Quote:
Originally Posted by DocRailgun
Why do the Europeans not have a knowledge of shamanism? .
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It's a genre convention. Seriously. Magic (or psi or whatever) works but white guys can't use it is a story genre, it doesn't have to make any sense. It works just like any other "strengthening the marginal" alternate, the whole point of the magic is it lets the oppressed races or women to break from their historically disadvantageous position.
It will also fail to alter the history of the non-white people before the contact - they will still all unaccountably occupy the "same" lands and have the "same" cultures on first contact - same getting the quotes because they'll often include details that in fact developed later but are set in the modern stereotype.