The primary reason that they went extinct was due to a loss of food. The Maori hunted all of the moa species of bird (large and flightless) to extinction. Another prime example of natives living "in tune" with nature...
There are thousands of examples, in nature, of invading or adapting species eating out the food supply of other species, causing extinctions. This isn't an example of natives not living 'in tune' with nature, it's an example of people being 'a part of' nature.
I think you may have missed the sarcastic subtext of the original post. There's a recurrent myth in the modern world, especially in technologically developed societies, that "natives" or "primitive man" or whatever somehow lived and still live "in tune" with nature or in harmony with it or whatever. They all supposedly respect the land in a way we don't, are inherently wise, spiritual, blah, blah, blah.
You are, of course, correct in pointing out that hunting species to extinction is a very natural thing t
past and "primitive" societies would have exploited or would exploit nature as thoroughly as we do, anyway, were it not for limitations of populations and technology.
Dead on. The only reason the buffalo was still around in huge quantities was because native americans didn't have rifles, or horses for that matter.
Native cultures were famous for "slash and burn" agriculture, possibly the most destructive farming method around that leeches all the nitrates out of the soil in just a few ye
This is so, so wrong. Slash and burn agriculture (swidden) is generally sustainable form of farming and many indigenous people have practiced it continuously for thousands of years. Swidden has even been shown to improve biodiversity of secondary forests fallows on which it is practiced.
This is so, so wrong. Slash and burn agriculture (swidden) is generally sustainable form of farming and many indigenous people have practiced it continuously for thousands of years.
Sure, go tell the people of Madagascar (a common example) how sustainable it is. I drove through the country and saw firsthand the damage it does to the land and animals (you think the small land critters, chameleons and insects have time to run away ? well they don't). All the topsoil gets wiped away by the rain, then the villages get wiped away, then people move and destroy some other place.
Depends how it's done. In some places (I think in South America, but I can't recall precisely) slash and burn was historically used as part of a crop rotation, with selected trees retained; usually trees that were valuable to local wildlife, or produced products that humans wanted. If you only clear the land every five to ten years, the burning adds a lot of nutrients back into the soil, and encouraging wildlife to inhabit the land when it isn't being used does the same. Since the land was only intensively farmed for a year or two, and then encouraged to recover (native plant seeds being brought in, and adjacent areas being left "wild") for four to eight, it stayed pretty healthy.
Even if it's not perfect, that's a far cry from the modern version, which wipes out everything on a piece of land and then uses the land until it can't support anything at all.
In Tune... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you may have missed the sarcastic subtext of the original post. There's a recurrent myth in the modern world, especially in technologically developed societies, that "natives" or "primitive man" or whatever somehow lived and still live "in tune" with nature or in harmony with it or whatever. They all supposedly respect the land in a way we don't, are inherently wise, spiritual, blah, blah, blah.
You are, of course, correct in pointing out that hunting species to extinction is a very natural thing t
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
past and "primitive" societies would have exploited or would exploit nature as thoroughly as we do, anyway, were it not for limitations of populations and technology.
Dead on. The only reason the buffalo was still around in huge quantities was because native americans didn't have rifles, or horses for that matter.
Native cultures were famous for "slash and burn" agriculture, possibly the most destructive farming method around that leeches all the nitrates out of the soil in just a few ye
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
This is so, so wrong. Slash and burn agriculture (swidden) is generally sustainable form of farming and many indigenous people have practiced it continuously for thousands of years. Swidden has even been shown to improve biodiversity of secondary forests fallows on which it is practiced.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
This is so, so wrong. Slash and burn agriculture (swidden) is generally sustainable form of farming and many indigenous people have practiced it continuously for thousands of years.
Sure, go tell the people of Madagascar (a common example) how sustainable it is.
I drove through the country and saw firsthand the damage it does to the land and animals (you think the small land critters, chameleons and insects have time to run away ? well they don't). All the topsoil gets wiped away by the rain, then the villages get wiped away, then people move and destroy some other place.
The island is slowly turning into a desert.
Re:In Tune... (Score:2)
Depends how it's done. In some places (I think in South America, but I can't recall precisely) slash and burn was historically used as part of a crop rotation, with selected trees retained; usually trees that were valuable to local wildlife, or produced products that humans wanted. If you only clear the land every five to ten years, the burning adds a lot of nutrients back into the soil, and encouraging wildlife to inhabit the land when it isn't being used does the same. Since the land was only intensively farmed for a year or two, and then encouraged to recover (native plant seeds being brought in, and adjacent areas being left "wild") for four to eight, it stayed pretty healthy.
Even if it's not perfect, that's a far cry from the modern version, which wipes out everything on a piece of land and then uses the land until it can't support anything at all.