South America’s Inca civilization was better at skull surgery than Civil War doctors

Read the full article on sciencemag here: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/south-america-s-inca-civilization-was-better-skull-surgery-civil-war-doctors?utm_campaign=SciMag&utm_source=JHubbard&utm_medium=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR26wfGyGxJodAFzKSK6qODcppdZzhN-fh9rkrKjWuJhHqT0uU0nByAXRtI

Andean panflute music is my jam

Check out this dank Peruvian mixtape I found. It's fire. 

I stumbled across it while I was watching a documentary about civilizations in the Americas. It was used in the background and I just had to look for the original song so that I could steal it for my mixtape. Perhaps some of you will be interested in the documentary as well although it wasn't too great... and also it was in French lol but you can probably find it if you searched "Les Indiens d'amerique" or something on Ina.fr. 

Well that's all for today. Sorry for the short low-quality posts like the meme shitposts. I promise I'll update with good content as soon as I have the time. If you want a sneak peak on what's to come, I'll probably do something about Caral. That's a really lit historical site discovered in the Supe Valley in Peru, and it dates back to c. 2600 BCE  which is super old for something from the Americas. When it was found, it pushed back the history of the Americas by some thousands of years. I won't give away too much about it because I have an interesting hypothesis about it that I want to share in an upcoming post ;D Also I might do something on Moche gold electroplating techniques but that's way less interesting to be honest. I also have a biography post planned out on Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco, MEXICO'S PHILOSOPHER-KING.

Stay woke fam.

6 Foods you didn't know were from the Americas

Alright, so this post is going to be about foods that you didn't know were cultivated by indigenous people for thousands of years before the Columbian Exchange, which started with Columbus' first voyage to the Americas in 1492. The Columbian Exchange was the movement of the following things between the 'Old World' (Asia, Europe and Africa) and the New:

• Crops- the focus of this post
• Animals- such as horses that were introduced to the New World, plus many exotic birds from the Americas were taken to Europe. For example, the Cuban Amazon parrot was given to Queen Isabella as a gift from Columbus. 
• People- for example, European colonists and African slaves arrived in the Americas. A few Native Americans were abducted and taken to Europe.  
• Culture- and religion too, which in many cases was forced on the local population. 
• DISEASES- bEWAre.
• Technology and ideas- pretty complicated to explain but super interesting. 

Alright so I'll get on with it soon, but first there is a pressing question that we must answer: Has my art improved in 4 years?

 I'll let you be the judge of that! 

Wannabehistorian1491's art circa 2013 anno domini 

 NOW

This was a normal everyday occurrence in the shady alleyways of Tenochtitlan. Just kidding. Pears aren't even native to the Americas. However, many surprising crops are. Obviously maize and quinoa are both native to the Americas (everyone knows that), but here are some crops and foods you wouldn't expect:

• The Dragonfruit (or Pitaya) Lots of people think these are from Asia, but they actually originate in Southern Mexico. The Mayan word for them was "wob". I've made a post on it in detail which you can read here. 

• Potatoes No, they're not from Ireland. They were first cultivated in the Andean region. National Potato day is celebrated every year in Peru.
• Guavas I didn't know these were from Central America O_o ... but maybe because I'm just dumb.
• Turkey Many people around the world don't know they're from the Americas. Take a look at this awesome comic by Itchy Feet (a webcomic about travel and linguistics). As you can see, people think it is from random af places when it is actually from North America. Since I think it is stupid that the Americas aren't just considered one super large continent, I think Indians come close enough when they think it's from Peru. 

• Sunflowers Although the crop was commercialized by Russia, sunflower seeds were eaten by many Native American tribes and are from here. The flag of the Hopi nation has sunflowers on it:

• Tomatoes What would Italian cuisine be without them? They were once thought to be poisonous, but now they're used in a lot of things we eat today, like ketchup.

