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An Empty Story
The master narrative of civilization in the Americas claims that brave European explorers “discovered” continents sparsely populated by stone age hunter-gatherers who had no use for land titles. When the hunting played out or the harvest season for fruits and vegetables ended, the Natives moved on, leaving little evidence of their presence other than grave goods and the remains of buffalo jumps or fish camps.
This master narrative proved the Americas to be terra nullius, nobody’s land, empty property ripe for the taking by men who knew how to use it in a civilized manner.
Civilizations are judged by their arts and sciences, which are known to subsequent generations by physical evidence or not at all. Where you find evidence of civilizations that have been productive in this sense, there must have been a relatively sedentary population that produced an agricultural surplus.
Surplus food is required to feed artists and scientists. Great art and important scientific discoveries require time to think and time to put together some representation of what you thought so your descendants will have it and so other civilizations that do not exist yet will find evidence of what you accomplished.
Hunters and gatherers may get very good at making the tools of their respective trades and they may even decorate their tools if they have time, but what they…
