From: Dan Clemmensen (dgc@cox.rr.com)
Date: Fri Apr 05 2002 - 10:47:36 MST
Dan Fabulich wrote:
> There's more to this fact than the mere point that agricultural
> societies can sustain higher birth rates than hunter-gatherer
> societies. There's also the diseases; Diamond points these out, but
> he neglects to point out their advantages in war.
>
> When agricultural Europeans came to the Americas, they brought their
> diseases with them. Having faced years of plague, their constitutions
> were able to handle anything they encountered in the New World; native
> Americans died of stuff that would never kill a European. The reverse
> effect, Europeans dying of native American pathogens, is historically
> negligible.
>
Indeed. In fact there is a very good book on this subject:
"Guns, Germs, and Steel"
The Author's name ..... Jared Diamond
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