Rabbit Holes ad Infinitum: Musings and Research

Beyond Empires: The Importance of Viewing Transatlantic Development as a  Multi-Cultural Effort   Jim Rogers . . . . . .          Until recently, the development of the Atlantic World was viewed as the sole product of European ambitions in North and South America. The exclusion of the influential roles played by the Amerindian and African peoples once suited a Eurocentric world, but as historians have since discovered, this interpretation of European dominance is little better than rhetoric. Traditional history books often highlighted the peaks of European success while leaving out the side-effects of inter-cultural policies between persons representing multiple nationalities. In addition, scant details concerning the fallout of pandemic outbreaks provide a woefully inadequate portrait of the multi-faceted interactions that truly shaped the New World. The broader perception of the Atlantic World, provided here by Bushnell and Karras, is cri...

Different Strokes: The Use of Non-Agricultural Subsistence Strategies to Develop Complex Societies among Northwest Coastal Cultures Jim Rogers . . . . . .             A distinctly complex cultural profile based primarily on fishing, hunting, and the gathering of natural plants exists among the native inhabitants of the Northwest Coastal region, which stretches along the Pacific Coast from Southern Alaska to Southern Oregon. [1] As seen with native peoples of the Arctic and Subarctic regions, the lack of agricultural practices within these societies did not impede socio-cultural progression. Dynamic societal developments such as   distinct cosmology, artistic styles, regional linguistics, and cooperative trade based on furs, and artistic woodworks,(which were employed in woodworking, totem building, and structural decoration), all occurred in the absence of agriculture, challenging the concept that societal complexity is impo...