Old world myths, new world dreams.

• Author: Coonrod Martinez, Elizabeth
• Position: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus - Book review

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by Charles C. Maim. New York: Knopf, 2005.

The original peoples of the Americas were more sophisticated and enjoyed a better quality of life than the Europeans, and created gorgeous urban centers unlike any found in Europe before contact between the two. This in itself is not new information. But when coupled with recent scientific revelations that the hemisphere's population was substantially greater than that of fifteenth-century Europe, an entirely new vision of the Americas emerges.

Charles Mann first revealed this perspective in March 2002, in a cover story for the Atlantic Monthly, which bore the surprising title of "1491." Now having published an intriguing 465-page book (it includes an index and fifty-page bibliography) on the subject, he takes the reader on a detective hunt, following the trail of scientific findings that provide one expert's revelation, then abruptly he changes course (with a wry "perhaps not") to launch a new trail and another expert's explanation. By the end of a chapter, the reader has examined the perspectives and angles of a variety of humanistic and science experts, and wonders with Mann why school textbooks propagate old, erroneous information. As he tackles each disciplinary trail, Mann poses questions in his narrative that are already forming in the reader's mind, for example, "How do archaeologists know this?" At times with humor, and always with crisp, scintillating description, Maim portrays a non-Western gaze or perspective of life on this continent. For example, life in New England as the Plymouth Rock residents settle in is described from the likely view of Indian neighbors, based on research of various written records.

The most fascinating of his revelations are the arrival dates and vast numbers of people before European contact. Also surprising is the fact that pre-Columbian peoples controlled and groomed nature, but perhaps it should not be since these ancestors are the people who gave the world tomatoes, maize, manioc, chocolate, chilies, and many other food crops.

Mann's conversational tone invites readers to assess history along with him as he explores the findings of archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, biologists, linguists, and other experts he interviews on site or in their laboratories. When technical terms, such as carbon dating, are necessary, he describes the process in understandable language. A science writer for several magazines, Mann has spent more than twenty years visiting the various locations in North and South America that he describes. His book may seem a radical publication, but in fact, archaeologists and social scientists had published aspects of this information for years; it had simply not entered the general readership until recently (due to a breaking down of disciplinary boundaries).

Mann's approach is to provide new analysis of prominent as well as little-known cultures through a variety of scientific approaches. Key sites such as Clovis and the Inca empire are explicated, but in...