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
Every one of them left an environmental mark on the world around them.
Yes, but the environmental mark was, on average, a lot smaller than modern living. The Australian Aborigines had a way of life that was essentially unchanged for tens of thousands of years. The lifestyle consisted of finding water sources, hunting for food, and collecting wild growing berries and fruits from the land (not farming). Everything that they constructed was made from wood and other natural, biodegradable materials, from completely renewable and sustainable sources. Without intervention, they woul
Yes, but the environmental mark was, on average, a lot smaller than modern living. The Australian Aborigines had a way of life that was essentially unchanged for tens of thousands of years.
That they adopted shortly after using a slash and burn approach to get rid of a predatory lizard that was too large and dangerous for them to handle with any of the other technology available to them and turned much of Australia into desert from grassland (sorry, I don't know how much of the current Australian desert was desert before the aboriginals arrived).
I should add that, regardless of the initial impact events of 47,000 years ago when humans arrived, once established they did become part of a stable eco-system, with a stable population size, for over 40,000 years. It really was a sustainable lifestyle. I doubt that the current Western lifestyle will be sustainable for the next 100 years, never mind the next 40,000. All sources of energy we currently have - oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear fuels - will run out within the next few hundred years. Without some dramatic breakthroughs in energy technology, Western civilisation as we know it will come to an end in a relatively short space of time.
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:5, Informative)
Every one of them left an environmental mark on the world around them.
Yes, but the environmental mark was, on average, a lot smaller than modern living. The Australian Aborigines had a way of life that was essentially unchanged for tens of thousands of years. The lifestyle consisted of finding water sources, hunting for food, and collecting wild growing berries and fruits from the land (not farming). Everything that they constructed was made from wood and other natural, biodegradable materials, from completely renewable and sustainable sources. Without intervention, they woul
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but the environmental mark was, on average, a lot smaller than modern living. The Australian Aborigines had a way of life that was essentially unchanged for tens of thousands of years.
That they adopted shortly after using a slash and burn approach to get rid of a predatory lizard that was too large and dangerous for them to handle with any of the other technology available to them and turned much of Australia into desert from grassland (sorry, I don't know how much of the current Australian desert was desert before the aboriginals arrived).
Re:In Tune... (Score:2)
I should add that, regardless of the initial impact events of 47,000 years ago when humans arrived, once established they did become part of a stable eco-system, with a stable population size, for over 40,000 years. It really was a sustainable lifestyle. I doubt that the current Western lifestyle will be sustainable for the next 100 years, never mind the next 40,000. All sources of energy we currently have - oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear fuels - will run out within the next few hundred years. Without some dramatic breakthroughs in energy technology, Western civilisation as we know it will come to an end in a relatively short space of time.