American Indian Contributions to the World.

[Dave]

Of course they don't because it would be wrong to keep harping on about wrongs done to people in the past......Oh Wait

:thumbup:

Well how far in the past do you two draw the line?

I take it if someone mugged you, for no reason, last week, you would have forgiven them by now?
Or if there was someone walking around, who severely abused your mum when she was little, you'd have forgiven him?
Or the old german who shot your grandad dead in the war, lived at the bottom of your street, who your mum hated, but he was ok with you, and offered a smile and a nod, when you passed him, you'd be friends with him?

Or is it just outside of living memory that you draw the line?

I mean blood feuds which continue over generations are not uncommon in many cultures are they?

I am curious. I can understand why native americans today are still p155ed off. And suggesting they are 'harping on' is lacking empathy in quite an insulting fashion I think.

I mean, would you tell a jew to just shut up harping on about the bleedin holocaust, if you were a german? No. I dont think you would dare, would you? I mean, its a bit of a slap in the face. Cant you see that?

Just an observation guys.....

 

[Goatboy]

Dave,
Boatman's jokey comment and my appreciation of it was down to the fact that he was saying just that.
It was a reply to the fact that Robson was glossing over what we would now consider bad behavior due to time, but that we as Europeans still feel the need to apologise for ours.
I think what we did to other cultures was awful. As a Scot I think what was done to us by the English was not very nice. (We did some awful stuff back to you though). What annoys me though is how the Indians are STILL treated in America. That is truly wrong.
How do you feel about the re-enactors dressing up as Roman troops? Would you feel as happy if they dressed up as SS troops and paraded about? Both invaded and subjugated folks in other countries to terrible treatment.
Boatman's just pointed out the irony in a funny (well to me) way. But you both make a valid point so you get a :thumbup: too.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Dave]

The art of diplomacy is not lost on you mate.

 

[sunndog]

Is just me that thinks of white americans as europeans? Or even worse direct decendants of the evil evil invaders.........its getting a bit "my dad's bigger than your dad" too

I would suggest no peoples throughout earths history are "best" and all contribute to the whole.......we are only one 'race' after all.......human

 

[Robson Valley]

1-2 centuries ago, there were two principal immigrations into Canada. From Europe of course.
Also large numbers of Chinese attracted by the Gold Rushes and the railroad construction.
As a kid in 1950's Western Canada, I took it for granted that there were all sorts of people.

 

[boatman]

All history and I suspect that the Mods wouldn't approve of some of the Holocaust jokes told to me by my Jewish friends.

 

[Adze]

It is very easy to look upon human failings and despair. Much harder, it seems, to look upon our triumphs and delight. Human nature, perhaps.

 

[forrestdweller]

The Inca still freeze dry vegetables. Got any Neandrethals who ever figured that out? Huh?

so far no freeze-dried neanderthal vegetables have been found- but does that mean they did not know about it?

 

[boatman]

One reads of the improvidence of hunter-gatherers but people being as capable in any age would have done what they needed. Perhaps Incas needed vast quantities of preserved vegetables in order to distribute provisions to armies and elites and the population. Small local bands whether in the Americas or in Europe would have had no need of that. They would have developed such storage capacity and preservation methods as they needed, being able to access food from nature as required made the difference.

 

[Robson Valley]

I suspect that living with the endless wind in serious mountains (Andes) made quite a difference in the freeze drying process.
Deadmother Pass is 4200m, and well above Manchu Pichu on the MP Trail.
There's nothing around me more than 2800 - 3000m but the wind is always up your nose.

 

[Nomad64]

The Inca still freeze dry vegetables. Got any Neandrethals who ever figured that out? Huh?

I don't claim to be an expert but I did do a bit of reading around the Inca civilisation and the Spanish invasion in preparation for a trip to Bolivia and Peru a few years ago and I don't believe that any of the locals would identify themselves as "Incas" other than for the benefit of tourists.

My recollection is that the Inca civilisation was a short lived empire whereby one small tribe came to dominate its neighbours and carve out a vast empire (with impressive infrastructure and bureaucracy) stretching from the Andes to the Pacific shoreline and into the Amazonian rainforest. The Inca empire collapsed after little more than a century and apart from the impressive architecture (including impressive silos for storing food) effectively disappeared half a millennium ago after the Spanish invasion and the ravages of smallpox.

Using "Inca" as a generic term to describe the indigenous (and/or non-indigenous) people from Peru and Bolivia (or even just those local to the Cuzco area) is about as appropriate as calling all north Americans, "Brits"!

BTW the headache inducing high point on the Inca Trail is (amongst less printable things), at least in English, generally called Dead Woman Pass.

 

[boatman]

Soroche was one of the reasons they chewed coca leaves.