How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"Anthropologists," Heckenberger said, "made the mistake of coming into the Amazon in the twentieth century and seeing only small tribes and saying, 'Well, that's all there is.' The problem is that, by then, many Indian populations had already been wiped out by what was essentially a holocaust from European contact. That's why the first Europeans in the Amazon described such massive settlements that, later, no one could ever find. (25.81)
Modern anthropologists have the benefit of hindsight: they can see the mistakes their forebears made and correct their erroneous thought processes. Who knows what future anthropologists will think about today's anthropologists? After all, the human capacity to screw things up is limitless, even when we think we're doing things right.