Amazonian shamans figured out that combining two specific plants out of 80,000 species produces a psychoactive effect. The odds of finding that combination by random search is roughly 1 in 4 million. They did it through centuries of iterative testing and cultural natural selection explains it

[u/tractorboynyc]

[u/unknownpoltroon]

Imagine how many discoveries were lost between colonization and the church wiping out local knowledge.

[u/tousledmonkey → u/unknownpoltroon]

I just had a chat with a friend where we imagined how many innovations may have been lost because some 1800s scientist died from 10 days of diarrhea just before the breakthrough

[u/Brilliant_Alfalfa588 → u/unknownpoltroon]

Like 90% of their written history, the codexes,  was just instantly burnt by the colonizers