                                                           I hope you enjoyed this post :D 

The Atahualping Challenge is the coolest new social media trend

When the Spaniards met the Inca emperor Atahualpa, they showed him a Bible. Legend has it that Atahualpa tossed it away like it was nothing. Today people in Peru are reenacting this. It's a really creative and awesome way for them to support indigenous resistance. 

via GIPHY

Of course, there are stupid people that are overly offended by this. It's just a historical reenactment though :D . It's also rejecting religious indoctrination, promoting indigenous resistance, and raising awareness of the fact that the Spaniards used religion as an excuse to kill thousands of people. Just because people may get offended by this doesn't mean it's bad. Seeing this social media trend actually made my day and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, some of my Christian friends even said the same. If you're a follower of this blog, chances are you will probably agree with me and think this is awesome as well. 

Well, have a nice day fellow wannabe historians ;D 

The Black Hand Fox Webcomic attempt #2

Forgive me, please. I know it's really dumb. For those of you who don't get it, the strategy that the Allies, in particular, the Canadians, used to seize Ortona in Sicily was called "mouseholding". It's supposed to be funny because in the webcomic, a mouse says it. Not laughing? It's okay. I know I suck. It's not even sticking to the original theme of the webcomic, which was supposed to be WW1 not WW2.  

The drawing program is excellent, no installations were necessary. You should really check it out: https://sketch.io/sketchpad/ 

It is almost as good as DeviantArt Muro! Okay but DA muro will always be the best just because it is made by DeviantArt. 

So what else is new? Well, I got into Spyglass, which is like a magazine/newspaper/news website thing at my school. I'm probably going to be writing an article about the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. I also really want to make a magazine quiz called "what ancient civilization are you?" which will be like one of those really lame Buzzfeed quizzes like "which flavor of potato chip are you?" but better because it will be about ancient civilizations not potato chips. 

That reminds me of this poll that one of my DeviantArt friends made: 

What do you think of when someone says potatoes? chips, food, Incas, Ireland, "whats wrong with this question" or "no"? 

Here is the DA page of the person: http://bigsleeves-arts.deviantart.com/ 

Other Random Things

Is this font legible, BTW? I hope it is. I know my blog uses colors and fonts that can be eye-raping at times. 

Okay so, do you guys know what MONTH it is? That's right everyone, it's: 

Every writer's favourite month is N A N O V E M B E R. Let me explain, every November, there is a a writing contest called "NaNoWriMo". They have a cool crest with a stereotypical historically inaccurate triggering Viking helmet! See?! :

Visit nanowrimo.org to learn more

The rules are that you have to write a minimum of 50,000 words within the month of November. You can upload a cover and write a synopsis and excerpt too. If you get stuck along the way, there is a forum where you can talk to other writers for ideas. If you win you get bragging rights and discounts on a bunch of self publishing and editing softwares.

The last time I entered was in 2013, when I won. Now that I am participating again after 3 years, I feel so nostalgic talking to my old internet friends from 3 years ago including this one girl in the Netherlands who always writes crazily over the minimum 50,000 every year. I think she does like 100,000 words at least or something. The year I won, I wrote 61,000. For reference, 50,000 is around the length of "the Catcher in the Rye". My first published novel, "Misplaced", was 48,000 words. 

So you are probably wondering what my story is about, right? Well, it is currently at 42,000 words and is basically in a futuristic setting where indigenous people are trying to overthrow the government! Beware! And they are basically saving the whole world from a sp00ky tyrant who has come into power. I know that is a very vague plot description. If you have a NaNoWriMo account, you can find me. My username is aztecatl13, and you can read my actual plot synopsis and excerpt. I'm too embarrassed to post it here. 

