Wednesday, September 21, 2005

what I'm reading now


This book claims that most of what we learned in school about the pre-Columbian Americas is wrong. Here are some of the interesting revelations contained in the book:

  • Before 1491 there were probably more people living in the Americas than in Europe.
  • Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capitol, was larger in population than any contemporary European city, with running water, beautiful botanical gardens, and immaculately clean streets.
  • The earlier cities of the Western Hemispere were thriving before the Egyptians built the pyramids.
  • Pre-Columbian Indians in Mexico developed corn by a breeding process so sophisticated that the journal Science recently described it as "man's first, and perhaps the greatest, feat of genetic engineering."
  • Amazonian Indians learned how to farm the rain forest without destroying it--a process scientists are studying today in the hope of regaining this lost knowledge.

Interesting stuff, huh?

2 comments:

Envoy-ette said...

ooooo....I wanna read it too!

Unknown said...

It seems as years go by new archeological discoveries disprove the histories that were taught to us in school.