64 pages • 2 hours read
1491
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Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: "Holmberg's Mistake: A View from Above"
The first chapter of 1491 describes the gaps and oversimplifications of the conventional accounts of the history of the Americas, prior to the arrival of Europeans. The author, Charles Mann, seeks to refute what he calls "Holmberg's Mistake"—the belief that no substantial cultural history existed in these regions before the arrival of European settlers and colonists. Built into this belief, Mann argues, is the prejudice that characterizes non-European societies as intrinsically "simple" and "innocent," and lacking the historical, cultural, and political sophistication of contemporaneous European societies. While Mann maintains that one of the main elements for this view is ignorance—there is a simple lack of materials with which to document and verify aspects of these societies—Mann also argues that the prejudices that prescribe and separate cultural identities simplify accounts. Mann emphasizes the distinct identities of "Indian" tribes, while looking to bring forth their complex political and social history. An obvious stumbling block in this effort is the term "Indian" itself, a misnomer that homogenizes the distinctiveness of indigenous peoples.
Chapter 1 Analysis
Mann's first chapter offers his ambitions and motivations for writing the book, in terms of the inadequacies and incoherencies of popular history and anthropology. Mann believes that there is potent Eurocentrism in how history is conceived; that is, the stories of diverse cultures and peoples tends to begin and end with their encounters with Europeans. The title of Mann's book is meant to reflect this gap: 1491 begins the year prior to when Columbus "discovered" the New World. By illustrating what was happening before this, Mann wishes to show what has been lost regarding indigenous American cultures.
Mann does not argue that these gaps and oversimplifications are necessarily the effect of cultural chauvinism, or racial prejudice, but instead a failure to adapt and to refine the tools to particular environmental and/or cultural settings, and instead declares an "absence" in the face of ignorance. While Mann notes that political motivations played an important part in the adoption of these narratives, and justified policies that seized land or disenfranchised natives. Mann's primary purpose is not political; instead, his focus is to popularize not only specific narratives that go against popular stories and legends but to hold anthropologists and historians to task for failing to bring these perspectives to light.
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