#colonization

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At its peak in the 1700s, the 25-square-mile Kōhala Field System on the northern tip of the Big Island of Hawai'i fed between 30,000 and 120,000 people. Then came the Europeans, bringing disease that decimated the Hawaiian population and destroyed the traditional knowledge of how to cultivate the 50 or 60 varieties of sugarcane and 50 types of sweet potato that once grew there. A non-profit, Ulu Mau Puanui, is now researching the system, guided by culturally centered science, with the goal of restoring that lost knowledge. Atlas Obscura's Sarah Lohman spoke to Ulu Mau Puanui's Kehaulani Marshall about the work she and her team are doing, and the question she wishes she could answer: What would the land have looked like without colonization? "We wonder, what the heck was coming up next in their plans. Because we know all ancestors plan for generations ahead,” she says.

https://flip.it/i0ggsk

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'While the US Declaration of Independence is mute about and , Venezuela’s independence manifesto acknowledges that the new nation was built on stolen land, conquered through bloodshed. The word “society” appears 15 times in the Venezuelan Constitution, Grandin notes, while the US Constitution doesn’t mention it once.'

review of 's : A New of the New World

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-dialectic-lurking-behind-the-brutality/

@histodons @bookstodon

You Dreamed of Empires. By Alvaro Enrigue (translated by Natasha Wimmer).

It’s 1519, and you are Emperor Moctezuma, and you may have a plan for what to do with some smelly Spaniards who have shown up, but you are secretive and known to dose yourself on hallucigenic mushrooms, which may or may not be helping out with your complicated political strategies.

4 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈.

@bookstodon

Book cover featuring the front half of a horse

White Teeth. By Zadie Smith.

You are three multigenerational families, mostly immigrants from Britain’s colonies, living in London and trying to variously to embrace and reject the past, which has ill-prepared your children to cope the very modern world.
CW: hate speech

3 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈.

@bookstodon

Very plain book cover with an orange background and white text

UPDATE: committee suspended, decision to reclassify book as "fiction" reversed

Judd Legum
Oct 23, 2024

"The change to the book review process was driven by a local group, Two Moms and Some Books.

"After Popular Information's report, the reclassification of the book became national and international news, receiving coverage from MSNBC, The Austin-American Statesman, The San Antonio Current, The Texarkana Gazette, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Guardian, The Independent, and others. Two days after Popular Information's report, a coalition, including PEN America, the Writers Guild, and Penguin Random House, wrote a letter to the Montgomery County Commission demanding they reverse the decision.

"On Tuesday, the Montgomery County Commission 'issued a stay' against all decisions made by the citizens' reconsideration committee since October 1, and also put all future decisions of the committee on hold. That means the book …

commented on Revolusi by David Van Reybrouck

David Van Reybrouck: Revolusi (2024, Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.)

October 9 is Indigenous Peoples Day, and it’s important to remember the reasons why this is a day to reflect and honor the legacy of generations.

One often forgotten, brutal aspect of the history: how European settlers scalped Native Americans, and were paid money for every scalp, as proof of a killing.

https://theconversation.com/indigenous-peoples-day-offers-a-reminder-of-native-american-history-including-the-violence-they-endured-at-the-hands-of-colonists-214433
@histodons

A black and white drawing shows a large crowd of Native American people wearing little clothing and holding spears, looking at boats in the water ahead of them.