Reply #60: No, that's not true. Some tribes *do* set out to commit genocide.

[Igel]

But in the case of the indigenous population smallpox and other European diseases wiped out the population, frequently before any contact could take place between the Europeans and the folk already in a territory.

Cultures had 90+ percent of their population wiped out, and undoubtedly collapsed as a result. No small societies with specialization of any kind can survive that sort of ravaging. But it meant that the explorers, when they moved inland, frequently found the remains of a culture, not the culture as it was before 1492. That they didn't realize it was the vestiges of the cultures' former glories isn't surprising; they were conquerors and explorings, missionaries and mercenaries, not anthropologists.

On the other hand, genocide was far from new to the New World in 1492. The only thing that kept it in check was the relative parity in technologies and numbers between tribes. But when the Na Dene moved south, or the Mixtec, or other tribes ... warfare and sometimes genocide ensued. Skin color doesn't remove culpability, and shared skin color doesn't exacerbate guilt. I can't blame the Comanches for pushing out some Apaches, who in turn wiped out the tribes (i.e., genocide) in the areas in Texas that they moved to, any more than I can blame the Spanish and Portuguese or British for what they did. People constantly, and foolishly, assume that when, say, the Western Shoshone claim a large chunk of the West based upon having inhabited it since 1200 or so--after migrating from points north and east--that it was uninhabited. It wasn't. But who preceded the Shoshone have no voice to counter the current claims' legitimacy.

Tribal cultures are often into genocide: it tends to reduce the number of perpetual blood feuds. Estimates are that in places like New Guinea, with lots of little tribes, around a third of the tribes were wiped out per century--replaced when the victorious tribe grew to inhabit the new territory, and split. The men killed, and their women and kids taken into the new tribe provided that they were docile enough.

And let's not forget that Columbus was a good learner, as was the Spanish and Portuguese. Slavery, religious domination, booty ... all learned by the Iberians during the 700 years before 1492. They had good teachers, but finally managed to show them up. So there's lots of blame to go around, current domestic political considerations notwithstanding.