I’ve been conducting a study and have found that the majority of historians and anthropologists would rather have been an Indian than a European in pre-Columbian times. The reason?
“There was gold there,” said Charles Mann, the author of 1491, referring to the Americas. “The Indians had lots of gold, and the Europeans didn’t have any.”
Gary Urton, the anthropology chair at Harvard, agreed: “There were entire cities made out of gold over there, so I would have liked to live in one of them. That way you have the gold.”