AHC/WI: Native Americans get llamas

[Lenwe]

Yes llama milk is nutritious, but they only produce 60ml at a time. You would have to milk several animals to fill a glass. On the plus side, drinking such small amounts mitigate effects of lactose intolerence. But it’s impractical to scale.

Here another estudy, about the Llama milk production in relation to the offspring weigth gain.

http://www.scielo.org.pe/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1609-91172007000100004#tab03

The Smaller quantity of milk they produced was 300 ML daily after The 7 week, and those were mothers With problems of underweigth and without human provided feeder, in the case of mothers With Good weigth and human provided feeder they produce almost 1.200 ML daily of milk. Not a bad quantity if we take in accounts The llamas weren't breed for milk production.
Now if we are going to do some comparation this must be done With medieval cow and goat milk production,ñ.

 

[EnvarKadri]

Here another estudy, about the Llama milk production in relation to the offspring weigth gain.

http://www.scielo.org.pe/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1609-91172007000100004#tab03

The Smaller quantity of milk they produced was 300 ML daily after The 7 week, and those were mothers With problems of underweigth and without human provided feeder, in the case of mothers With Good weigth and human provided feeder they produce almost 1.200 ML daily of milk. Not a bad quantity if we take in accounts The llamas weren't breed for milk production.
Now if we are going to do some comparation this must be done With medieval cow and goat milk production,ñ.

Also with enough time a third american camellid specialised in milk production (just like alpacas are specialised on wool) could be created.

 

[Lenwe]

Also with enough time a third american camellid specialised in milk production (just like alpacas are specialised on wool) could be created.

Well is possible there was a specialized milk producing camellid in Inca times, and that the specialized camellid was a Breed that was lost or reabsorbed to the general Llama and/or Alpaca population

 

[Riain]

In the old world the farmer-herder divide was a primary driver of human violence, the herders using their mobility to raid farming settlements for food and material goods.

Llama herders on the margins of agricultural lands may wind up doing the same, on foot but with pack animals to speed their march. The reaction from the farmers would be fortified communities, to keep the raiders away from their valuables. In turn this ratchets up the violence between farming polities, as they now have to defeat their neighbors walls.

The end result is when the Spanish arrive they're faced with walled towns full of militaristic farmers used to dealing with the raids of herders and extremely violent interstate warfare.

 

[Richard V]

In the old world the farmer-herder divide was a primary driver of human violence, the herders using their mobility to raid farming settlements for food and material goods.

Llama herders on the margins of agricultural lands may wind up doing the same, on foot but with pack animals to speed their march. The reaction from the farmers would be fortified communities, to keep the raiders away from their valuables. In turn this ratchets up the violence between farming polities, as they now have to defeat their neighbors walls.

The end result is when the Spanish arrive they're faced with walled towns full of militaristic farmers used to dealing with the raids of herders and extremely violent interstate warfare.

Parts of the Americas where farming did not take root like California could take up pastoralism. The Spanish would find these Amerindians harder to control. Pastoralism is well suited to survival under conquest. You can’t just burn their crops and starve the whole village. They will simply take their livestock and move on.

I think the Californian Indians blew their chance by not adopting Spanish livestock the way the Navajo did.

 

[water123]

IMO, you'd need to have a bit of an earlier Native American tech progression. On one had, Cahokia but with Alpacas is an awesome concept. On the other hand, you'd need to have better infrastructure technology for Llamas, Alpacas, Guinea Pigs, etc to be moved around in greater numbers.

 

[Arkenfolm]

Parts of the Americas where farming did not take root like California could take up pastoralism. The Spanish would find these Amerindians harder to control. Pastoralism is well suited to survival under conquest. You can’t just burn their crops and starve the whole village. They will simply take their livestock and move on.

The highlands of Northern California/Southern Oregon were home to Indians who were skilled raiders and would usually raid more southerly groups. Llama pastoralist Klamath (for instance) would be an interesting group that could make them a dominant people in the region and a tough nut to crack for later white settlers. That could be the vector of introduction. Later llama pastoralism would spread inland to the Great Basin where it would be a natural fit given all the dry, mountainous deserts. While I don't know how well they'd do in the wetter, coastal part of Cascadia (the Salish and others will like their wool, however), the drier Columbia plateau would fit llama pastoralism well.

The problem is getting them there in the first place. Llamas would do great in a lot of Mexico, yet were never there, so there needs to be a reason to move them that far north.