1491: Debunking Myths about the Americas before Columbus
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Emily Glinkler of 'Anti-Social Studies' debunks myths about pre-Columbian America, revealing a rich tapestry of indigenous civilizations with complex societies, advanced technologies, and extensive trade networks. She emphasizes the significant population and cultural achievements of Native Americans, highlighting their sophisticated agricultural practices and the devastating impact of European diseases. Challenging the notion of a 'pristine wilderness,' she showcases the intentional environmental engineering by indigenous people that shaped the Americas before Columbus.
Takeaways
- 🗣️ The script is a historical discussion by Emily Glinkler debunking myths about pre-Columbian Americas.
- 🌏 It challenges the notion that the Americas were sparsely populated, asserting that the population was equal to or larger than Europe's in 1492.
- 📚 Historical estimates of indigenous populations were often based on early explorers' accounts, which underestimated numbers due to disease impact.
- 🔍 Recent scientific and archaeological advancements have helped to revise population estimates upwards, with current estimates suggesting around 50 million indigenous people before European contact.
- 🏙️ The script refutes the idea that Native Americans were uncivilized, highlighting sophisticated societies like the Aztecs and Incas.
- 📖 It points out that indigenous Americans had complex writing systems and a high level of cultural advancement.
- 🛶 The script emphasizes the extensive trade networks among indigenous groups, which were established without the use of domesticated animals or the wheel.
- 🔫 It discusses the misconception that European technology, particularly guns, was vastly superior to that of the indigenous people.
- 🌳 The script dispels the myth of pre-Columbian North America as an untouched wilderness, explaining the extensive environmental engineering by indigenous people.
- 🌾 Indigenous Americans developed many crops that are now staples worldwide, such as potatoes, corn, and tomatoes.
- 🏛️ The script also mentions the significant infrastructure and urban planning achievements of indigenous civilizations, including large cities and complex agricultural systems.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the video 'Anti-Social Studies' by Emily Glinkler?
-The main purpose of the video is to debunk common myths about the pre-Columbian Americas and provide a more accurate and complex understanding of the indigenous civilizations before European contact.
What is the cardinal error Emily admits to committing in the video?
-Emily admits to the error of discussing indigenous Americans across two continents as a monolith, despite their diverse civilizations and groups.
According to the video, what is the estimated population of the Americas before Columbus arrived?
-The video states that the generally accepted median estimate of the indigenous population of the Americas before Columbus arrived is around 50 million people.
Why were the population estimates of the Americas before Columbus so low for a long time?
-The population estimates were low because they were based on the accounts of early explorers who described what they saw during or after massive epidemics, not realizing that disease had already caused a demographic collapse.
What is the myth about Native Americans being uncivilized or less civilized than Europeans that the video aims to debunk?
-The video aims to debunk the myth that Native Americans were uncivilized by highlighting that they had complex societies, writing systems, and a high quality of life, which were often destroyed or overlooked due to disease and conquest.
How did the indigenous people of the Americas alter their environment to create a vast wilderness that provided for their needs?
-Indigenous people used techniques such as slash and burn to create grasslands for farming and hunting, and they intentionally planted trees and other boundary plants to divert animal herds, making hunting more efficient.
What is the significance of the book '1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus' by Charles C. Mann in the video?
-The book is significant as it provides new insights and research into the pre-Columbian Americas, challenging old myths and misconceptions, and is a primary source of information for the video.
Why did many early colonists choose to live with the native tribes rather than in European-style settlements?
-Many early colonists chose to live with the native tribes because they were attracted to the egalitarian spirit, respect for human rights, and the high quality of life that indigenous societies offered, compared to the rigid class structure and feudal system in Europe.
What is the myth about pre-Columbian North America being a vast untouched wilderness that the video addresses?
-The myth that pre-Columbian North America was a vast untouched wilderness is addressed by explaining that indigenous people had been actively and sustainably altering their environment for thousands of years to create a landscape that supported their needs.
How did the indigenous people's agricultural practices and crop development impact the world after the arrival of Europeans?
-Indigenous people's agricultural practices led to the development of crops like potatoes, corn, beans, and tomatoes. When these crops were introduced to the Old World, they helped reduce hunger, increase food security, and fuel population growth across Africa, Europe, and Asia.
What is the importance of acknowledging the historical inaccuracies and myths about indigenous Americans for their identity and rights today?
-Acknowledging historical inaccuracies and myths is important for validating indigenous people's contributions to history, recognizing their foundational civilizations, and supporting their ongoing fight for rights and recognition.
