Biology

How are scholars able to find out how early people with no written records lived? •What was prehistoric society like around the Amazon? •What ensured European domination in the New World? •How do you think an entire prehistoric group of people could simply disappear, such as the people around the Marajo of the Amazon?

1. Scholars are able to determine the technique of life and history of a people from artifacts they've left behind, such as methods, weapons, burial websites, ceramic, cooking equipment, cave or wall paintings, and structures. We can observe this through Aztec and Mayan pyramids, that were also plagued with artifacts and hieroglyphs that archaeologists are starting to recognize. Machu Picchu in Peru is also an example of an antique city that archaeologists can and have used to study regarding ancient peoples.

2. Prehistoric Amazonian cultures were very difficult, different to what was once assumed by historians. Though, like native populations in North America, European conquerors did not acknowledge the prosperity of these cultures since they did not match up their own, or any concept of civilization that they had previously seen.

3. European domination of the New World was ultimately secured by three things: (a) foreign diseases that the natives had no immunity to and were also particularly susceptible to, such as smallpox, (b) firearms and artillery that allowed Europeans to attack native forces from a relatively safe difference, which contrasted with the bows, arrows, spears, and knives favored by native cultures, and (c) the presence of steel, which was used in weaponry and armor; in contrast, native armor was usually composed of thick leather.  Europeans took this as a sign of their cultural superiority and their God-given right to subject native populations to eradication and Europeanization.

4. Entire native cultures can disappear by suffering raids, famine, a disease for which there is a high mortality rate and little to no...