• Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/popular-books/aboriginal-people-canadian-military/warfare-pre-columbian-north-america.html

    “As early as the year 1000, for example, Huron, Neutral, Petun and Iroquois villages were increasingly fortified by a timber palisade that could be nearly 10 metres in height, sometimes villages built a second or even third ring to protect them against attacks by enemy nations.”

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    There’s no way humans didn’t have human problems. This seems like an extension of the “good ol’ days” that views the past with rose tinted glasses. There absolutely would have been theft, murder, laziness, have-nots…whatever. People are people.

    Ninja edit: found this.

    https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/bitstream/handle/11122/9753/8729.02.conn.1991.punishment-precolonial-indigenous.ch.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y

    Banishment, execution, murder, and theft among other things were absolutely a thing.

    • WelcomeBear@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I would go so far as to say this is some classic “noble savage” bullshit that only serves to dehumanize people.

    • Hamartia@lemmy.world
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      Were there not many different tribes? It stands to reason that there could well have been a range of different lifestyles too. Including that described above.

      My point being that other recorded experiences with native americans do not invalidate this rosy reminiscence.

      It is in no way a workable solution to the modern maladies of this fractious over-crowded planet but it does help to have a range of idealised utopias to draw from in our discussions of how to proceed.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        Ok. An unsourced meme is not historical fact. It’s disturbing that it’s even taken as valid with no corroborating information, you arguing as if it were true, and using opinion to manufacture “proof” such a “different tribes” and “lifestyles”. There’s plenty of made up bullshit floating around on the internet in pic/text format, why is this one granted any more believability? Do you have a legitimate source indicating any such “utopias” or do you just want to keep making things up?

        • Hamartia@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Why does it upset you so much? It is, as you say, a meme. Just a meme. It’s not peer reviewed or held to any measurable standard that warrants getting yourself worked up over. It’s not taught in schools or repeated on any serious news platform as fact. It’s just a meme.

          I too doubt if it is real. It’s just entertainment. Just like when I watch a tv show, I can choose to momentarily suspend belief when I engage with it.

          Is it flat out impossible for some native peoples to have had that quoted experience? I don’t think so. I don’t also think it would have been common at all. But not impossible.

          Are you sure that it is not the sentiment of the meme that you are really objecting to rather than it’s credibilty. Why not write a critical analysis of it. It would make for a more interesting conversation.

          For one (speaking from my experience reading about the ‘wild Irish’), there is often a might makes right in the anarchy of these losely connected groups of people that is often brutal. Those at the bottom of the social ladder probably wouldn’t have such a rose tinted overview of it.

          • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            So if I disagree with you I’m “upset”? Now it’s just a meme and not the basis for your theories on native peoples?

            can choose to momentarily suspend belief when I engage with it.

            This is ridiculous. I provided a factual and objective source of information. Now you’re going on about the Irish, grasping at straws, and flat out saying feels before reals. Goddamn no wonder we got trump for president.

            Take a hike.

            • Hamartia@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              You’re still angry. And I don’t exactly understand why. You seem angry to me because you are being uncivil and closed minded.

              But why? Do you think that meme is seditious or in some way undermines democracy? Do you think that there are only a limited range of responses to that meme that are acceptable, and you, somehow, are the arbiter?

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        My point being that other recorded experiences with native americans do not invalidate this rosy reminiscence.

        I’d actually point to the excepts from Columbus’s own journals, catalogued in Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” to identify a number of native tribes he initially encountered who were practically childlike in their innocence.

        The Caribbean island peoples were documented in sharp contrast to more imperial mainlanders as extraordinarily passive, initially quite friendly, and devoid of the more rigid hierarchies and institutions common in those more technologically advanced societies.

        The only bit that doesn’t really fit is the horses, which hadn’t arrived from Europe yet

        • Hamartia@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Interesting stuff. I think remember hearing about that in the Behindthebastards episode on Columbus.

          The spanish had a similar native experience during an unplanned visit to Ireland in 1517. While there were towns and villages in Ireland at the time, there was still a significant population of wild Irish.

          They spend an marked amount of time talking about the free range boobs that were on show.

      • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Not even remotely close to a utopia, especially when compared to modern day, but I’m sure that doesn’t matter to you.

        • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          A fairer society where people largely take care of one another, or a society structured primarily to extract wealth from others with all those problems…

          Pointing to a description of a society that on the face of it is better than ours, and saying that they still have some of the problems that we haven’t solved isn’t much of a point.

          • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            They went to war and took each other as slaves.

            You’re just waxing poetic about things you don’t really understand, and it makes you look genuinely fucking stupid.

            • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Slaves?! The society that displaced them was at least better in that respect, right?

              …right?

              Fuck me, you’re talking about my stupidity as you condemn them because of a series of flaws that were/are prevalent in the society that genocided them. You’re a little lacking in credibility, my guy.

              • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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                1 month ago

                You claimed it was a relative utopia. I disproved that. You’ve doubled down.

                You’re just a fucking moron, eat the L.

                • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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                  30 days ago

                  You’re calling a moron when you understand what “relative” means? Not my L to take, champ.

                  The positive differences have been established from the outset, you’ve failed to point to any negative differences - relative utopia remains accurate.

  • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    Kinda weird that everyone had a horse. Considering there where no horses in the Americas before colonialism.

    • OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      There were. They just happened to have died out. So, ancient native Americans, potentially horse-knowledgeable, and then they died out 10000 or so years ago.

      Which is an even weirder and more fun fact, an addendum fact.

      • azuth@sh.itjust.works
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        There were no horses in America, there were evolutionary ancestors of horses that would not be able to fulfill any horse role.

        Just like zebras are not horses and wolves not dogs. They would obviously not be owned by Native Americans nor would the Native Americans have a remarkable body of knowledge about them (like they developed with actual horses).

        Horses were bred to be big and strong enough in Central Asia.

      • solarvector@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        We also learned about horses in America from the book of Mormon. They were also around approximately 2 - 3,000 years ago before all the good light skinned believers died out. Along with their horses…

        Weird less fun non fact addendum to the weird fun addendum fact.

      • AEsheron@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        As the other comment pointed out, horses used to be found in the America’s, but had since gone extinct before Europeans reintroduced them.

          • OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            In the same way that man wasn’t drastically different evolution wise from that period to now (science says we got a little shorter, but thats about it genetically) , horses were not some wild precursor species here. They were just horses. Potentially stockier, but still horses

            • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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              1 month ago

              Stupid argument. Bananas are very sifynkw than they were 100 years ago. The horses you know are not natural horses.

              • OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe@lemmy.world
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                Stupid argument. Slective breeding has taken place for all of history, the beasts in your mideval paintings are no more Cats than they are unnatural felines.

                Evolution takes a long time, the banana you’re talking about isn’t the same banana from 100 years ago, it’s a straight up different strain that grew/evolved parallel to the banana your great grandparents used to buy at the store. So, no, it’s not the same banana DNA wise, but it’s also not even the same banana strain. It’s like you’re pointing at Zebras and saying they’re not horses, we all already knew that part. But if a cave painting from 2000 years ago depicts a Quagga, we can all just go ahead and say ‘ancient Zebras’ and colloquially no one will be upset.

    • finderscult
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      1 month ago

      Colonialism didn’t happen over night, but many generations.

    • 🏴Akuji@leminal.space
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      1 month ago

      You think so?
      I read it as a native american highlighting good points of an already functioning model of civilisation before white men brought them, figuratively and literally, all the misery and disease of their own

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        It was a knee-jerk reaction. I looked up the quote, and it was made by John Fire Lame Deer. The reason it sounds “noble savage” to me is because, as you say, it’s highlighting only the good points of his peoples’ history. They fought and killed one another just like all people have. On the other hand, it’s not his responsibility to describe every good and bad thing in said history and there’s no doubt they had a way of life that was working that the colonialists destroyed. I guess one very cold comfort is that the colonialists have continued their destructive way of life to the point that they will be destroyed as well.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    A man’s worth was measured by how good he was at killing the other tribe’s men. So there’s that.

    • Sergio@slrpnk.net
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      Native Americans weren’t/aren’t some monolithic people. Back then they no doubt had a lot of different ideas on measuring a man’s worth.

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        Really? You go to work and your boss says “hey, I’ve noticed you haven’t killed enough members of our corporate rival this year”?