Outlines
🗺 Debunking Myths about Pre-Columbian Americas
In this introductory segment, the host, Emily Glinkler, sets the stage for a discussion aimed at dispelling common misconceptions about the indigenous peoples of the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. The video script addresses the tendency to generalize about indigenous Americans across two continents and acknowledges the limitations of this approach. It also clarifies that the video does not romanticize indigenous civilizations, recognizing their complexities, including instances of brutality and conflict. The primary goal is to challenge the myths about the pre-Columbian Americas, starting with the false notion that the Americas were sparsely populated at the time of European contact.
🌍 Indigenous Civilizations: Misconceptions and Realities
This paragraph delves into the myth that the Americas were underpopulated and uncivilized prior to Columbus's arrival. The host refutes this by presenting evidence that the population of the Americas was comparable to or even larger than that of Europe in 1492. The script discusses the challenges of estimating historical populations, especially given the demographic collapse due to diseases introduced by Europeans. It also highlights the advanced civilizations that existed, such as the Aztec and Inca Empires, and contrasts the common perceptions of indigenous people as nomadic hunters with the reality of their complex societies. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of understanding the cultural, social, and economic achievements of these civilizations to gain a more accurate view of pre-Columbian America.
🛡️ Indigenous Technology and Environmental Mastery
The third paragraph challenges the myth that Europeans had superior technology and that pre-Columbian North America was an untouched wilderness. It argues that indigenous people had mastered their environment through techniques like controlled burns to create sustainable habitats for both agriculture and hunting. The script points out that many crops we consume today, such as potatoes, corn, and tomatoes, were developed by indigenous Americans. It also discusses the sophisticated infrastructure projects, such as irrigation systems and farming techniques, that were in place before European contact. The paragraph emphasizes the ingenuity of indigenous people in transforming their environment to meet their needs without causing long-term damage.
🏛️ Rethinking History and Honoring Indigenous Heritage
In the concluding paragraph, the script calls for a reevaluation of history and the recognition of indigenous civilizations as being as complex and worthy of study as those of the Old World. It discusses the importance of acknowledging the historical contributions of indigenous people to the Americas and the significance of changing how we commemorate historical figures and events, such as replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day. The paragraph underscores the ongoing struggle for indigenous rights and the value of restoring a more accurate historical narrative to validate their heritage and contributions to the nation's history.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Columbus Day
💡Pre-Columbian Americas
💡Indigenous Americans
💡Myth Debunking
💡Population Estimates
💡Disease and Demographic Collapse
💡Civilization
💡Trade Routes
💡Environmental Engineering
💡Agricultural Development
💡Cultural Misconceptions
Highlights
The annual PR campaign by Emily Glinkler aims to debunk myths about pre-Columbian Americas.
Native Americans had complex civilizations, contrary to the myth of 'short and brutish' lives.
The Americas were not 'empty of mankind' before Columbus, challenging the historical misconception.
The acknowledgment of generalization errors in discussing indigenous Americans as a monolith.
Pre-Columbian civilizations were not devoid of brutality, similar to civilizations worldwide.
Myth debunking: The Americas were densely populated, with estimates ranging up to 100 million people.
Historical underestimation of indigenous populations due to disease and lack of documentation.
The demographic collapse due to disease made early explorers' accounts unreliable for population estimates.
Indigenous Americans were not uncivilized; they had complex writing systems and education.
European technology, such as guns, was not as superior as believed, and firearms were often unreliable.
Indigenous societies had advanced farming techniques and had domesticated many crops.
Pre-Columbian North America was not a 'vast untouched wilderness' but was actively managed by indigenous people.
Indigenous people's environmental engineering created the landscapes Europeans encountered.
The transformation of the Americas by indigenous people included sophisticated farming and hunting techniques.
Indigenous civilizations had large-scale infrastructure projects, such as Cahokia's trade routes.
The importance of acknowledging indigenous history for identity and the ongoing struggle for indigenous rights.
The significance of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day as a form of recognition and respect.
