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Key Differences Between Native Americans And Europeans

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The Key Differences Between Native Americans and Europeans Even before the Native Americans and the Europeans had met, they were doomed to have conflict. Both groups had disparate views in how an individual’s wealth was measured and more importantly, they had crucially different beliefs in how many facets of divinity were in their religion. The idea of a communal wealth between a group of people was shared by most Native American communities, while the widespread concept of mercantilism was held by most European explorers. However, the opinion of god was what created tension between the groups. The Europeans had a monotheistic God while the natives often had many gods in their culture. One of the primary differences between the two cultures …show more content…

Both religious aspects of the two groups was complicated and diverse, so it is simpler to just compare monotheism to polytheism. The Europeans’ life was governed by their Christian God. God told the Pope what to say and command, so the Pope was given a lot of power over Christian empires, because it was believed the Pope spoke the word of God. The strict Church enforced one religion on the vast majority of Europe, and when Europeans started exploring the New World, they felt they were superior in religion to the unaware Native Americans. The natives had a polytheistic religion, and believed in animism. Animism is the idea that divinity is in all things around you and the gods will talk to you and lead you, along with your ancestors. The tribes of America didn’t force one exact religion on each other, however, most of the facets of native religion was similar. For example, there was a god that controlled the sun and moon, along with a god for rain or strength. This difference, along with many others, is what separated the groups culturally. The most crucial of these two differences was the disagreement over God. Religion forms culture, which shapes a society’s laws and government. Religion was the science of the pre-Renaissance Europe and the pre-Columbian natives. It explained what couldn’t be easily explained. A community is formed around religion, so it is most likely held highly among it’s

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