View Single Post
  #46  
Old July 24th 16, 03:59 AM posted to rec.bicycles.soc
EdwardDolan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 538
Default The high cost of mountain biking!

"John B." wrote in message
...
[...]

And how do I know? Well I have actually, unlike you, spent some time

in places [West Papua?] where no man may have ever walked before.
[...]


Edward Dolan wrote:

Allow me to disabuse you of that notion. There is no place on earth where
man has not trod, except areas of Antarctica. Every other place has been
thoroughly explored and perhaps settled at one time or another by mankind.


Is that true? Or just another of your current fantasias.


You see Dooley, whole sections of places like New Guinea and even

parts of Australia, as well as the Sahara desert and Arabia's "Empty
Quarter" simply have no water or food. And as stupid as mankind
generally is it is very difficult to believe that anyone plods over
hill and dale in deep jungle or desert without food and water. For
what purpose?

Such places as you describe have not been settled for the reasons you point
out, but that does not mean they have not been thoroughly explored. I
assure you that no area of the earth(except Antarctica) has not been
thoroughly explored by the natives living near by no matter how hostile to
human settlement. When homo sapiens left his birthplace (Africa), it was not
long before the entire earth was explored, if not settled. Certain areas had
to wait for perhaps a land bridge, but by the time the Europeans discovered
the New World, if was if not 100% settled
most assuredly 100% explored. You seem not to understand the nature of man.

In jungles, for example, there is very little to eat, very few animals

that can be hunted and while there are birds they are way up there in
top of the trees and very, very hard to get to.

In fact the strategy that the British used successfully against the

Communists guerrilla in Malaysia was to deny them access to towns
where food could be obtained.

Of course in desert regions there isn't any water (I suppose that's

why they are "deserts"). And while it is perfectly logical, sitting
home in front of the T.V. to imagine one's self trudging through the
deserts in search of the Queen of Shiba's gold, it doesn't work well
in practice.

If, instead of sitting home watching the T.V. you actually traveled to

any of these remote regions you would find that the bulk of the poor
primitive people are located along rivers and streams where there is
an abundance of water and at least fish to eat. And even the Danu
people, a stone age culture, in West Guinea who live as high as 3,000
- 4,000 ft. above sea level and depend on agriculture for survival
live along streams and rivers.

The kind of agriculture practiced in New Guinea was not capable of
supporting a large population, but even so, the land was being fully
occupied given the kind of economy that was available to them. Any
elementary course in anthropology will explain why primitive peoples live
where they live, but you were claiming that there are areas of the earth
that were untrod by man. That is what I am disputing, not that some areas
were difficult, if not impossible to settle. Only Antarctica was relatively
untrod by man.

When the Europeans came to the New World, every square inch of the New
World
was already inhabited by man, even the forbidding Amazon rain forest. The
natives had to be gotten rid of in order to have European settlement. This
was mostly accomplished by disease, but it was still amazing that Cortez
could overcome the Aztecs with such a minimal number of soldiers.


Your imagination is running away with you.


"The population figure for indigenous peoples in the Americas before

the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus has proven difficult to
establish. Scholars rely on archaeological data and written records
from settlers from the Old World. Most scholars writing at the end of
the 19th century estimated the pre-Columbian population as low as 10
million; by the end of the 20th century most scholars gravitated to a
middle estimate of around 50 million"

50 million people on a land mass of 34.93 million square

kilometers....28% of the world's land mass? That is an average
population of 1.4 per square kilometer.

Your thesis is not very reliable.


The New World was settled to the max according to how those native peoples
were making a living off the land. You only get huge populations when you
have an economy that is based on intensive agriculture. If the economy is
based on hunting and gathering or very primitive agriculture, you will not
normally be able to support a large population. The New World was fully
populated prior to Columbus. It is very curious to me that you think vast
areas of the world were never thoroughly explored by mankind. Only
Antarctica fits that description.

Your fabled isle of New Guinea was similarly totally inhabited by man. The
island was full of various tribes and languages from time immemorial and I
assure you there was no part of that island that was not trod by man. By
far
the most difficult area of the earth to settle was the high Arctic, yet the
Eskimos did it. And the Bedouins conquered the Sahara. New Guinea was a
paradise compared to those areas.


Again you speak without knowledge. In fact there aren't many people in

New Guinea. No where that I worked, in roughly 5 years in the country,
was there a town or village. The Danu, one of the largest tribes seem
to have about 90,000 members, and the entire populating of W. New
Guinea is estimated at 3.6 million and the population density seems to
be 10 per sq. Km. Anthropologists describe the people as primarily
living in villages along the rivers.

New Guinea, like every other area of the world, was fully populated in
accordance with the economy that prevailed there. An island the size of New
Guiana with millions of people will have examined every square inch of that
island. The brute fact of geography itself will determine how many people
the land will support. Tropical areas only look rich and fertile, but they
are not. New Guinea was supporting as many people as it could support.
Besides reading some anthropology you should perhaps read Malthus, although
I think primitive people were better at controlling their population than we
are.

In short Doolie you are talking rubbish. Not facts. Not even educated

conjecture. Or one might say, no knowledge and a vivid imagination.

Everything I have stated is based on facts which are well known to every
anthropologist. No imagination was required. The only absurd statement that
has been made here is by you - that there are areas of the earth which have
never been trod by man. Only Antarctica fills that bill.
[...]

Mountain bikes have wheels. Wheels are for roads.

Trails are for walking. What’s the matter? Can’t walk?

Ed Dolan the Great – Minnesota

Ads
 

Home - Home - Home - Home - Home