Transcripts
welcome to anti-social studies I'm Emily
glinkler and I contextualize the chaos
one historical tangent at a time all
right it's almost the holiday formerly
known as Columbus Day so that means it's
time for my annual PR campaign to debunk
the myths about the pre-columbian
Americas let's go
[Music]
in the 1974 Pulitzer prize-winning
European discovery of America the author
observed that Native Americans
experienced quote short and brutish
lives void of Hope for any future oh my
gosh void of Hope as late as 1987 the
year I was born no big deal a standard
High School US history textbook
described the Americas before Columbus
as quote empty of mankind and its works
empty of mankind that is insane before I
get into the specific myths I do want to
just admit a sort of cardinal error that
I'm going to be committing throughout
this video which is that I'm going to be
talking about indigenous Americans
across two continents very broadly as a
monolith which they were not right so
I'm gonna be making these big broad
generalizations about things indigenous
Americans did or didn't do and of course
if I had the time and the resources it
would be way better for me to go in
depth and talk about each indigenous
civilization and group on its own but
for now I think it's better than nothing
to at least debunk some of the big broad
myths that a lot of especially us
Americans are taught about indigenous
people in the Americas before white
people arrived and number two I am not
trying to imply that every single
civilization of the Americas before
Columbus showed up was like pristine and
wonderful and valuable no sometimes they
were brutal they were intense they
fought they killed they murdered they
committed all of the same sort of crimes
and atrocities that human civilizations
across all of the world have committed
really since the beginning of recorded
history all I'm trying to do is talk
about a few just blatantly false
assumptions that are made about what
civilization did and didn't look like
before 1492 so that we can have a little
bit more clear and complex understanding
of what the Americas were like before
they were conquered and colonized myth
number one the Americas were sparsely
populated when Europeans arrived false
so in 1492 there were at least as many
or more people living in the Americas as
there were in Europe at the same time so
let's let that sink in the population of
the Americas which to be fair does
include North and South America was
equal to or larger than the population
of Europe in 1492. so our estimates of
how many indigenous people were in the
Americas before Columbus arrived have
been incredibly low until very recently
for one it's because math is hard right
but math is especially hard when you're
trying to estimate how many people used
to exist when there were so few of those
people left and very little
documentation of their previous
existence because most of that
documentation was destroyed in a
conquest right so for a long time
historians based their estimates of how
many people were in the Americas off of
the accounts of the earliest Explorers
so they would read the accounts of
Cortez or Cabeza de Vaca and they would
use their writings to try to like
reverse engineer and kind of estimate
how many indigenous people were there so
let's say an Explorer described a part
of the country as sparsely populated
then we assumed that meant that that
part of the continent was sparsely
populated because they're the first
Outsider to see them in tens of
thousands of years right it makes sense
but here's the problem it's become very
clear to us that disease spread across
these continents way faster than the
people did so what even those earliest
explorers we're seeing in most parts of
the Americas as they traveled through
the American southwest the Midwest the
mesoamerica whatever right they were
seeing the survivors of a demographic
collapse the early explorers and
colonists were describing what the
population looked like either during or
after a massive epidemic so their
estimates were incredibly low it's only
been in the last few decades thanks to
more advanced scientific and
archaeological tools that we've been
able to do a better job estimating the
actual numbers so first off we do know
pretty well that by around 1650 there
are around 6 million indigenous
Americans so the question of how many
there were before the arrival of
Europeans is important for determining
how many natives died and thus just what
was the scale and scope of this tragedy
now there's a wide range on this number
up until the middle of the 20th century
most Scholars said there were only 10
million indigenous people when Europeans
arrived across all the Americas so only
notice my air quotes around 4 million of
them died only 4 million newer Scholars
have estimated a number as high as 100
million indigenous people but the
generally accepted median number of how
many people were living in the Americas
before Europeans showed up is now 50
million
50 million people with this number that
would mean that 88 of the indigenous
population died during this time period
of first contact with Europeans in other
words when the first English settlers
arrived on the East Coast around 100
years after more than 100 years after
Columbus showed up the entire two
continents of the Americas only had
around 12 percent of the people that had
existed there around 100 years earlier
and think about this most of those
people who did survive were in Mexico
and South America the remnants of the
great Aztec and Inca Empires from the
Viewpoint of early settlers and
explorers North America was essentially
uninhabited but their mistake was not
realizing that they were visiting this
continent at the end of the greatest
demographic disaster in world history
myth number two the Native Americans
were uncivilized or at least less
civilized than Europeans false again
when most Europeans arrived they were
observing civilizations that had just
been completely destroyed by disease it
would be as if historians were writing
