“1491. New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus” by Charles C. Mann. Preface and Introduction Review
I’ve decided to review this book in sections since there is so much to unpack here. In this installment we’ll explore the title, preface and pretense of this book as well as what emotions, feelings and thoughts arise through the introduction of this work by Charles C. Mann.
I’ll start by warning that as Native of Turtle Island/The Western Hemisphere, this book can be a hard read. Though it seems that it is the author’s intention to redeem misconceptions that have been passed off as truth relating to the original people and lifestyles of the so called New World, it’s point of view can’t help but stem from the perspective of white privilege in spite of its best efforts to be “progressive”.
Early on the author states that the question of “who was here and what was it like before/at the time of columbus” had never been of any interest to him. This topic only sparked his curiosity and focus after reading a special issue of the columbian quincentenary of Annals of the Association of American Geographers. This statement alone is testament to his social comfort as an adult Caucasian man while most of us of Native blood dream and imagine constantly through our lives what the world would be like if our people were never subjected to genocide and forced assimilation by missionaries, “conquistadors” and such.
Even though the book’s intent may be to correct erroneous statements regarding pre-columbian life and culture, it constantly references explorers, scholars, archeologists, etc that have no original cultural bond or affiliation with the land in question. Throughout the preface and introduction only one Native American scholar and author Vine Deloria Jr. is briefly cited, which seems irrational if the objective is to create an updated and comprehensive narrative.
In its attempt towards redemption, the introduction’s subtitle is “Holmberg’s Mistake”. Allan R Holmberg was a doctorate student “researcher” who lived amongst the Siriono people of Bolivia from 1940 to 1942 and published his findings in his book “Nomads of the Longbow” in 1950 in which he stated that the Siriono people were “among the most culturally backwards people in the world… with no real history, (floating) changelessly through the millennia until 1492.” His book Nomads was quickly regarded as a classic, iconic and influential work. His mistake, according to Mann, was failing to consider that during the 1940s and the years leading up to that timeframe the Siriono people were a group struggling to recover from physical and cultural genocide, whose existence in spite of these atrocities is nothing short of a miracle.
Other so called experts are cited through the first few pages of this book quoting statements that are uneducated, racist and insulting such as Frances Fitzgerald, best known for her work in the High School Textbook American History; A Survey, who claims “Indians were lazy, childlike and cruel. Backwards”.
Even though the author states that what researchers thought to be true in the past was in fact a misconception, I can’t help but ask myself why Mann did not think to reach out to the Indigenous community directly for answers.
One of the misconceptions addressed in the introduction is the notion that prior to 1492 the “americas” was a wild, untouched and pristine landmass that natives dared not alter. However, research shows that indeed tropical rainforests are the result of carefully grafted gardens with scientific intentions behind its design and are actually masterful works of botany and forestry. This notion is aligned with traditional teachings that we can find through oral history, and accounts that have been passed down through generations in ceremonies and what some call The Red Road. With this in mind, we can take a look at the subtitle of the book: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New? New to who? Why are the “influential” works relating to this subject that are widely found in academia lack the perspective of its original people and are only taught through the perspective of the descendants of those who established a policy of ethnic cleansing and censorship? I feel as if these so called researchers mainly observed but never asked any questions to those they deemed only as subjects of their studies. They pulled conclusions from a complex of superiority and never thought outside of their prejudices.
My hopes in reading this book is that through academic research we can finally correlate what those of us of Native blood have always known. Not for validation for us but to finally shatter the stereotypes and misconceptions that have been imposed upon our people and to once and for all make it clear to the rest of the world that we have always been here and we needed nothing from those who claimed to civilize us.