Also, if you're reading this, chances are you're one of my internet friends or acquaintances and I've used you as a character in my ginormous cast of characters. I have most likely changed your name out of respect for your privacy. Some of my IRL friends such as Vickyish have also been included. Even if you think I hate you, I've probably still used you as a character, probably as a villain or something. For example, a sp00ky white supremacist once added me to a really sketchy Facebook group where a bunch of racists who fancy themselves "theologians" discuss Catholicism. Many of them seem to be homosexuals in denial as well, because they will condemn gay behavior and call Justin Bieber sexy (even though most of them are men) in the same breath. I have used many of their personalities to inspire the villains in my story. That is the only reason why I let white supremacists stick around for some time before I block them. 

Anyway, so when the novel is done I will probably gather up the courage to post the synopsis and everything here and then ask who wants to help proofread the first draft. I'll probably make a public Google Doc and ask my Frypanian fanbase to leave comments on it as they read the unruly manuscript. Perhaps I will illustrate it like I did with my first novel. My art has definitely improved since then, gawd. 

Like seriously. This is something I made in 2012. It is a random Mexican thing: 

Look how much I improved in just 2 years. This was one of my very first acrylic paintings during my nascent Norse mythology obsession phase. There's a Valkyrie:

Now this is my art in 2016. I made this a few days ago. It a random Hetalia-styled Indian thing: 

Please watch me on DeviantArt and I will love you: http://aztecatl13.deviantart.com/ 

PS: I have joined the slam poetry club at my school, so I will probably be posting some poems or something soon. That is all!

PSS: Legend has it that Tlacaelel Quetzalcoatl from the Mexica Movement has changed the layout of his blog! http://americanlatinomusuemisracist.blogspot.ca/ no more "Dynamic Views" ! 

Bye, fam! 

Historically Inaccurate Movies (a foaming run-on sentence rant)

Happy Indian Independence Day (or at least it was August 15th when I started writing this post. IDK when I will actually finish it though). Mexican independence day is coming up next month on September 16th, amirite? Ask me which country I like better ;D . 

Welp fam, speaking of India, an awesome new historical movie has been released recently called "Mohenjodaro", with the leading roles played by Hrithik Roshan and Pooja Hedge. I saw it recently and honestly, I think it was the best movie ever. I loved every second of it. Even though there were probably a few inaccuracies (like with all historical movies) it's still worth a watch (like with all historical movies) ;D . 

A gr8 activity for an aspiring historian is to watch a historical movie and then spot all the historical errors and write a rant about it on their blog for their 26 followers to read ;D .

This emoji is getting annoying, isn't it? ;D I have a Danish internet friend who uses it alllll the tiiimee ;D ;D ;D. Cancerous. 

Before we get into talking about the 10 out of 10 Bollywood movie "Mohenjodaro", let me rant for a bit about historically inaccurate movies.

ALL THE MOVIES I HAVE EVER SEEN RELATING TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLE WERE HISTORICALLY INACCURATE AF AND THAT MAKES ME CRINGE.

Below are my comments on several popular historical movies, so that you can see what I mean: 

The Road to El Dorado 

Here is a cute edit made by one of my Romanian internet friends:

Throwback to when I used to adore things like this

Now not only was this movie inaccurate, it was also pretty racist if you think about it. Making the good guys in the movie two Spaniards and the evil character in the movie a Mayan priest was a baaaddd iddeeaaa. Also the female Mayan character in the movie was promiscuous AF with the Spaniards. WHY TF WOULD YOU MAKE A CHARACTER LIKE THAT? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY? at least name her "Malinche" then eh? Welp it was about the Mayans not Aztecs though. Also in this movie the Mayans thought the Spaniards were gods. This is not even close to anything that happened IRL. There's a popular misconception that is being spread online about how the Aztecs thought Cortes was Quetzalcoatl, but this is BS. Many indigenous people were nice to the Europeans though because they wanted to them to GTFO but didn't want to be violent. Take the Iroquois teaching Jacques Cartier and the French a cure for scurvy for example or the Taino being hospitable to Columbus and his crew. But no one thought anyone was a god, k? I will however give this movie credit for showing how beautiful pre-colonial Mesoamerica was. The characters could've been waaay better done though. The animation and music was pretty good too. 

