T is nearly impossible to determine the american population b4 columbus... because?

Question

It is nearly impossible to determine the american population b4 christopher columbus-but that is not the real issue in the pre-columbian debate- the issue is....

a) the indians were to primitive to sustain a large population?

b)historians disagreed on the method to count the indians

c)consequences of european settlement on western hemisphere.

can someone please help me!! thanks!

Answer 1

Nobody counted.

Answer 2

From wikipedia: ..."Estimates of how many people were living in the Americas when Columbus arrived have varied tremendously; 20th century scholarly estimates ranged from a low of 8.4 million to a high of 112.5 million persons. Given the fragmentary nature of the evidence, precise pre-Columbian population figures are impossible to obtain, and estimates are often produced by extrapolation from comparatively small bits of data. ..."