fascinating.... A landmark of a book that drops ingrained images of colonial American into the dustbin, one after the other.
The Boston Globe
A ripping, man-on-the-ground tour of a world most of us barely intuit.... An exhilarating shift in perspective.... 1491 erases our myth of a wilderness Eden. It replaces that fallacy with evidence of a different genesis, exciting and closer to true.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Mann tells a powerful, provocative and important story.... 1491 vividly compels us to re-examine how we teach the ancient history of the Americas and how we live with the environmental consequences of colonization.
The Washington Post Book World
Engagingly written and utterly absorbing.... Part detective story, part epic and part tragedy.
The Miami Herald
Provocative.... A Jared Diamond-like volley that challenges prevailing thinking about global development. Mann has chronicled an important shift in our vision of world development, one out young children could end up studying in their text books when they reach junior high.
San Francisco Chronicle
Marvelous.... A revelation.... Our concept of pure wilderness untouched by grubby human hands must now be jettisoned.
The New York Sun
Monumental.... Mann slips in so many fresh, new interpretations of American history that it all adds up to a deeply subversive work.
Salon
Concise and brilliantly entertaining.... Reminiscent of John McPhee's eloquence with scientific detail.
Los Angeles Times
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