Almost exactly the same thing happened to indigenous
Californians. While I think you could argue that the
Spanish/Mexican missions were pre-capitalist (?),
Indians in the northern interior had no contact with
them, and seem little affected. Unlike in eastern
states, for example, the horse did not arrive until
Anglos brought them. But about two hundred or so
French fur trappers traveled through the area in 1822,
causing beaver extinction in many, if not most
streams. The following year some epidemic (we don't
know what disease it was) killed about 2/3 of the
Maidu. Afterwards, their religion also took on a more
centralized form, shifting subtly to a priest-oriented
form. It was the combination of diminished numbers and
a corruptable priesthood that, aside from a handful of
examples, all but evaporated military resistance to
the 49ers.
tim
--- "Forstater, Mathew" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> In East Africa, for example, an area of relatively
> late formal colonization
> (turn of last century), the Maasai and other
> pastoralists were often put forward
> by British 'explorers' etc. as a people frozen from
> an 'ancient' time, i.e.,
> unaffected by the 'modern' (capitalist) world. In
> fact, however, global colonial
> capitalism was affecting the Maasai before they had
> ever laid eyes on a European
> (and vice versa). Disease from cattle imported to
> feed British troops fighting
> colonial wars in the Sudan spread south, wiped out
> herds, led to human
> starvation. The crisis led to a transformation in
> the role of the Maasai
> oloibonok (ritual or 'religious' leader) not
> traditionally a site of central
> political authority, to one of some (though still
> very limited) political
> authority. For some (perhaps many), it is a stretch
> to cite this as related to
> capitalism or colonialism. For me it is not. Mat
>
=====
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