Corn was a mainstay in the early American civilizations. They created a hardy and diverse food. It fed millions and people and was able to be used in a multitude of ways.
-The Secwepemc people slept on tree branches and matts that were laid out on the floor for their comfort while fur and hide provided a warm covering.
Indians from the Southwest were farmers. They grew corn , beans , and squash . They also grew melons and peaches . There was very little rain . The Indians of the Southwest dug ditches to collect water for their crops. Some hunted small animals like birds and rabbits . They ate wild turkeys , too. They also had to hunt for them to.
In the Non-fiction book, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, Charles Mann aims to debunk an array of beliefs about Native Americans that most scholars once insisted were true. Mann’s research suggests that the native people of the Americas are more intelligent and sophisticated than previously predicted, live in higher numbers and greatly impact the natural landscape. The book is split into three parts: Numbers from Nowhere, Very Old Bones, and Landscapes with Figures. These parts focus on the population, culture, origins and the environment. Mann builds his arguments by reassessing a myriad of pre-existing views about the Americas prior to 1492. He then uses his new findings to prove his theories. This informative read provides
Paleo-Indians are described as the initial Americans, those who set forth the preliminaries of Native American culture. They trekked in bands of around fifteen to fifty individuals, around definite hunting terrains, establishing traditional gender roles of hunter-gatherers. It is agreed that such Paleo-Indians began inhabiting America after the final Ice Age, and that by 1300 B.C.E. human communities had expanded to the point of residing in multiple parts of North America. As these early Native Americans spread out, their sites ranged anywhere from northern Canada to Monte Verde, Chile. These groups sought after stability by going after food sources and ways to advance their small societies in this new hemisphere which they were oblivious to having entered. The Paleo-Indians strived in a semi-nomadic lifestyle where reciprocity was practiced.
When comparing the Southwest indians to the Eastern Woodlands indians I found there were some differences, in their homes, the indians in the Southwest had hut like homes made of stone or adobe while indians in the Eastern Woodlands had lodge like homes made from wood. Farming and hunting seemed to be big for the Eastern Woodlands, but most of the Southwest people were just gatherers and hunters when they could be, although there were some successful farmers. Both areas had hostile groups of people, but the two groups in the Southwest later became more settled and peaceful.
The differences in customs, religion, and basic moral and human ideology prevented the Native American and European cultures from sharing the common bond of human fellowship to serve as the basis and foundation for the growth and betterment of human civilization. Unfortunately, this is a trait seen by the human species that have led to the collective downfall of civilizations throughout time, and will repeat itself until the human perspective of its remarkably fortunate place in the universe is dramatically
As different cultures combined, crops and animals did as well. Foods from Europe to America were more livestock than crops. Cows,
Native americans were not able to adapt to western customs and integrate themselves into US societies. Although it is true that American Indians had little influence on modern technology and they have their own history and beliefs, their adaptation in modern US society has not flourished as much. In some cases like shown in Source 4, an American Indian woman is seen smoking from a cigarette. This could be evidence of American Indians adapting to the western world, but it is merely a photograph taken for a photographer's album.
1491 by Charles Mann is a book about the Native Indians lives in a pre-Colombian America. Throughout the book Mann states that a great deal of the information he is giving is new speculation. However, not all of the speculation has evidence clear enough for one to be sure what he claims is true. Mann’s writing style is thought provoking, intriguing, and engaging.
Before the Spanish ship that changed it all, which arrived in the “New World” in 1492, thriving organized communities of native people had centuries of history on the land. That ship, skippered by Christopher Columbus, altered the course of both Native American and European history. 1492 sparked the fire of cultural diffusion in the New World which profoundly impacted the Native American peoples and the European settlers.
The Environments shape had a part in forming Native American cultures and civilizations. Native Americans would used the surrounding land around them and the environment to suit their needs, they believed in respecting nature and any changes in it would result in a change for them to. The season determined how crops would grow, they were able to adjust their diets and food gathering skills to survive those changing seasons. Native Americans eventually developed an agriculture system based on: corn, beans, and squash, more commonly known as “three-sister” farming. This diet provided by the clever farming technique resulted in high population densities.
Agriculture, corn growing specifically, dramatically influenced the size and sophistication of Native American civilizations in Mexico and South America. By about 1200 B.C., corn cultivation had reached the present-day American Southwest. On its journey, it powerfully molded Pueblo culture. The Pueblo peoples in the Rio Grande valley built complex irrigation systems to water their cornfields. They lived in villages made of multi-storied, terraced buildings when Spanish explorers greeted them in the sixteenth century.
Historians differ on what they think about the net result of the European arrival in the New World. Considering that the Columbian Exchange, which refers to “exchange of plants, animals, people, disease, and culture between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas after Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492,” led to possibly tens of millions of deaths on the side of the American Indians, but also enabled agricultural and technological trade (Henretta et al. 42), I cannot help but reflect on whether the effects should be addressed as a historical or a moral question. The impact that European contact had on the indigenous populations of North America should be understood as a moral question because first, treating it as a historical question is difficult due to lack of reliable historical evidence; second, the meaning of compelling historical claims is contestable as the academic historian perspective tends to view the American Indian oral history as invalid; and finally, what happened to the native Indians is morally repulsive and must be discussed as such.
England: Magna Carta/ Parliament, France: unrest after Henry III assassinated, Spain: conquest of Muslims & Jews strengthened monarchy