a superior mode of living than what we have now

Very interesting! I dont know why but i did always think that a crossbow would need a mechanism but the set up you made works. You bring up great reasons why 1st nations people wouldnt have made this design, didnt have a reason for making it no problem to overcome.

I wish you would of put these to some images and made them separate videos. I would actually listen to them then.

The trade shirt as first truly global fashion, interesting thought indeed. It probably still depends on the definition of "global" but still.

Hi there, not sure how else to reach you but here. I was coming by to revisit an older video where you talked about why anyone should care about history in the first place, but it seems like it’s nowhere to be found. Was it taken down or am I just really oblivious?

Did the moral case against eating (obviously by killing) animals develop anywhere other than in India? Even for Asians, Europeans and Middle Easterners vegetarianism as a moral concept is fairly modern, as you say, after everything became available everywhere (at least in the developed world). And I imagine strict vegetarianism in (parts of) India could only be sustained because it’s in the tropics with a year-round growing season.

The Highland clearances, The enslavement and dispersal of the Irish all across the world, the Portrayal of Germans, Their doing it to Pagans and Russians right now. Who ever is in power is going to portray their enemies in a negative light. It's up to us to counter their media with our own more accurately historical versions. Very interesting stuff, you informed me about American history I had not yet learned.

'It's entertaining to listen to nonetheless' yeah but only when you tell it mate, I love your combo of academic speculation and hypothetical scenarios

Babe, wake up. Malcolm dropped another historical video essay! But seriously, you're my favorite youtuber and every time a new video comes out, I learn something and think sbout the world slightly differently.

Fantastic work. I really enjoyed this and have enjoyed your other video essays.

Speculation, but when your unarmored fellow warriors run out of projectiles, you are also also covered when you turn around and run off for new rocks.

A good observation that not too many people consider. I have a home-made selfbow made of willow (unusual choice, I know, but my skills as a bowyer were subpar and I thought this would minimize the chance of breakage) with a draw weight similar to the modern recurve bow you showed at the beginning (35 lb-ish) that weighs only about 300 g.

Wew. Listened to the last chapter again. Thank you :)

there is a mecha space opera epic poem in iambic verse currently being released called Cosmic Warlord Kin Bright about a power-thirsty high status warrior (Kin Bright) who leads her exiled people on a quest (which ultimately results in her downfall) to find a new planet to call home and falls in love with the queen of a nomadic fleet who speaks a closely-related language. the mechs in the story are often called armours, and i hadn't realized until this video how much the status of armours in the poem is drawing on historical fact; they are described as only being owned by the wealthy aristocratic warriors, meanwhile, the common people (who are not only marginalized in the poem's narrative but *literally* nameless, they don't culturally have Names in the eyes of the elite) must fight exposed and die in great numbers. and the armours are so complex that no mortals even remembers how to make them anymore, they are just keeping old armours in maintenance and raiding enemy armours from battles. the complexity of this defense technology has so far outstripped the people who use and rely on them that it's essentially become impossible to make more of them.

54 min in, the essence of the lack of identity that comes from being too red to be white, and too white to be red. Of not having ties back to your ancestors, but being too plainly "of native stock" to ever fit in properly with white society no matter how pale a few generations of white guys raping your mothers and grandmothers have made you. oof. (good essays)

Thanks for more great content. I still believe you somewhat downplay the influence of individual action. I agree that people are a product of their environmental conditions, and that the Haudenosaunee are not unique in their response to an evolving geopolitical situation. I do also think that the actions of Kondiaronk, Captain Civility, and Joseph Brant/Thayendanegea clearly shaped modernity through the ideals of their personal diplomatic persuasions. Perhaps they could be replaced by others who would perform the same function out of geopolitical necessity, but I think that their contributions were more than the product of environmental determinism.

Hi Malcolm, I've watched your channel for a while and I think you do really interesting and valuable work here on yt and in the speculative archeology space. I haven't gone through all the essays yet but having finished the first one I think there's a big assumption you make that I don't think holds up. You are probably correct that killing one mammoth would be a large expenditure of energy if done by spearpoint one at a time, but what is to say that this is the only way that they were hunted? It seems like it would make sense to use other means like gravity, a real world example of which would be "the buffalo jump". I could Imagine a group of early humans driving herds off of cliffs drastically impacting the numbers in one fell swoop. Obvious speculation but who knows. Anyway I'm mostly commenting for the engagement. Thanks for all the work you put in, I'd love to see an atun-shei collab :)

"even plants prefer to eat meat when they can" 😂

I remember hearing about this movie being great, then finally watched it as an adult after becoming really interested in native American history. I was not expecting it to be as racist as it was

Sure hope this channel has a FUTURE! I REALLY ENJOY IT, EDUCATIONAL &ALWAYS ENJOY IT, LOOK FORWARD TO A NEW VIDEO👍🏹

👥⬅️🏠➡️

👥⬅️🏠➡️

👥⬅️🏠➡️

I've been a long time fan of the western genre, but i also have gotten so sick of the trope of all the natives dying at the end. In the writers head I'm sure they feel they are trying to hit home the tragedy of the erasure of the indigenous way of life, but like you said it just becomes this lazy trope that demotes native roles to the guys that die at the end. Would be nice of movie makers focused on other parts of of indigenous history/life other than when they get slaughtered. Give me a political/war thriller of intertribal conflict. Give me a horror movie with indigenous peoples fighting indigenous monsters, give me a wide spectrum of movie genres that let me immerse myself into the full history of native American peoples, not just how their existence pertains to the formation of the US.