 

Pocahontas (the first one that everyone knows and the lesser known sequel, "journey to a new world")

Okay is it just me or is Disney racist AF? Actually the Mexica Movement would agree with me according to this article, so I must be right! 

There are two conflicting accounts of what happens here. The first is that Pocahontas was only 12 when she met John Smith, which would make him a rapist. She was taken to England where she got her freedom after marrying another guy named John Rolfe. The second account is that Smith never actually met Pocahontas and just made the entire story up in one of his journals. He was very well-traveled. Disney got that right with one of their quotes I guess, "I've seen hundreds of New Worlds". And so he frequently wrote tales about meeting exotic women and having affairs with them. Does that sound like a weird pass-time to you? It's no different from my fanfictions, really. 

Not to mention the fact that Pocahontas was a Powhatan native, and there were a few words of a different language when the natives were speaking (I heard that from somewhere but I'm not sure, 'cause I'm no expert on native languages, so we'll let that pass.)

Hey I hate racist movies just as much as the next person, but you have to admit Pocahontas was an awesome character.

I loveeeee herrrr haaaiiiirrr.

*trichophilia intentifies* 

Shall I do a blog post on the meaning of the word "trichophilia"? No?

The second movie was very lackluster, thanks to the fact it was in London and London sucks. Apparently, it did not suck as much back when it was called Londonium.

I did like Rolfe better than Smith though. 

did I like him better because of his hair? Yes...yes I did.

He was so so soooooo painfully Tsundere though!!

The Emperor's New Groove

Not gonna lie, this was probably the most hilarious movie I have ever seen. It also had a hot AF protagonist WHO WOULD BE SO CUTE WITH CHEL FROM THE ROAD TO EL DORADO. 

WHO DID THE SHOPPING IT'S SO AMAZINGGGG GAWD 

This movie was also the most historically inaccurate thing I've ever seen though. Absolutely laughable. But you know what? I don't think they were actually trying. 'Cause if they were actually trying then this would be reallyyy pathetic: 

I guess it is a movie "vaguely based on the Incas because it has llamas" and not actually "based on the Incas". 

I'll let it slide though eh. Kawasachum Tawantinsuyu though. 

If you thought that was the gay pride flag and not the flag of Cusco...

well then um...

why are you on this blog?

Apocalypto

My American internet friend has made a shit-ton of fanart for this movie. Like actually she is addicted to that movie. This is literally her desktop wallpaper:

She even admins a Deviantart group for the movie. Join it ya degener8 plebeians: 

http://apocalypto-fanclub.deviantart.com/ 

The reason why it has only 9 members? well because LOOK AT THAT, THE DEVIANTS ARE BETTER AT TELLING WHICH MOVIES ARE RACIST AND SHOULDN'T BE PROMOTED THAN YOU ARE.

OH MY GOD, OKAY JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE WORKED SO HARD ON RESEARCHING THE YUCATEC MAYAN LANGUAGE DOESN'T MEAN YOU GET A PASS ON EVERYTHING ELSE. NOOOPE.

THIS MOVIE IN GENERAL JUST MADE THE MAYANS LOOK LIKE BACKWARD SAVAGES WHEN NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. 

aLSO IT WAS TRYING TO PORTRAY THEM AS JUNGLE TRIBESPEOPLE. 

you know how in modern times Mayan historic sites have been almost covered by jungle? WELL FUN FACT, THEY WEREN'T ALWAYS LIKE THEN WHEN PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIVED THERE. The Mayans practiced slash and burn agriculture so there would definitely be less trees. Now it's not like imperialist christian expansionism either, as they still respected nature instead of thinking nature should be exploited and animals are soulless like christians believe.

Apocalytpo plz stop. Didn't El Vuh rant about this too in one of their raps? nice. Mexica tiahui, son of the sun, native sisters, and 500 tears are their best raps thouuughh.

