Update to debate over cultural evolution: ‘1491’ author Charles C. Mann responds

The author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles C. Mann, has just responded to Frances Widdowson’s lengthy refutation of his historiography concerning the ancient Indigenous site of Cahokia, part of what’s become a larger debate over competing notions of ‘cultural evolution’ in our new AGENDA INDIGENA section: [I]t is Dr. Widdowson, […]

Sewing a shirt on a button: The pseudoarchaeology of 1491 (Pt. 1)

The following guest contribution is but the latest in a series of back-and-forth posts first inspired by mediaINDIGENA‘s Niigonwedom Sinclair and his review of Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation. The review prompted a rebuttal by one of Disrobing‘s co-authors, Dr. Frances Widdowson. In her piece, Widdowson criticized Sinclair’s citation of […]

Rebutting the Rebuttal: ‘Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry’ Digs Up Debate

In this guest post, author Charles C. Mann responds to Frances Widdowson’s criticism of his book, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Widdowson delivered her critique as part of a rebuttal to Niigonwedom Sinclair’s negative review of her book, Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation. As part of her […]

Co-Author of ‘Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry’ Pens Her Rebuttal

The following is a response to Niigonwedom Sinclair’s critical review of Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation by one of its co-authors, Frances Widdowson. I appreciate Niigonwedom Sinclair’s efforts in reviewing the book I co-wrote with Albert Howard.  Although I find most of Sinclair’s opposition to our work to be rooted […]

An Ink-stained Response to ‘Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry’ (Pt. 2)

Picking up where Part One left off, this piece is the second in a two-part response to Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard’s Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation. It originally appeared in somewhat different forms in guest editorial/commentaries for Kanata (Vol. 1) and the Winter 2009 (#203) issue of Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and […]