North America didn’t have horses, when they were brought in, the Apache, more than any other indigenous group, structured their entire way of life around them. Well at least that’s what I learned from Western movies.
Now, I’ve read that horses were native to the Asian continent and migrated elsewhere, eventually to the Americas. However, I was at the San Diego Natural History museum and they had a display that claims the opposite, that horses are native to then migrated out of the Americas.
We have reached the limits of what I know on the subject. So, no idea. If forced to make an uneducated guess, I’d say it was probably some combination of environmental factors, a preexisting culture that fit particularly well with horses, and natural variation in adoption of new tech among different groups of people.
blackstampede@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
North America didn’t have horses, when they were brought in, the Apache, more than any other indigenous group, structured their entire way of life around them. Well at least that’s what I learned from Western movies.
JamesTBagg@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Now, I’ve read that horses were native to the Asian continent and migrated elsewhere, eventually to the Americas. However, I was at the San Diego Natural History museum and they had a display that claims the opposite, that horses are native to then migrated out of the Americas.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Camels are also native to north America, and similarly went extinct here after spreading to Asia then later got reintroduced
FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Interesting. I knew about the horses being non-native. But the Apache part not.
Is there something that made them more likely to benefit from being a horse-culture?
Living on Steppes and Plains?
piccolo@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Horses are native to the americas. They evolved here and spreaded to asia but went extict in america around the end of the ice age.
WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
They were too tasty for their own good.
PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Would it be unfair to say the horses that were there are a different species than those imported by the Spanish?
Stamau123@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They lived mostly in the southern Great plains, extending into the desert, so I imagine horses would be great for them
blackstampede@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
We have reached the limits of what I know on the subject. So, no idea. If forced to make an uneducated guess, I’d say it was probably some combination of environmental factors, a preexisting culture that fit particularly well with horses, and natural variation in adoption of new tech among different groups of people.