Also the human sacrifice scene had an Aztec calendar instead of Mayan one.

The point I gave earlier about the language-not-giving-you-a-pass thing brings me to the most cringe-worthy movie I have ever seen. 

The Emperor's New Groove wins for most historically inaccurate movie, but this next movie wins for most CRINGE-WORTHY movie, because the ENG was at least hilarious and cute, this next movie was just shiiit.

Pathfinder

This movie proved that not only can white people never be trusted to direct a movie about indigenous history, they can also never be trusted to direct something about their own history. 

HOW COULD YOU KNOW THAT LITTLE ABOUT THE VIKINGS?

Pathfinder was about the Norse exploration of North America and how the Vikings encountered the Beothuk people. 

I'm not denying that the Norse made it here 500 years before Columbus, I know there's lots of proof of that. You can go to L'anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland and see the ruins of Leifsbudir for yourself.

First of all the most popular misconception about the Vikings is that they have horned helmets. 

wwttff.

If you want to see exactly all the reasons why Pathfinder was inaccurate AF, you should read my blogpost on the Norse exploration of North America here. 

The Norse crew should've had more female characters! Lets not forget Freydis Ericsdottir, the half sister of Leif Ericson led an entire Vinland voyage! They weren't sexist... like the... you know... CHRiSTiANSss!!!

If anyone is interested in an actual, legit, accurate, GOOD FICTION STORY about the Norse exploration of North America, they should read "Eiriksdottir" by Joan Clark, which looks at it from a Viking perspective, and "The Dream Carvers", which looks at it from a coool Beothuk perspective.

Beothuk>Norsemen 

obviously 

but the Vikings weren't AS bad as PATHFINDER would have you believe. 

Dafuq is this lame shit? nice dragonhead mast on the longship in the background though!

I loooove learning about that particular part of history. It was what got me into the Vikings.

This next movie I'm going to talk about isn't related to indigenous people in any way but it's very famous and I just wanted to debunk some of its historical inaccuracies.

It's called 300! 

• This entire iconic "this is Sparta" scene with the messenger is dumb, because the Persian messengers were actually sent to Athens not Sparta.
• There is no evidence that the shepherd Ephialtes was a scarie nightmarish freak.
• Why TF were the Spartan soldiers half naked? where are the hawt shape-fitting breastplates forged from bronze?
• At least you quoted Herodotus.
• At least you translated "Thermopylae" correctly to mean hot springs.
• At least Leonidas was hawt eh
• Xerxes was also hawt eh
• all the Persiansss were hawt in this movie except for the freak ones
• Who was that Spartan soldier with the long hair? he was hawt too but looked way too Germanic or Anglo to be a Greek!

Now it is time to once more concern ourselves with the matters of the Subcontinent. The movie "Mohenjodaro" was obviously named after the greatest city of the Indus valley civilization. It was around the same time as Mesopotamia. In fact some believe it was an offshoot of the Sumerian civilization, which would make it one of the world's oldest civilizations. They've deciphered cuneiform though. Too bad they HAVEN'T deciphered the mysterious Sindhu script.

The cast of the movie was pretty diverse for a Bollywood movie. They had to get some Middle Eastern people to play the Sumerians. IT WAS THE BEST MOVIE EVER, SRSLY! UNTIL SOMEONE MAKES A GOOOD MOVIE ABOUT INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IT WILL ALWAYS REMAIN THE GR8EST MOVIE.

Here is the trailer:

Scarlet and blue macaws are native to the Americas!

WELL THIS IS EMBARRASSING.

The music of the movie was composed by A. R Rahman, so obviously it is good. 

Welp that's it. 
 watch mohenjodaro!!!

and watch hetalia:paint it white which is my second fave movie!

Aspen, my IRL friend who writes guestposts here, has suggested I watch spirit and brother bear, so i will do that. they are animated with indigenous characters!