            • Madison420@lemmy.world
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              The irony being that this jokes existence proves my point.

              Ed: don’t spam me with dumb shit and then ban me so I can’t respond when you look a fool.

              Argue in good faith or I dunno get fucked?

              • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                Literally how? It’s a joke, that’s the point. Society doesn’t actually function that way.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          I didn’t say business, I said civilization and yes you just described war which is what the comment was about anyway.

            • Madison420@lemmy.world
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              A civilized society is a civilization bud, that said if you think business = society I’d say you have bigger issues to tackle.

              A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of the state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond signed or spoken languages (namely, writing systems and graphic arts).

              Lol yes, you can’t be bothered to pick up a dictionary but it’s me who won’t ever learn anything. Totally.

              Good luck with that shit bud.

              • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                bud

                Blocked. Feel free to never learn anything because you think you’re above everyone. This is what happens when a leftist adopts a conservative mindset. Be warned, lurkers!

  • bizarroland@fedia.io
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    The number of people that want to quote native Americans and talk about how native Americans were screwed over by the white man and how terrible it is all the things that have been done to them divided by the people in that group who are willing to give up their property and their lives and move back to their ancestral homes is the same as any number divided by 0.

    And I’m saying this as a Lakota man.

    You don’t want to actually do anything about the problem with native americans.

    You just want to feel Superior to other people.

    But don’t get off of your high horse because I’m sure the fall will kill you.

      • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        You can start by getting a passport and looking into emigrating away from the United States.

        Edit: well, I guess people don’t like it when I’m flippant, and do like it when db0 condescends to a minority. Good show.

          • bizarroland@fedia.io
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            1 month ago

            Then what the fuck are you doing talking about American colonialism when it doesn’t fucking affect you?

            You are very fucking brave taking a stance that other people should do something you yourself are incapable of doing.

              • bizarroland@fedia.io
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                I don’t know if you’re being obtuse or if you’re just not getting it.

                My statement was that the people who use native American sayings to make themselves feel Superior to other people are fundamentally incapable of putting their money where their mouth is.

                You’re saying “I’m all for other people putting their money where my mouth is” as if that somehow accomplishes anything or refutes my point.

                You don’t seem to understand how stupid/pointless/arrogant/self-serving that is.

                • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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                  1 month ago

                  I didn’t try to make myself superior. I just quoted a Native American. All the rest is your interpretation.

            • pyre@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              imagine thinking American colonialism doesn’t affect anyone outside America. not to mention the person who said they advocated for decolonization didn’t say for America only, so it’s even more absurd. news flash: colonialism affected the entire world.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
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      A number divided by zero equals infinity.

      Except if it’s zero then (so 0/0) it is either undefined or any number IIRC.

      • bizarroland@fedia.io
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        1 month ago

        If you plot out any number divided by x, as x approaches 0 the answer goes towards Infinity, yes.

        When it reaches zero it ceases to be a number.

        Every number divided by 0 is “undefined”, and it is not undefined because we can’t describe it, it is undefined because it does not exist, because you cannot divide things by 0.

        • bizarroland@fedia.io
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          You might say that if you don’t divide a number the number remains itself. But you are saying to divide a number by not dividing the number.

          That mathematical process does not work. One or the other must be true for the operation to happen.

          You might be saying that an infinite amount of nothing can go into any something, but that is also not true. For there to be nothing, there cannot be something.

          Zero is not a number in and of itself save for when it is literally the descriptor of the lack of the existence of a quantity.

          Trying to divide a number by zero is like trying to divide existence by non-existence. If existence exists, then there is no non-existence to divide it with.

          Therefore you cannot mathematically compute how much non-existence there is in existence.

      • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        No. The standard field (that is, a ring where both operations are abelian groups) on the complex numbers doesn’t have a multiplicative inverse of 0; rings can’t have a multiplicative inverse for the additive identity. You can create an algebra with a ring as a sub-algebra with such, but it will no longer be a ring. My preferred method is to impose such an algebra on the one-point compactification of the Complex Numbers, where the single added point is denoted as “Ω”.

        I started this project when I was 12, and when I could show that the results were self-consistent this was what I had settled on:

        let z be a complex number that is not otherwise specified by the following equations. Note: the complex numbers contain the Real numbers, and so the following equations apply to the them as well.

