Word: columbus
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...there is much to say, as archaeologists, anthropologists and ethnographers have known for a long time. The prospect of the Columbus quincentennial not only lent new urgency to scientific research already under way about the land that the Italian encountered, but also suggested an expanded context in which discoveries could be viewed. "The impetus has changed," says archaeologist Jerald Milanich, "from a celebration of Columbus and the triumph of European civilization to a new theme: the people that discovered Columbus. There's a huge amount of research focusing on the impact of native Americans...
...existence and its peoples was an important factor in the explosion of the Renaissance, which involved not only the reappropriation of classical learning but also the heady sense of a future yet to be discovered. In "To His Mistress Going to Bed," written roughly a century after Columbus' landing, the English poet John Donne describes his lover's disrobing until her final article of clothing is cast off and then exclaims, "O my America! my new-found land...
...National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Opening Oct. 12 and running through April 1993, the Smithsonian exhibit sets forth five "natural" elements -- sugar, disease, maize, the potato and the horse -- the exchange of which has profoundly altered both the New and Old Worlds in the 500 years since Columbus' first voyage...
...Smithsonian show and much of the other serendipitous scholarly digging in preparation for the Columbus quincentennial actually work quietly against the more extreme positions staked out by those who hate or love what transpired 500 years ago. Thank goodness. Because it is impossible, even with the best will in the world, to find a simple common ground between the contending notions of Civilization or Genocide, Progress or the Cyclical Harmony of the Seasons, Mastering the Land or Living with the Bounty That the Land Will Provide...
...morality plays than to the messy arena of history as it occurs. The vast amount of new information being discovered about the New World, both before and after 1492, actually points the way toward a genuinely harmonious understanding of the present moment and how it was achieved. The Columbus quincentennial deserves some credit for focusing this energy and attention. But the worry is that if the debate grows louder and more strident, it could obscure this increasing pool of common knowledge in a shouting match of cliches...