Disease, American Indians, Depopulation, Repopulation

[Matthew Carberry]

Dogs I believe. Can't think of any others but a good subject to look into further.

GTG, probably won't be back till tomorrow night. Hot job tomorry, which is a good thing. 

The Plains Indians used dogs to drag travois, other groups used panniers, up north sledges.

Also, a dog is a fine meal.

[MechAg94]

Stranger things have happened.  I've had more than one person tell me that JRHigh and HS kids are too stupid to realize unprotected sex can lead to pregnancy.  This in an age when we know exactly how it happens...

Chris

Considering we learned exactly how it happens biologically in High School health class, I find that hard to believe, intellectually at least.  I think it far likelier that teenagers live in the moment and damn the consequences in the future. 

[280plus]

Makes me wonder if they thought of babies as a good thing or a bad thing.

My take would be too many babies and too few babies would both be bad things for a tribe.

[mtnbkr]

Considering we learned exactly how it happens biologically in High School health class, I find that hard to believe, intellectually at least.  I think it far likelier that teenagers live in the moment and damn the consequences in the future. 

I agree, but these people (more than one on more than one occasion) both had the opinion that inner city kids got pregnant at high rates because there wasn't enough sex ed and free condoms.  I countered that I was pretty aware of what caused pregnancy without sex ed.  They countered (separate discussions, remember) that was because I was a middle class white kid and we had better education in general.  Dunno how to counter that line of reasoning, so I let it drop. Futility has a face.

Chris

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

There again, the issue isn't knowing what causes babies, it's caring.

The mistake lies in assuming that inner city kids want to avoid pregnancy, or that aboriginals wanted to maximize pregnancy.  When these populations fail to conform to some outsider's assumptions about what's best, the outsider concludes that the population is dumb and doesn't know what sex does, rather than entertain the possibility that his assumptions are wrong.

[mtnbkr]

There again, the issue isn't knowing what causes babies, it's caring.

The mistake lies in assuming that inner city kids want to avoid pregnancy, or that aboriginals wanted to maximize pregnancy.  When these populations fail to conform to some outsider's assumptions about what's best, the outsider concludes that the population is dumb and doesn't know what sex does, rather than entertain the possibility that his assumptions are wrong.

In the case of the inner city kids, that much is obvious, but the people trying to blame it on ignorance didn't want to admit as much.  The two individuals in the discussions were both former "inner city kids" themselves.  I elected to leave them with their beliefs rather than go down the whole "you aren't from there, you can't possibly know" path I saw up ahead.  Sometimes it's just easier to walk away.

Chris