tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post8823449712483880318..comments2024-03-29T09:09:24.834+00:00Comments on Poul Anderson Appreciation: Pre-Columbian North AmericaKetlanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08588156788583883454noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-45575946366596313432023-01-25T23:18:34.199+00:002023-01-25T23:18:34.199+00:00I haven't.I haven't.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-48872935557643149432023-01-25T21:12:59.794+00:002023-01-25T21:12:59.794+00:00BTW how many commenters here have read "Plagu...BTW how many commenters here have read "Plagues and Peoples" by William H. McNeill. It is one of the earliest works on the effect of epidemic disease on human history.Jim Baerghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03182949391365921637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-84014152656371444812016-07-24T06:44:14.170+01:002016-07-24T06:44:14.170+01:00Dear Mr. Stirling,
Many thanks for making very i...Dear Mr. Stirling, <br /><br />Many thanks for making very interesting comments. I can see how, despite isolation from the rest of the world, the American Indian WOULD make technological and agricultural advances. And THEN the accidental introduction by the Nantucketers of mumps and the common cold would abort and reverse this process.<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-66579792330628838382016-07-24T06:39:00.062+01:002016-07-24T06:39:00.062+01:00Dear Mr. Stirling,
Many thanks for commenting. I...Dear Mr. Stirling, <br /><br />Many thanks for commenting. I had not known that, about the reduced genetic variability of the Indians making them more susceptible to the diseases plaguing the rest of the world. A very interesting point.<br /><br />Which, of course, is why, if we ever get off this rock in a serious way, human colonies on other worlds will need wide genetic variability.<br /><br />Sean M. BrooksSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-57290845463710625562016-07-24T05:22:11.461+01:002016-07-24T05:22:11.461+01:00And North America in 1492 CE looked different from...And North America in 1492 CE looked different from the same continent in 1250 BCE. Three thousand years is a very long time! In that interval, agriculture spread north to the climatic limits of maize -- roughly the St. Lawrence Valley -- and Amerindian populations and technologies increased vastly. The New England forests the Nantucketers see would look quite different before long centuries of shifting agriculture and fire-management of the landscape.S.M. Stirlinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18091131550027851275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-81883395056075084442016-07-24T05:17:45.527+01:002016-07-24T05:17:45.527+01:00Also, the aboriginal populations of the Americas w...Also, the aboriginal populations of the Americas were the descendants of very small founding populations. Small groups, no more than a few thousand and possibly only a few hundred, spread into the Americas in the last glacial period, then expanded very rapidly into the uninhabited continents, and this happened fairly recently in biological terms (somewhere between 15K and 20K years ago, probably.) <br /><br />Hence they had less genetic variety than Eurasian populations, and much less than African ones -- human genetic variability is greatest in Africa, where our species came from.<br /><br />Reduced genetic variation makes populations more susceptible to new epidemic diseases.<br />S.M. Stirlinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18091131550027851275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-64725665645325581432016-07-24T00:30:43.913+01:002016-07-24T00:30:43.913+01:00Kaor, Paul!
I also had the real world example of ...Kaor, Paul!<br /><br />I also had the real world example of how, during the conquest of Mexico by Hernando Cortes, smallpox devastated, probably fatally, the Aztecs. And this despite Cortes trying to PREVENT smallpox from infecting the Indians.<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-90214479335109248352016-07-23T23:33:30.980+01:002016-07-23T23:33:30.980+01:00Sean,
Yes, it was the diseases that I had in mind ...Sean,<br />Yes, it was the diseases that I had in mind in the case of CONQUISTADOR.<br />Paul.Paul Shackleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04180596532266581425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-29719067960969611822016-07-23T21:57:46.072+01:002016-07-23T21:57:46.072+01:00Kaor, Paul!
Commenting on your last sentence. I w...Kaor, Paul!<br /><br />Commenting on your last sentence. I will say only, because of what actually happened in our timeline, is that ACCIDENTS like introduced diseases killed off far, far more Indians than war ever did. We saw how even the common cold was a plague as bad as the Black Death to the Indians in CONQUISTADOR. The reason is simple, thousands of years of isolation from the rest of the human race had made American Indians more prone to succumb to diseases that Europe, Asia, and Africa had built up some resistance to.<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.com