My ex was a piece of shit because he likes german girls!

yeah that's it.

Byeeee fam. 

Alternate History Hub: What if the Americas Never Existed?

So I found a Youtube channel recently called Alternate History Hub and I'm obsessed with their videos, especially this one. Give it a watch, fam! The topic of this one is "what if the Americas Never Existed?" (then ¿what would I do with my life? I wouldn't have anyone to obsess over. I wouldn't even be able to eat chocolate.)

Another great video by the same person who made this one is called "What if Africa was Never colonized?" and that video is very interesting too so I suggest you watch it too by clicking this link.

Even though the Americas and their history are my life (true story), I agree that there would be a positive and negative effect of them not existing. 

While brainstorming this list I realized that the negatives and positives of the Americas not existing are similar to the negatives and positives of Europe never colonizing the world (because it wouldn't be possible for them to colonize the world without first starting with the Americas.)

Negative effects: 

• We'd be less technologically advanced if an entire culture which made so much scientific progress was taken away. The ideas of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas were taken by Europeans and spread to other continents. If this never had never happened, inventions like computers, phones, etc. would appear much later as these were created by Europeans using things they had learned from other cultures. 
• Certain crops such as potatoes, corn, quinoa, tomatoes, coffee, chocolate, pumpkins would not exist. Now this is important because POTATOES WERE VERY IMPORTANT TO EUROPEAN COUNTRIES WHO COULD NOT FEED THEMSELVES ;_; also corn is probably one of the most important crops in the world, not just because it is the staple diet of many people but because its in everything. Many every day products such as gypsum dry wall, toothpaste, paint, diapers, dog food, makeup, and hand soap are made with corn. Weird processed ingredients that you find in unhealthy processed scary diabetes-causing food also contains corn sweeteners, corn preservatives, and other strange substances. You can thank indigenous Mexicans for genetically modifying a type of grass to create corn. 
• It would take a much longer time for Europe to get out of the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages were a time after the fall of the Roman empire. During the Medieval times/dark ages, Europe had almost no technological advancements because of, you guessed it, isolation. The Renaissance would've happened much later for Europe if this alternate-history video were reality, so Europe would be behind the rest of the world. But so would Australia and Sub-Saharan Africa because they relied on European discoveries to help them advance. Some continents however (not Europe) can do just fine while being isolated such as the Americas, Asia, and North Africa. The Americas would obviously be much better off with no biological warfare spread by Europeans! But would Europe be better off without the Americas? Absolutely not! Where would they get the gold and silver to trade for slaves from Africa and silk from China in order to become rich? and most importantly, where would they get super important crops like corn?
• No chocolate. That would be awful.
• No one to stalk.
• NO CURE FOR SCURVY D: (but at least Jacques Cartier could die from it then.) 
• "less filthy heathens to convert to Christianity." ~ a Jesuit missionary
• People will hate me for saying this but sub-Saharan Africa would not benefit at all if the Americas didn't exist, because Africans relied on Europeans for many things (and the Europeans relied on the Americas for many things.)
• As for Australia, it depends on how you approach the situation. On the bright side, at least 99% of the indigenous population wouldn't be wiped out. On the negative side, no computers until a much later date.
• Perhaps the economies of some Asian countries would suffer, because less trade partners (Europeans would be too dirt poor to trade with them.)
• There would be a higher need for slave labor, so slavery would not go away. 

Positive effects:

• No European colonialism! yaaay!!!! 
• A greater understanding would probably arise between different cultures. 
• Asia would become the most technologically advanced continent. 
• 99% of Australia's indigenous population wouldn't get wiped out.
• Slavery would still exist, perhaps even in a higher scale, but it'd be internal. I mean that a race wouldn't exclusively own slaves of another race. Slave masters would have slaves the same race as them.

Well that was the most controversial thing I ever wrote. What do you think?

I bet this post made people of all races hate me.