🚀 go-pugleaf

Gatos Loco <gatosloco@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<dnr9l0dpgt1njio2bj2ir5ddbto5mumqnr@4ax.com>...
> >They weren't stupid, they just didn't need technology.
> 
> Even without "technology" they managed to hunt several species to
> extinction. And contrary to the belief that  they just lived in peace
> and harmony... They also fought amongst themselves quite a bit. In
> fact many of these tribal disputes continue today, now they take the
> form of land disputes and such.  Which then makes a convinient excuse
> for the gov to settle such disputes by land confiscation.
> 
> Probably did less damage because they didn't have any real beasts of
> burden until horses were introduced. Whith the exception of lamas of
> course. And there weapons were simple. Military campaigns aren't as
> easy when you have to walk and carry all of your goods with you.
> 
> The Aztecs enslaved many members of small tribes. Which then prompted
> many of these tribes to fight alongside the spanish when they
> destroyed there empire.
> 
> When you look at the fact the most of the rest of humanity on the
> globe was exposed to each other for such a long time the transfer of
> technology between these people was vast. Mostly the chinese invented
> everything and then a lot of europeans took credit for inventing it.  
> 
> Indians had a lot of calender technology. As well as other means of
> survival. Saying they were ignorant is kind of pointless though.
> Unfamiliar with EuroAsian cultures perhaps. But they managed to create
> somewhat complex societies.  
>  
> They werent just innocent peaceful beings though.
> But if you feel better believing it was all a peace and harmony thing,
> and that prompts you to live more peacefully don't let me stop you.
> You are probably better off that way. 
> 
> Cheers
> Gato Loco

OK, allow my to recycle this post to the same point. So I guess we are
following in the footprints, not of most American Indians or New
Guinea natives, but of Easter Islanders. They spent their time and
resources in statue sculpting, warring each other, while ignoring the
issue of environmental degradation. Deja vu?


>  Actually they were very hard on the land.  Slash and burn agriculture is
>not sustainable.
>
>  
>

Depends on which indian tribes we are discussing. You are both right 
depending on whom you pick. The natives of New Guinea were probably
the
closest to having a sustaining society, of any group of people in the
world.

This article may though describe the model that best fits us.

Easter's End 
by Jared Diamond 
Published in Discover Magazine on 08/01/95

In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their
forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their
complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism. Are we about to
follow their lead?

Among the most riveting mysteries of human history are those posed by
vanished civilizations. Everyone who has seen the abandoned buildings
of the Khmer, the Maya, or the Anasazi is immediately moved to ask the
same question: Why did the societies that erected those structures
disappear?

Their vanishing touches us as the disappearance of other animals, even
the dinosaurs, never can. No matter how exotic those lost
civilizations seem, their framers were humans like us. Who is to say
we won't succumb to the same fate? Perhaps someday New York's
skyscrapers will stand derelict and overgrown with vegetation, like
the temples at Angkor Wat and Tikal.

(snip)

It would be easy to close our eyes or to give up in despair. If mere
thousands of Easter Islanders with only stone tools and their own
muscle power sufficed to destroy their society, how can billions of
people with metal tools and machine power fail to do worse? But there
is one crucial difference. The Easter Islanders had no books and no
histories of other doomed societies. Unlike the Easter Islanders, we
have histories of the past--information that can save us. My main hope
for my sons' generation is that we may now choose to learn from the
fates of societies like Easter's.

http://dieoff.com/page145.htm

Jack Dingler