about the Romans but only after they
were sacked by The Barbarians we would
have a very different view of that
Civilization if we only learned about
their collapse and nothing about their
achievements for example that's why
people so commonly think of the
indigenous people of North America as
exclusively nomadic Hunters it's just
because all of the heavily populated
societies were wiped out as the disease
spread quickly in dense urban areas the
nomadic people were often all that were
left in some parts of the continent so
from this lens we have to understand
that the level of cultural advancement
and the settlement range of indigenous
Americans was way higher and broader and
more diverse than previously imagined
and first detour let's do a quick
reminder of what life would have been
like for most people living in Europe at
the same time so yes DaVinci was
painting the Mona Lisa and a teenage
Henry VII had just become king of
England but that doesn't tell us what
life would have been like for commoners
on the ground in 1492 in Europe most
people would still be living in a small
one-room home dirt floor in a rural area
Reliant upon the local Lord and his
manner for basic necessities small towns
existed for trading basic Goods but most
people spent their entire life within a
10 mile radius of their place of birth
thanks to the Crusades and the rise of
trade cities had sprung up but even the
largest only had around 100 000 people
living there Cusco by comparison the
capital of the Inca Empire was larger
than Paris at the same time the printing
press had just been invented by
gutenberger on 50 years earlier and so
though knowledge was spreading amongst
the elites like Copernicus access to
education and literacy was virtually
non-existent for most Europeans you can
contrast this with the fact that the
Aztecs and Maya both had complex writing
systems that were taught to young people
in schools now I'm actually not saying
one's better than the other it's
comparing apples and oranges right but a
quick note that a lot of today's episode
is based on the works of Charles C Mann
he wrote a book called 1491 New
Revelations of the Americas before
Columbus and he asked seven experts
anthropologists archaeologists and
historians if they would rather have
been a typical Native American or a
typical European in 1491 and all seven
chose to be a Native American in fact
many early colonists made the same
Choice scores of English people in
Jamestown and Plymouth ran off to live
with the native tribes why well the
other we have is clear the Native
Americans experienced a very high
quality of life this is excluding the
very obvious and very not their fault
rampant disease that had spread through
their communities pre-columbian American
societies had long traditions of
respecting human dignity social justice
individual protections against the abuse
of power by authorities many Europeans
who came to the Americas were Amazed by
the egalitarian Spirit of the natives
compared with Europe's feudal society
dominated by a rigid class structure and
rule by nobility the natives respect for
Human Rights was attractive to many and
even though technically native chiefs
were all-powerful colonial leader Roger
Williams wrote that quote they will not
conclude of ought unto which the people
are averse meaning that a lot of the
indigenous communities at least that the
early English settlers or colonists
encountered wouldn't Implement a new
policy if the people didn't support it
that's Democratic y'all so I'm not
suggesting that every single indigenous
Community was the same and that they
were all in this way more egalitarian or
had a higher quality of life or whatever
I'm just saying that if we're going to
make these huge assumptions about
indigenous people before the Americas
which is what white historians have been
doing for a very long time we're working
with some bad information economically
there's also a lot of evidence that
native groups traded extensively
throughout the Americas one of the
largest cities in North America Cahokia
was at the center of a continent-wide
trade route it was centered in modern
day St Louis their trade stretched from
the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico
Stones especially turquoise from the
American southwest have been found in
South America while Maize from Mexico
and feathers from the Amazon have been
found in modern day North America and
remember they would have established
these trade routes without domesticated
animals beasts of burden and without the
wheel almost all of this trade would
have been conducted by humans on foot
which is really impressive right it was
essentially their version of the Silk
Road and I just think we should give it
a name right we have the trans-saharan
roots the Silk Road the Indian Ocean
trade we need to have the maze lane or
the turquoise Turnpike or something I
don't know get on that finally a common
argument is that the Europeans have
highly sophisticated technology that
outmatched the natives now I'm not going
to say this isn't true guns were
undoubtedly more sophisticated or at
least could cause more damage than
Native Weapons but we shouldn't
overestimate their impact right 16th
century Firearms were highly unreliable
they often jammed many Native Americans
genuinely thought that the whole purpose
of a gun was just to create a
distraction they called them noise
makers even when they were given the
option many indigenous people kept their
arrows because they determined that guns
were much more difficult to aim
accurately which was true as John Smith
of the Jamestown Colony put it quote The
Awful Truth is that guns could not shoot
as far as an arrow could fly by the way
in my head every time I hear John Smith
I have to hear it in Mel Gibson's voice
so thanks for that Disney on other
technology moccasins were sturdier than
European boots they offered a silent
approach during Warfare as far as
sailing rivers and coastlines canoes
were faster and easier to maneuver than
any small European boat available at the
