Is there a population density map of pre-Columbian South America?
score:5
For what this website defines as history (roughly, "the story of humanity"), there's rather a lot of "pre-Columbian history" in South America, and you can't really depict it all in a single map. Population density maps for 6500BCE, 3500BCE, and 1491 AD would all look quite different from each other. For the purposes of the rest of the answer, I'm going to assume you are interested in something closer to 1491AD.
The pre-Columbian Americas have been criminally understudied at this level of scope and detail IMHO. Of course there isn't much of a pre-Columbian written record, so a certain amount of that is understandable. That being said, Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones did an amazing worldwide study of historical human population history, which included the following map in their section on The Americas:
This image is from McEvedy and Jones' Atlas of World Population History. This book is out of print and almost impossible to find for purchase, but if you can, do it. Online at archive.org.
This may not go down to the level of detail you like on who those people were, but I have seen immediate pre-Columbian language maps of South America that could perhaps be reconciled with this. Couldn't find one on a really quick search, but I know I've seen them online.
Calibrating it against the North America map you posted, it doesn't have nearly as much detail, and appears to be missing a fair bit. In particular, these days I'd expect to see a higher density in the Pacific Northwest, which M&J aren't showing. Their map I believe is likely older, so less likely to include recent research. So it might be wise to consider what it shows to be a floor, not a ceiling.
For your theoretical question, McE&J postulated about 13 million souls in the Americas (north and south) at this time, and based on this map the vast majority of them would have been living in the Azetc and Incan areas. The area of North America the Cree and Inuit were inhabiting (Canada/Alaska) may look large enough to make up for their low density, but this map projection artificially inflates that area.
The modern northern states of South America, along with the tropical coast of Brazil, appeared to have some level of farming going on as well. It may not show well in the map, but I know that farming was moving up the Caribbean islands at this time as well (probably from South America), and had made it as far as parts of Cuba.
More post
- 📝 Kissing in early Icelandic law
- 📝 What kind of building materials did Cavendish use in determining the density of the earth?
- 📝 Have there been any attempted bans on cryptography in the past?
- 📝 Did the 1962 comedy album about JFK impact the presidency or US prestige abroad?
- 📝 Why didn't Delhi became part of Pakistan?
- 📝 What was the role of Konstantin Rokossovsky during WW1?
- 📝 Why were old fortifications shaped like stars and not like circles?
- 📝 Was Tajmahal Tejo Mahal?
- 📝 In medieval Europe, were children born in an annulled marriage automatically illegitimate?
- 📝 Which historians argue that WWII was caused by Fascism as a reaction to Communism?
- 📝 Can anyone find an image of Henry Bolingbroke's Sovereygne Feather Seal?
- 📝 What is the meaning of this phrase in chapter 64 of the Book of the Dead?
- 📝 Who were these two 1961 Soviet pilot defectors?
- 📝 Is there validity to the claim of a scavenger hunting barter economy in the history of money?
- 📝 What role has a generally armed populace had on resisting a **potentially repressive government?**
- 📝 Has any place exhumed more dead bodies than San Francisco?
- 📝 Was Rome exporting its trash to Egypt as an early example of recycling?
- 📝 Has there ever been a case where a tribe/nation tried to reclaim the land they had left before?
- 📝 Could Hitler have won WW2 after losing the beaches of Normandy
- 📝 Copper and Bronze Age Burials in Western Europe
- 📝 What symbolism is incorporated in this illustration for a book by Riccati?
- 📝 Did humans hunt with dogs before planting crops for food?
- 📝 From what time can this jewelry date?
- 📝 How did the SAGE system send data to in flight assets for intercept tasks?
- 📝 What adaptations allowed left-handers to write left-to-right with dip pens?
- 📝 Wales and Ireland in medieval times
- 📝 Why did King Charles II cede New Amsterdam / New York to his brother James, Duke of York, in 1664?
- 📝 Did Herman Melville help write his uncle's book?
- 📝 Are there examples of well known medieval battles with very little archaeological evidence?
- 📝 Why didn't Hitler invade Middle East for resources first before invading Soviet Union?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Is there a population density map of pre-Columbian South America?
- 📝 Given that there were there larger, more organised civilisations in South America compared to NA, why did they not colonise North America themselves?
- 📝 What were the main centres of population in South America in 1500 AD?
- 📝 How did medieval manors handle population growth? Was there room for more fields to be ploughed?
- 📝 Was there a Viking Exchange as well as a Columbian one?
- 📝 Why did native Americans and Europeans mix in South America but not in North America?
- 📝 Were there any crops and livestock common to both the Old and New Worlds prior to the Columbian exchange?
- 📝 Is there a possibility that the Islamic civilization visited America before Columbus?
- 📝 Are there any scientific estimates for the population of Mycenaean Greece?
- 📝 What is the origin of Khans? Is there any link between South Asian Khans and the Mongols?
- 📝 Was there a Japanese Exchange, à la Columbian Exchange?
- 📝 Which 'evidence' is there for a claim that 'Chinese discovered America in 636'?
- 📝 Are there instances where collective farming has actually brought benefit to the population
- 📝 Was there a president that wanted to "Make America Farm Again"?
- 📝 Why have population maps indicated a stark divide in population density of the United States on either side ot the 100th Meridian?
- 📝 Was there a constant 'fear of the bomb' in the Soviet Union and America during the Cold War?
- 📝 Was there anything in common between the War of 1812 between Britain and America and the War of 1812 between Napoleon and Russia?
- 📝 Who thought there might be a war between the British Empire and the United States of America in the 1920s?
- 📝 Why was there a surge of writings about the Illuminati in America in the late 1910's?
- 📝 How did Diego Gutiérrez know the boundaries (shape of the Americas) when he drew the 1562 Map of America
- 📝 Was there a military practice of reloading while marching/running, in Europe or America during the 18th and 19th centuries?
- 📝 Was there any urbanisation in ancient South India?
- 📝 What proportion of the Arab population of Palestine pre-1948 came from families that lived there before 1880?
- 📝 Is there a genetic link between North America and Vikings?
- 📝 How were the modern countries in South America formed?
- 📝 Why was there an increase in literature regarding fire safety in America during the 1970s?
- 📝 Were there any non-Afrikaner apartheid supporters in South Africa before 1994?
- 📝 Is there any historical evidence of a significant population of middle eastern people in iron age Northern Germany/Southern Scandinavia?
- 📝 What were the population demographics in the South during the Hayes/Tilden election?
- 📝 Is there any evidence in history to suggest that there was a Melanchro (dark-skinned) population in Colchis as claimed by Herodotus?