THE ORGINAL

AMERICANS. Any study of the history of Latin America must inevitably consider the aboriginal inhabitants and the way they lived before the Europeans came. The intrinsic interest of the subject is justification enough: since the day Columbus waded ashore in the Bahamas and greeted the brown-skinned natives ce called Indians, the cultures of these early Americans have fascinated men. Beyond the fascination there is this reality: the Indians have outlasted their European conquerors, often with little change in activity and outlook, and now they are showing their strength in countries like Mexico, Guatemala, and the Andean republics. Their civilizations, however much stunted and redirected by the Spaniards, have also survived in some ways. The question of the origin and nature of the Indians confronts us at once with tantalizing and frustrating problems. Ever since Columbus mistakenly took them for inhabitants of the Indies, the American Indians, or Amerinds, have been identified as Asians. For centuries Europeans have found seeming resemblances between Amerinds and Asians i color, bone structure, hairiness, palm lines, eye folds, and, still more dubiously, temperament. But the methods of comparison used are more tried than scientifically true. The Indians of the Americas differ from one another to such a degree that almost any generalization about their kinship to Asians breaks down under the weight of exceptions. No one can yet prove that all Amerinds stemmed from Asian stock (John E. Fagg, "Latin America: A general history"). *** "Jedna roznica miedzy mna a wariatem to fakt, ze nie jestem wariatem" - SALVADOR DALI.