--------------------
Natural Rainforest or "Pristine Myth"?
For decades it was simply assumed that forest lands in the Americas – old growth in the North and rainforests in the South – were “pristine” and largely devoid of human influence prior to European settlement. This “pristine myth” still dominates popular conceptions – but it is no longer the accepted wisdom among archaeologists. To the contrary, there is increasing evidence that the pre-Colombian forests of the Americas were subject to extensive human alteration and influence.
The American landscape of 1492 was no more “natural” than those of the last three hundred years. The idea of an untouched American wilderness is ecological fantasy, not historical fact.
[The Volokh Conspiracy]
9:39:52 AM 
|