time the point is that guns and other
European technology honestly didn't do a
ton fun to help conquer the indigenous
people the single most important factor
was disease something that was brought
to the Americas completely unbeknownst
to the Europeans making it hard to give
them a lot of real credit for that part
of the conquest if that's the right word
for it finally myth number three that
pre-columbian North America was a vast
untouched Wilderness false I call this
the Pocahontas paint with all the colors
of the wind myth right our vision of the
world before Columbus is one of pristine
nature preserved by the natives when
Pocahontas sings about their harmonious
relationship with the natural world what
we hear is that the natives didn't touch
or transform their environment that is
far from the truth the new world was not
Wilderness like the Europeans believed
the indigenous people had been
constantly altering their environment
for thousands of years they were just
way better at it than Europeans were
basically the indigenous people
transformed their environment so
successfully that they created a vast
Wilderness that provided everything they
needed for example they didn't just sit
back as bison happened to pass by they
worked hard for Generations to create
factors so that the Bison would want to
roam or have to roam near them and they
did it in a way that was sustainable so
that future Generations would have the
same access to natural resources that
they had
what a concept
a lot of indigenous people used fire to
radically transform their environment
slash and burn techniques would create
huge grasslands that could be cultivated
both for farming and to grow plants that
would attract animals for hunting
basically when the Europeans arrived and
marveled at the massive herds of wild
game roaming the continent they were
looking at the results of centuries of
environmental engineering by the
indigenous people they didn't realize
how much effort had been undertaken to
make the continents this way and let's
be honest they probably wouldn't have
believed it could be done by the
indigenous people even if they had but
the Europeans believed that this was the
natural order of the American
environment and believe that these
populations would just automatically
replenish themselves so they hunted them
down without taking any action to
maintain the populations over time
meanwhile the indigenous people in the
United States for example were sitting
on their reservations watching their
Millennia of hard work go down the drain
as for farming today more than half of
the crops grown around the world were
initially developed in the Americas by
the indigenous people I talked in a
podcast episode about crop diversity in
Peru y'all the Inca developed over 4 000
types of potatoes but we also have the
indigenous Americans to thank for beans
corns Peppers avocados like that's what
I just call the Austin Texas Taco diet
right there's also Chia quinoa sweet
potatoes Tomatoes peanuts and pineapple
the American crops that travel back to
the so-called old world reduced hunger
around the world it transformed the
demographics of afro-eurasia populations
boomed across Africa Europe and Asia
thanks to easy to grow crops like
potatoes right the Europeans had
stumbled Upon This Kind of Perfect
environmental system they could sell
these popular American crops back to the
old world fueling a population explosion
especially in Africa then they could
take and kidnap and enslave the Africans
back across the ocean to work on farms
and plantations growing more of these
profitable crops the Europeans basically
just became the most successful
middlemen in all of history but beyond
counting and farming the indigenous
people just straight up built stuff too
like way more than we imagined as
Charles Mann author of 1491 describes
quote from Southern Maine down to about
the Carolinas you would have seen pretty
much the entire Coastline lined with
Farms cleared land interior for many
miles and densely populated Villages
generally rounded with wooden walls and
then in the Southeast you would have
seen these Priestly Chief domes which
were centered on large Mounds thousands
and thousands of them which still exist
excluding Central and South America who
built straight up Empires that would
compete with any Old World Civilization
to nochitutlan and Kuzco were both
bigger than London or Paris at the time
even in North America which was more
sparsely populated you had massive
infrastructure projects indigenous
people built sophisticated dams dikes
and piping to irrigate their fields they
intentionally planted trees and other
boundary plants to divert herds of
animals toward canyons and other natural
features that made hunting them easier
and more efficient okay so why do we
care what the world was like before
Columbus for your daily life it probably
doesn't really matter but for our
identity especially as U.S Americans it
really does and for indigenous Americans
who by the way still exist it matters a
lot indigenous people today are still
fighting for their rights the point is
that if you are an indigenous American
and you've had most of your Heritage
land and independent Stripped Away but
maybe we can at least give them back
some of their history by acknowledging
that their foundational civilizations
were just as civilized and worthy of
discussion as those in the old world we
are validating their value to our
nation's history rethinking history and
changing sometimes the people or events
that we honor like changing Columbus Day
to indigenous people's day might seem
trivial to some people but to those who
have a long and intense history with
those symbols of Oppression like
Columbus it means a lot and let's be
honest after all they've been through
it's almost literally the least we can
do thanks for watching make sure that
you like this video And subscribe to
anti-social studies for more historical
tangents and follow me on every social
media platform you can think of
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