twovultures
Donor
Yes, I know. I'm not the first person to propose this idea on these boards. However, the idea of Native Americans having more widespread domesticates is one that really intrigues me, and I thought I'd give it a shot as a timeline. This is my first timeline, so constructive criticism is very welcome! You probably know more than me about Native American ethnography and history, so don't be afraid to jump in with advice/facts.
PART I: DOMESTICATION AND SPREAD OF THE PECCARY
POD: 3,000,000 BC: Genetic changes occur in peccaries moving on the new land bridge to South America. Perhaps the change is due to random genetic mutation. Perhaps some individuals die out or survive who wouldn’t have IOTL, butterflying the species genetics. Perhaps aliens alter their genes for a laugh. Whatever the cause, the peccary ITTL is a very different animal from the one we know. They are hierarchical, less prone to (but still capable of) violence but they maintain their gregarious nature. They become, in other terms, ideal for human domestication.
20,000 BC: By the time humans actually arrive to the Americas, peccaries have split into 4 species.
1. The scrub peccary, too hierarchical to be bred on a large scale and confined to the scrublands of South America
2. The white lipped peccary, living in the jungles of South and Central America and amenable to domestication,
3. The collared peccary, also amenable to domestication and much, much more adaptable and versatile than either of its cousins. It also produces a strong musk when frightened.
4. The long-legged peccaries of the North American plains. They may or may not have been domesticable, but would be extinct by 10,000 BC, so the point is moot.
Like many animals the peccaries would also harbor potentially zoonotic diseases. In addition to spreading Leptospirosis and corona-virus related colds, which would become common nuisance-diseases, they harbored germs that would become plagues. These plagues would change the face of American civilizations, probably more so than the peccaries themselves, and would alter the destiny of the whole world.
3,500 BC: Agriculture becomes fully established as a food source in Central America, the Andes, and Amazonia. Having a constant source of food allows farmers in Central America and Amazonia to domesticate the white-lipped and collared peccaries, which like pigs were not creatures particularly well-suited to pastoralism. Their constant close contact with peccaries would produce lethal consequences for the hapless farmers in the jungles.
A Note from a Major Player in this Unfolding Drama
We are many. And we hunger.
For millions of years, we lived in the blood of the peccaries and the mouths of mosquitoes. As long as there was water for the mosquitoes, all was well.
When the humans took the peccaries into their villages, we found ourselves in their blood-a new and alien place for us. So many of us died, not able to understand and use this new place. But a few of us survived. That was enough.
The humans became another feast for us. Many we killed too quickly. But we learned to keep them alive and they learned to fight us off, long enough for us to move from our new hosts to the mosquitoes and back again.
We hunger. And you are our food.
3,000 BC: River fever becomes widespread in Amazonia and Central America, the mosquitoes of the jungle spreading the disease from human to human. A relative of Yellow and Dengue fever viruses from the Old World, it becomes endemic to the American mainland tropics.
20,000 BC: By the time humans actually arrive to the Americas, peccaries have split into 4 species.
1. The scrub peccary, too hierarchical to be bred on a large scale and confined to the scrublands of South America
2. The white lipped peccary, living in the jungles of South and Central America and amenable to domestication,
3. The collared peccary, also amenable to domestication and much, much more adaptable and versatile than either of its cousins. It also produces a strong musk when frightened.
4. The long-legged peccaries of the North American plains. They may or may not have been domesticable, but would be extinct by 10,000 BC, so the point is moot.
Like many animals the peccaries would also harbor potentially zoonotic diseases. In addition to spreading Leptospirosis and corona-virus related colds, which would become common nuisance-diseases, they harbored germs that would become plagues. These plagues would change the face of American civilizations, probably more so than the peccaries themselves, and would alter the destiny of the whole world.
3,500 BC: Agriculture becomes fully established as a food source in Central America, the Andes, and Amazonia. Having a constant source of food allows farmers in Central America and Amazonia to domesticate the white-lipped and collared peccaries, which like pigs were not creatures particularly well-suited to pastoralism. Their constant close contact with peccaries would produce lethal consequences for the hapless farmers in the jungles.
A Note from a Major Player in this Unfolding Drama
We are many. And we hunger.
For millions of years, we lived in the blood of the peccaries and the mouths of mosquitoes. As long as there was water for the mosquitoes, all was well.
When the humans took the peccaries into their villages, we found ourselves in their blood-a new and alien place for us. So many of us died, not able to understand and use this new place. But a few of us survived. That was enough.
The humans became another feast for us. Many we killed too quickly. But we learned to keep them alive and they learned to fight us off, long enough for us to move from our new hosts to the mosquitoes and back again.
We hunger. And you are our food.
3,000 BC: River fever becomes widespread in Amazonia and Central America, the mosquitoes of the jungle spreading the disease from human to human. A relative of Yellow and Dengue fever viruses from the Old World, it becomes endemic to the American mainland tropics.
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