gregkavarnos wrote:Human migration into (currently) colonised territories has been utilised by colonizers as an excuse to justify their genocide of Aboriginal people both in Australia and New Zealand. It's nothing new. And even if the Australian Aboriginals did migrate into Australia and did wipe out some species the question that I would ask is: why did they stop wiping out large mammals? You see Aboriginal oral culture goes back some 60,000 years and the article talks about a situation that occured 40,000 years ago. That means for the 40,000 years after the 20,000 years from their arrival, they did not wipe out any of the larger mammals which remained. It also means that they wiped them out over a period of 20,000 years. Is it possible that maybe they saw the error of their actions and that caused them to stop?treehuggingoctopus wrote:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17488447
Sure it is possible. There's also quite a number of other possible explanations - and the bottom line is, we don't know. That they erased their megafauna from reality seems to be a fact, though.
gregkavarnos wrote:It certainly did not stop the European invaders. They wiped out everything they couldn't domesticate on their own continent and then continued their folly in the continents they invaded and colonised.
They did, no question about that. I'm not suggesting white conquerors are in any way more civilised or aware than Aboriginals; actually, I'm pretty certain it's we who have produced the most destructive cultural formations homo sapiens is guilty of.
