The Year Before

I just finished reading 1491 by Charles Mann. It is remarkable summary of the history and controversies that continue to swirl around an understanding of what the Americas looked like in 1491. Today is, of course, the traditional date of Columbus Day so I thought I would at least mention this book.

What is most amazing is the depth that Mann develops as he looks at the innumerable discoveries that have been made over the last 40 years in archeology and palaeontology in relation to pre-Columbian America. Much of what I would have learned when younger has been seriously called into question. For example, it appears that homo sapiens was here in the Western Hemisphere long before we thought. It it is also not a matter of scientific orthodoxy that the Bering Sea land bridge was even used or played any role whatsoever in the migration of early Indians to the Americas.

Even more incredible is the growing belief that the native populations, long before Columbus- and at times even ahead of similar advancements in Europe, were landscaping, even terraforming the land to make it more hospitable. It has called into question, for example, the idea that the land was "pristine" or virgin in much of America when Columbus arrived. What it was, however, was a carefully developed habitat that was in most instances cultivated and managed with both respect and awareness of impact.

Mann talks about the controversies that have been part of this whole process and the issues such as the epidemics that wiped out far more people than had been thought- simply because there may have been far more people here than had been thought. He does a very good job of laying all this out. He makes a strong case that this "New World" may have been that in name only. Things were happening here even ahead of European or Asian development.

A wonderful book and one that gives us a lot more to discuss and develop in our own continent and hemisphere's history.