Comments on: Amazon rain forest home to complex societies?

Amazon rain forest home to complex societies?

stbalbach — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 16:15:02 -0800

Was the Amazon rain forest home to complex societies?

By: euphorb

euphorb — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 16:23:09 -0800

Earthmovers of the Amazon

By: penguin pie

penguin pie — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 16:42:04 -0800

Interesting - what's a potsherd?

By: mudpuppie

mudpuppie — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 16:43:47 -0800

Potsherd -- alternate spelling for "potshard," of a shard of pot.

By: LarryC

LarryC — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 17:28:27 -0800

This is part of a growing body of evidence that the preColumbian American landscape was largely man made. Charles Mann's Atlantic article, "1491" begins with the new theories of the rain forest and continues: "When disease swept Indians from the land, Kay says . . . the ecological ancien régime collapsed, and strange new phenomena emerged. In a way this is unsurprising; for better or worse, humankind is a keystone species everywhere. Among these phenomena was a population explosion in the species that the Indians had kept down by hunting. After disease killed off the Indians, Kay believes, buffalo vastly extended their range. Their numbers more than sextupled. The same occurred with elk and mule deer."

By: goodglovin77

goodglovin77 — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 19:10:52 -0800

All I can say to this post is: Hooray. Especially the articles brought up in the comments. Along with the new Jarod Diamond book, I'm a very happy camper.

By: teece

teece — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 21:54:53 -0800

This is great stuff. It's not every day that fundamental conceptions I had about the world are challenged in a realistic fashion. Thanks.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 22:03:41 -0800

Your welcome!

By: dharmamaya

dharmamaya — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 00:37:27 -0800

They will discover that the key Amazonian ingredient to the "terra preta do indio" just became extinct about seven minutes ago, when the last surviving specimen perished in some farmer's routine landclearing fire.