[stevenjohns]

Considering other groups, at the time, were circumnavigating the world, forging steel and blasting each other with gun powder it’s not hard to believe that an equally intelligent and able group of people that put their attention to something else could figure out how to get high from a plant.

Perhaps this is due to European destruction of the native history of the Americas - they’re seen as primitive groups with little social complexity. I think that if their histories were better preserved we’d be less surprised that they had an understanding of the native plants around them.

[29athrowaway]

Native Americans have a tremendous influence in what we eat every day...

One of the main reasons of why today everyone has a fridge with a freezer is because Clarence Birdseye, the founder of what today is Birds Eye (frozen foods company) was taught how to freeze fish under thick ice by the Inuit in Canada.

He then took the idea and developed it further using refrigeration equipment. Then they provided grocery stores with free freezers so that they could sell their products.

Then you have potatoes, tomatoes and corn. These crops were also developed by Native Americans. Without that effort, what you would be eating today would be similar to the teosinte, corn's wild ancestor.

Potatoes are responsible for a massive population boost in Europe. The reason is because wheat uses more land, requires more work and has fewer calories than potatoes.

Andean peoples had many techniques for dehidrating food... The word "jerky" comes from the Quechua "charqui", which means dried meat. They also employed freeze drying techniques to preserve food, such as chuño (freeze dried potatoes).

In addition to that, you have many varieties berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries), cacao (used for chocolate), vanilla, pineapples, etc.

[marosgrego]

All the berries you mention in the last paragraph are also native to Europe.

[29athrowaway]

For strawberries, there are many varieties... some from the Americas, some from Europe, some from Asia.

But the variety you eat today is most likely the "garden strawberry", which is a hybrid variety developed in France by crossing Fragaria virginiana (from North America) and Fragaria chiloensis (from South America).

Other varieties of strawberry are not as popular.

Europeans did a great job further developing crops from the Americas. Italians alone bred tomatoes for every culinary purpose you can imagine.

[sammalloy]

This is my thinking as well. There are surviving remnants of pre-Columbian pharmacopoeia for the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, as only three examples. I wonder if the ingredients and instructions for the brew were previously recorded in a similar manner, but then reduced to an oral tradition once religious people like Diego de Landa showed up and started burning anything that might have challenged the new gods.

[Guthur]

Non of these actions are uniquely European or religious.

You'll find similar outcomes throughout history and the world. Whether it's nationalism, communism, religion, tribalism or what ever. Us and them dynamics are constantly being created and exploited by various groups throughout our collective history.

[sebmellen]

FYI I don't think you're getting downvoted because anyone disagrees, just because it's off topic.

No one said such actions are uniquely European or religious.

[Guthur]

The two ancestor posts seemed to imply it a little. But granted I should not have engaged with it as it was straying so far from the topic.

[ouid]

What on earth are you talking about? The parent comment is not underestimating Mesoamerica, the parent comment is underestimating the rate at which people eat random plants.

[headmelted]

I think the parent was more suggesting that records of how they discovered / formulated ayahuasca may have been lost to antiquity, and might have answered this question.

[michaelbrave]

Just off the top of my head they managed to keep nature in a kind of cultivated state, which allowed for greater protein yields via game/fish than any amount of cattle could ever produce, also there were less devastating fires and greater ecological diversity.

About ten years ago Utah was doing something where they were emulating herd movements using livestock which helped to create a lot of biodiversity both above-ground and below, which helped water supply, plant growth, really everything improved and this was almost entirely inspired by how native Americans managed land pre-settlers. I think was called something like the Utah grazing improvement project.

[captainredbeard]

That concept is called mob grazing or managed intensive grazing. It’s wonderful for reclaiming marginal pasture land and fighting desertification. The biggest issue is the high labor inputs. If tech solves that problem we can probably regreen much of the Intermountain West.

[Bayart]

>it’s not hard to believe that an equally intelligent and able group of people that put their attention to something else could figure out how to get high from a plant

Haven't we done exactly that with alcohol ?

[gwbas1c]

Alcohol is a lot easier to come by in nature. Bears get drunk on fermenting berries.

[stjohnswarts]

Not really alcohol occurs in nature. Just look up drunk squirrel videos, it's not a far leap to figuring out how to ferment stuff and extract the alcohol. this refinement of a drug is far more complicated.

[dunefox]

> figure out how to get high from a plant

Wouldn't you stop after the first dozens of people trying different plants become sick or die? I know I would.