        0Ω=Ω0=1

        z+Ω=Ω+z=zΩ=Ωz=Ω=ΩΩ

        Ω-Ω=0. Ω-Ω=Ω+(-Ω)=Ω+(-1Ω)=Ω+Ω=0

        The algebra described above is not associative. That is to say, (AB)C does not always equal A(BC).

        • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          30 days ago

          Addendum: despite what my earlier statement implied, there is exactly 1 ring for which the additive identity has a multiplicative inverse: the trivial ring, which has only 1 element (that I will label as 0).

          The operations are a such: 0+0=0=0*0. Note: this is also the only ring for which the additive and multiplicative identities are the same element.

          I was originally going to mention it, but I didn’t want to make my comment more complicated than in needed to be. Then I realized that the way I phrased it was technically inaccurate, and so this addendum exists.

    • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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      If I had money to own land, I’d return it to the appropriate tribe. I’m actively decolonizing my life and support the return of all federal land to tribes along with reparations. Don’t put words in my mouth

        • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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          I’m not doing it because I believe I’m a savior. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do. My point is that broad sweeping statements aren’t helpful and efforts to progress AIM and the landback movement are far more worthwhile.

    • LukácsFan1917
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      First off it is incredible people are using the downvote button as an “I disagree” button even here. Vile fucking people.

      Most efficient way to solve the issue of reparations to descendants of slaves and indians is poverty alleviation programs and land reform, they are disproportionately affected by these things. No more rich men owning forests, even if they do it through “conservation” nonprofits. No more wealth hoarding by white americans who inherited expensive housing from the era of redlining.

      Also minority groups need special political representation in a democracy otherwise it is just wolves voting to have the sheep for dinner.

      This is what they fight tooth and nail because they know who would win from evening the scales.

      White political power is based on hoarding property, money, gerrymandering and preventing campaign finance reform.

  • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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    Imagine being able to successfully convince yourself that the existence of defences, and conflict, between neighbouring indigenous nations, is equivalent, to the point of nullifying, sailing around the globe genociding and enslaving its population as you go, for profit.

    White supremacy is a hell of a drug.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      The OP paints native culture as Utopian, when even some cursory historical knowledge of the Aztecs and Incas would refute.

      But its upsetting to think three centuries of ruthless pogroms and genocidal wars can be so easily justified by announcing “Native life wasn’t perfect”.

      White supremacy is a hell of a drug.

      The White Man’s Burden

  • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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    Omg, I recently started playing an retired MMO on some emulated servers and this was totally the vibe. With no economy or large influx of new players all your old stuff just piles up and you keep it, hoping someone will someday show up who can use it. Things had value but not in the sense you could even start an economy. For me, I loved getting end game weapons, which are an absolute grind, then gifting them. I had a few but it was always more satisfying to give them away.

    I was also told the most profound thing while playing. Someone said, “you’re hogging yourself.” Since I really like playing solo. I still haven’t reconciled it. Like I don’t want to hog myself but at the same time it doesn’t seem like others want to play with me. I try to be inviting but I guess the only thing I don’t really do is make myself vulnerable. Like truly vulnerable. I’m scared to though.

  • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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    Way too many motherfuckers want other to Google for them and are a bit too eager to cry “fake” or “noble savage”.

    I’m not arguing that life was perfect and that native Americans had perfectly working anarchism, I’m just quoting one such person. Get over yourselves.

      • 🏴Akuji@leminal.space
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        1 month ago

        You might be interested in this paper by Yvette Running Horse Collin, a doctor in indigenous studies: https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/7592

        Chosen excerpt:

        Although historians generally claim that the Indians of the Southeast first acquired horses in the 1690s from the Spanish, there is written Spanish record of the Southeastern Indians having been seen with horses as early as 1521 in what is now Georgia and the Carolinas. This is particularly interesting as it would have been impossible for the first horses that the Spanish brought to the mainland (what is now Mexico) in 1519 to have escaped unnoticed, “make it” to the Georgia and Carolinas area, and have multiplied in two years’ time.

  • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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    30 days ago

    All of this was false but

    You were exiled or executed so there was no need for jails

    Now you can apply this to the rest

    A barter system != giving things away