extirpating

Destroying, not paying attention to something/someones existence, Removing out, "Getting rid of someone or something in different ways"

-Charles Darwin observed that “The varieties of man seem to act on each other; in the same way as different species of animals—the stronger always extirpating the weaker.”

-to extirpate an unwanted tree due to construction.

subtler

Imagined histories can shape the present in subtler ways, too.

Can be used subtler/more subtle in sentence.

Imagined histories can shape the present in subtler ways, too.

forebears

Human lived before us l ancestors

The idea of “stages” of human development, typically divided into three—savage, barbarian and civilised—persisted.

Indigenous people were excluded from this concept of progress. European thinkers considered them to be much like humans’ long-ago forebears.