Re: Racist Devolution

Marc Becker (marc@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu)
Tue, 3 Sep 1991 23:27:00 CDT


| Original-Sender: v187ef4y@ubvmsc.cc.buffalo.edu (Pat Crowe)
|
| I'm not sure what gave Gary the idea that the pre-colonial peoples of the
| Americas were marked by peaceful relations and harmony between themselves.
| Mesoamerica and the Central Andes had exploitative empires to rival those
| in Europe. The peoples of the Eastern Woodlands, Mississippi valley, and
| Southeastern US were marked by nearly continuous bloodfeuds. While it is
| true that wars of conquest were few before European contact, that doesn't
| in any way imply peace.
|
| Pat Crowe, SUNY at Buffalo
|
| [ Hmmm. Maybe someone could suggest some good reading material on this
| subject. Thanks. --Gary

There is a lot of literature on such themes of war and conquest among indigen-
ous civilizations. Much of it is burried in books, but Ross Hassig, Aztec
Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control (Norman: University of
Oklahoma, 1988) is a good place to start.

If there is such a need, I can expound at length on how the Incas and Aztecs
where expansionalistic empires that trampelled their neighbours. I also have
a somewhat lengthy bibliography on Latin American indigneous civilizations,
if anyone is interested in this. One point I would like to make, though,
is that any imperialism ont he part of indigenous empires does not justify
the barbarity of the european conquest.

Marc Becker
University of Kansas
Marc@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
mabecker@ukanvm.bitnet

[ How about the situation among the natives of North America? --Gary ]