How sweeping generalizations affect the quality of life for people
Introduction
The danger of a single story is a perfect illustration of how sweeping generalizations affect the quality of life for people, perceptions as well as other aspects of people’s lives. However, balanced writing or telling a people’s story requires caution and veering off the single-story narrative trajectory. Veering off single stories is known as the integration of many stories. This paper will look at how Charles Mann, in new revelations of the Americas before Columbus, destabilized the “single story” perspective by putting down his work based on the “many stories” approach.
The most common opinion in literature is the size that the Americas were. The common perception in this stance views Americas initially scattered communities who were few in number. Additionally, there is a feeling that the scattered population of America led a hugely nomadic life. However, Mann challenges the proposition. Mann feels that while the Europeans were larger in population figures, the situation was not any different in America. This means that the population was quite close to that of the Europeans. Mann, therefore, isolated the single story that is the Americans were colonized on justified grounds to a low population.
Secondly, land is a crucial piece of understanding about how the natives lived. Land and population interaction is best measured by assessing the progress or arming activities which were conducted in the farms. Mann noted that despite the single-story, which commonly states that the Americas only had vast tracts of land, but with n occupants, Mann decoded the narrative to show how the natives had settled and subsequently supported it through evidence. As such, Mann noted that the area between New England to South Carolina was used actively in agriculture. Additionally, the development of Tenochtitlan represents a city that is by any measure bigger than the area covered by most European centers of commerce. The Inca Empire and its developments depict an empire with quite a lot of people and, therefore, paradoxical to rely on the single-story, often fronted through the media, that the early Americas did not have a substantial population.
Smallpox presented arguably the biggest medical issue in earlier times that is before the exploration of the Americas started. Smallpox majorly came through epidemical outbreaks, and through its course, it swept large numbers of the people. Explorers advanced the single story that the Americas were sparsely populated. This was despite the fact that they did not provide or count for the number of deaths, which were mainly caused by smallpox. Mann, however, relates the course of diseases and outbreaks to the populations. During earlier times, medicine was not as developed, and infectious diseases were not isolated, as is the case in modern times. Mann challenged the notion of scarcity since his projections catered for the lives that were lost through such outbreaks, therefore illustrating the development of the many stories trajectory in putting out information.
A majority of scholars laud the Europeans as having more sophisticated technology, which they introduced in the Americas. Mann, however, refuted this claim proving that the natives also had their technology and that most comparisons made to the two broad factions is often biased away from the Americas. Despite the claim to technological supremacy, Mann noted that diseases were still able to dominate the Europeans and overpower them. The military prowess of the Incan empire is a particular element, that is used to refute the claim to technological supremacy among the Europeans. The centuries that the Incan empire existed saw the progress in solders on horses. The Incan empire was susceptible to conquistadors, who can be viewed as aspiring colonizers. The soldiers on horses, as well as the ground troops, fought against various conquistadors, and the latter surrendered to them. Had the natives had poor technology, they would not be able to produce arms that were more powerful than the conquistadors’. The conquistadors depended on the European manufacturers for their weaponry.
Conclusion
There lies danger in a single story as non-facts may easily pass for facts as people are more susceptible to lies and half-truths. The typical narrative on the Americas before exploration depicts a weakened people, scarcely distributed in the areas that they occupied. Mann, however, challenged the common narrative about the Native Americans. Mann fronted the image of the Americas as a locality with high technology growth and ability. The development of technology is for, instance, illustrated in the military capability that thee Incan empire had. Mann’s counteraction on the “single stories” is well balanced and devoid of bias.