war etc.
bach@cs.umass.edu
Tue, 10 Sep 1991 20:10:00 EST
I can't refrain from putting in a couple of two centses about the subject
of peace and war. I appreciate the reference to the Driver book, which is
generally pretty balanced. I think it's also important to realize the vast
differences among groups across the continent(s). Warfare of one kind or
another seems to have been a part of aboriginal life here as elsewhere from
place to place and with differing details. It also seems clear that the
European encrosions changed the pressures and the degree of destructiveness
a lot. The Driver chapter ends like this:
...it seems likely that war could and did arise independently in the
Old and New Worlds. However, the greed, cupidity, deceit, and utter
disregard of Indian life on the part of most of the European conquerors
surpassed anything of the kind that the Indian cultures had been able to
produce on their own in their thousands of years of almost complete
independence from the Old World. (p. 329)
Peace, Emmon