Bird's-Eye View Of The Amazon (Airborne Archaeologist Challenges The Myth Of A Pristine Wilderness)

Penn Arts And Science ^ | 5-30-2004 | Ted Mann

[aposiopetic]

Pennping

[knarf]

entropy

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[dasboot]

I'm reminded..yet again...of Galileo: you'd think academics would know better. Hubris.

Kudos to Erickson. ("It does move!" BUMP)

[dasboot]

Entropy?

[bwteim]

Curucu Ping!

[cayuga]

Thanks, blam. Another good post.

[longtermmemmory]

Seems environmentalism is shown again to be only about prohibiting private property.

[Coyoteman]

In the office of a typical archaeologist, you would expect to find things like stone tools, pottery fragments, and maybe even a few Wooly Mammoth bones.

Wrong. Its books and computers now. I have three computers and have long since covered the two windows with extra book cases. (Didn't like that view anyway.)

And I have a private office upstairs with 48 feet of additional bookshelf (all full) and another computer.

[knarf]

At one time, man was very civilized and 'cultured' in that area.

Something has happened for man and his culture disappear from there.

What and why?

I propose we're not advancing but rather digressing.

Perhaps entropy was the wrong word ... how about 2nd Law of thermodynamics.

[blam]

You can never have to many books.

A few years ago, I saw a NG special on this area (described in this article) and one archaeologist said that it would have taken a population of 50 million to do all that work.

[P.O.E.]

Recently had to read "A River Ran Wild" for a children's lit class. Found it very biased in that it makes it seem that the indigenous peoples did very little to the land. Hopefully, more such research can help put the story straight.

[blam]

An Origin Of New World Agriculture In Coastal Ecuador (12,000BP)

[TASMANIANRED]

The strange productiveness might be related to fish emulsion.

A nastier smelling product I can't imagine but it makes plants grow.

[dasboot]

I think I see your point: The sociological construct necessary for technological progress can, (and/or most assuredly will) (entropy) 'diffuse' (atrophy?): and the technological creation of the social paradigm cannot sustain itself without recourse to the necessary traditions which made the technology possible in the first place.

Roger that!

[blam]

Read This :

1491

"Before it became the New World, the Western Hemisphere was vastly more populous and sophisticated than has been thought—an altogether more salubrious place to live at the time than, say, Europe. New evidence of both the extent of the population and its agricultural advancement leads to a remarkable conjecture: the Amazon rain forest may be largely a human artifact.

[knarf]

Geeez ... did I say all that?

Thanx

[John Valentine]

What happened was tuberculosis, influenza and measles.

These diseases, inadvertently introduced into the Americas by the newly arrived Europeans, spread like wildfire through the indigenous populations.

Literally millions died, 99% of whom never met a European or even knew of their existence. There is little doubt that this is what happened in the Amazon.

There have been a number of past posts on this subject here on FR. After I do a bit of research, I'll post the links if I can find them.

[dasboot]

I propose we're not advancing but rather digressing. Our technology progresses, while the sociatal conditions which make it possible, 'digress' (ungress? :^). At some point, the structure fails catostrophically, and weeds grow over the interstates.

We progress and antigress at the same time.