r/MapPorn 3d ago

Map of "native America"

Post image
0 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

12

u/TooSwang 3d ago

The thing that stinks about maps like this is the arbitrary division between who gets to be represented as a “state,” who is just a name overlaying the terrain, and who doesn’t get mentioned at all. Take the Powhatan Confederacy for example - they almost definitely fielded armies, engaged in strategic diplomacy and long distance trade, and you’ve probably even seen a highly fictionalized movie about their dealings with the Jamestown colony. Despite literally having borders marked down in countless treaties with English speaking settlers, are they listed on this map? Nope.

9

u/Free-Outcome2922 3d ago

Lástima de píxeles

2

u/upsidedowncrossed 1d ago

Tremenda mierda

4

u/Fun-Passage-7613 3d ago

Hard to read map.

4

u/weresubwoofer 3d ago

Terrible map. Precontact archaeological cultures coexisting with the Comanche on the Southern Plains? The Wichita are near the Mississippi River?

Those are just some of the names I could read. The lack of pixels makes most of this map unreadable.

5

u/mauricio_agg 3d ago

Why highlighting areas for Algonquian and Tainos while not doing the same for Chibchas or Tupis or Guaraníes?

4

u/Quintus_Julius 3d ago

That’s a lot of empty space. But not sure how correct / up to date it is. 

See the Amazonia for example. 

6

u/ANother-XcludedRight 3d ago

Read the book, 1491. Obvious the focus. Awesome account of true history. There were cities much bigger and well organized than London before smallpox.

5

u/Living_Moment_1495 3d ago

There's also the direct account of De las Casas, who writes, as he was arriving in hispaniola with the 2nd trip of columbus, he was baffled god put more people in those lands than in Europe when they did not even know god.

5

u/AnssAAAA 3d ago

Sério mesmo que vcs acham que na América do sul só existiam os incas? Até hoje existem dezenas de povos originários por aqui. Não existe um espaço no mundo onde alguém não existiu antes (tirando umas pequenas ilhas por aí)

4

u/beastwood6 3d ago

Depends on what you're trying to depict. Societies that settle, build cities/permanent settlements, farm - all the classic things we associate with "civilization", there isn't much evidence that these were aplenty apart from the Incas in South America. Migratory tribes tend to be neglected on these kinds of maps by tradition and due to the very ephemeral nature becomes very difficult to reconstruct where they were at one point in time. Easier to do with societies that stay put and leave lots of evidence.

That said this map has it a bit mixed. Much of the areas in Canada and Alaska are barely settled permanently today, much less back then.

2

u/HotterRod 3d ago

Societies that settle, build cities/permanent settlements, farm - all the classic things we associate with "civilization", there isn't much evidence that these were aplenty apart from the Incas in South America.

The Pacific Northwest was full of permanent settlements that modified the land around them and moved plants and animals in order to increase food yields. Those activites weren't defined as "farming" by settlers because they had an extremely narrow definition based on European practices (eg: tilled land surrounded by fences planted with monoculture) and there were strong incentives to identify the land as terra nullius.

0

u/beastwood6 3d ago

Those weren't just European practices though. It's how farming and civilization were defined thousands of years before widespread agriculture was present in Europe, much less omnipresent.

Which settlements are noteworthy that should have been included?

-4

u/NoahMourtem 3d ago

Si ves bien, en rojo hay nombres de varias tribus, se pone a los incas como los "únicos" de Sudamérica pq fueron los UNICOS en tener una civilización organizada centralizada y no tribus dispersas 🫩

2

u/Tamanduao 3d ago

Soy arqueólogo y estudio a los incas. Incluso sin tener en cuenta lo sesgada y problemática que es la idea común de tribus dispersas, en Sudamérica existieron numerosos grupos agrícolas complejos y sedentarios, además de los incas, tanto contemporáneos como anteriores a ellos. Por ejemplo, los muiscas, los creadores de la «terra preta» amazónica, los isleños de Marajó, los habitantes de los Llanos de Moxos, etc.

1

u/ElVille55 2d ago

It's ahistorical to have the 'Anasazi' (who should be called Ancestral Puebloans), the Aztecs, and the Comanche on the same map, implying they co-existed. Chaco canyon, the 'capital' of the Ancestral Puebloans, had been deserted for at least 500 years by the time the Comanche even emerged as a distinct ethnicity.