1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

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The European cover of 1491.
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The European cover of 1491.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus is a 2005 non-fiction book by American author Charles C. Mann about the pre-Columbian Americas. The book marshals evidence accumulated over the last several decades which suggests human population levels were higher, arrived earlier, were more sophisticated culturally, and controlled and shaped the natural landscape.

The past 40+ years have seen scientific revolutions in many fields including demography, climatology, epidemiology, economics, botany, genetics, image analysis, palynology, molecular biology, soil science, and others. As new evidence has accumulated, long-standing views about the pre-Columbian world have come under increasing pressure. Although there is no consensus, and Mann acknowledges controversies, the general trend among scientists is that 1a) the population levels were probably higher than traditionally believed among scientists (known as "high counters"), 1b) humans probably arrived in the Americas earlier than thought over the course of multiple waves (not a single land bridge crossing window) 2) The level of cultural advancement and settlement range was higher and broader than previously imagined and 3) the New World was largely not a wilderness but an environment controlled by humans (mostly with fire). These three main focuses (origins/population, culture, environment) form the basis for three parts of the book.

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