I'd be inclined to believe any theory you put forth based on how dryly you managed to deliver this one, though I can't see your face to tell if you were grinning throughout it

"We got better after we drove the megafauna to extinction". By that metric the hegemonic Europeans got morally better after enslaving half the world; then feeling bad about it and making slavery illegal. With the help of guns pointed at heads. If Natives are better with nature now for killing all the mega fauna then white people are better now for enslaving the entire world. No one is looking at white people and saying "wow they respect human life and invented global human rights" the same way people look at natives saying "wow they respect nature and animal life". Like ok, the rotihskenhrakéhte (carrying the burden of peace??) loved trees and squirrels but smashed people in the head with a club, with his face carved on it. Idk why you're so focused on seeming "better" than Europeans on every metric, every single human culture is flawed in many ways. Including your own, and mine. Social Justice is of little value when it's opposite of the truth. You said so yourself. I thought you were a bit more critical than this but it's a good viewpoint none the less.

regarding the narrative of "we got better after we drove the megafauna to extinction", this is actually a sentiment recorded in maori oral history. the peopling of aotearoa was recent enough that the extinction of the moa (a group of birds that filled all the large herbivore niches) is still remembered, and the memory is detailed enough that there are accounts of some 19th century maori without colonial education who were able to correctly identify captive emus as a related species

I really appreciated your telling ans illumination of The Great Law of Peace, is there further reading you'd recommend from Iroquois authors about the subject? Either from a more mythological standpoint or a more philosophical perspective (I say this knowing there's probably only so much I can glean and understand as a non-indigenous American only through writing, but your video really inspires me and I'm extremely greatful for your multiple contextualizations throughout this video)

This was very compelling. As a completely biased communist shit head i adored every second of this.

these essays are excellently composed and should be required listening. As a subscriber of both yourself and Atun-Shei, I feel like there is much overlap and I hope he signal boosts these essays. I hope that you do consider collaborating with him, if only as so much as to create an introduction from which people can come and encounter these essays

I haven't read a lot of theory yet, I've mostly been radicalized via youtube, so I really really appreciated you explaining the part about alienated labor versus unalienated labor. It gave me a big realization that I don't actually dislike doing labor, I just find it extremely hard to be invested in very abstracted labor and I've always gravitated towards tasks and roles that serve a direct benefit for me or the people around me. Alongside that, it hit me like a truck that part of why I love and can get addicted at time to the videogame Valheim (survivalcraft game where you gather resources to make better stuff to explore new areas and fight bosses to become worthy of Valhalla), is because it's a simulation of unalienated labor but also in an environment where I am alone so I have full abilty to direct, build, and provide for myself. So I can do 'labor' I find fun and fulfilling while also not having the same stress as real survival, but enough stress I feel engaged and like I'm 'doing well' and accomplishing things I'm proud of. Really makes me wonder what roles neurodivergence (I'm AuADHD) plays in relation to the sense of satisfaction of labor, like I've never been able to understand people who take up careers because a field makes money rather than them actually being interested in the job. I'd keel over from boredom and lack of fulfillment (not to mention stress!) in trying to say be a doctor or laywer long before I'd ever see the money I might make from those professions.

Wasnt expecting to hear about Atun-Shei here, but it makes sense to me your content seems well aligned

Great video. "One who's bias takes the form of innocent interest is bias towards the most interesting outcome." Very true

thank you for making this video

These essays have helped to crystallize a lot of recent thought that I've struggled to put into words. Thank you. I hope that they reach a much larger audience, but in the meantime, know that your work is making a meaningful impact.

🌽🫘🎃

I havent read a book that wasnt strictly related to my field of study in a long time. I missed the heart and stimulation that came with reading a good piece. Thanks. I believe there will be people who refer to you as one of the great thinkers you mentioned in your essay.

Thank you for this essay. I've really struggled to understand why Murray Bookchin and many social anarchists insist on prioritizing local production and giving people direct involvement in as much of their means of life as possible. I think your essay helped me see why this is important.

The extremely widespread usage of Chief as relates to indigenous social and political structures is just kind of plainly frustrating to me. A 6th century Wendel or Gothic "Chieftain" or "Chief" is simply NOT the same social and economic and political position as what "Chief" denotes for indigenous peope on an entirely different continent! We dont have enogh respect snd interest in vernacular self-descriptors, and are much too concerned with lingustic streamlining to enable to fast-paced consumption of pseudohistory. Ive experienced a lot of the same thoughts expressed here, even if often not about NA indigenous cultures.

🟢🟣🟠

🦌

👥⬅️🏠➡️

If you talk about Vine Deloria Jr in one video essay, you bet I'm subscribing, brother. Very well put together so far. I'm chewing through it a bit a time.

🐓

🟪

📿

1.5h Malcolm P.L. video? Absolutely glorious. Thank you! 🥰

hell yeah bring on the materialist analysis.

Btw "Autochtone" is the standard word in Quebec for indigenous people

🥣