History Essay

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54 1444 Microsoft Office PowerPoint Widescreen 119 45 0 0 0 false Fonts Used 4 Theme 1 Slide Titles 45 Arial Century Gothic Wingdings Wingdings 3 Ion Boardroom Nasty, Brutish, and Short? Who are Native Americans? Let’s start with what they are not… The are not a “race” PowerPoint Presentation They are not a culture or language group either They are not “Tribal” They were not “stone age,” they had some metals and were not all like stone age Europeans So why do we use the term “Native American”/Indian/Indigenous? They were all cut off from the rest of the world (save for a brief encounter with Vikings), and often from each other. This means…. All natives had to contend with unfavorable geography that stifled communication and agriculture Crops, animals, and tech either can’t spread throughout the Americas or they take a looong time. The rest of the world gets a head start. Copper smelting doesn’t get to Mexico until just before the Conquest All of these challenges meant that three kinds of Native American societies co-existed in 1491 (Europe had only sedentary cultures) The non-sedentaries Their lifestyle has several advantages They’re hard as hell to conquer and kill Examples: Amazonian peoples, Mapuches, “Chichimecs” The semi-sedentaries They generally practice swidden agriculture (slash-and-burn) This means they can’t stay in one site year-round. Examples Sedentary Natives, aka “The Great Empires” Only 2 sedentary civilizations Sedentary civilizations dependent completely on agriculture All this farming creates HUGE populations, along with wealth and class differences (just like in Eurasia and Africa). Gender roles are perhaps less rigid, than in Europe but still strict Just like in Eurasia/Africa there are kings… And priests… And warriors and armies… And monumental architecture And writing? The (classic!) Maya definitely had writing Some cultures go from sedentary to semi-sedentary Same with the Puebloans; it’s not “devolution” or “regression,” it’s about making the most of an environment Mississipians too, remember Cahokia? All 3 kinds of societies had been evolving Development of Mesoamerican civilization before the Aztecs Development of Andean civilization before the Inca All 3 kinds made up 25% of the world’s population in 1491, most of them living in sedentary societies Ok, so why does this matter? Semi-sedentaries meet Europeans first. More exploitable than non-sedentaries, but hard to compel to work, often enslaved Pizarro and Cortés followed similar trajectories, from semi sedentaries to sedentaries Only wealthy, heavily populated “core”areas develop quickly amongst the sedentaries (Mexico, Peru) Europeans wanted to create an urban environment familiar to them and get rich quick – can only do that with sedentaries Non-sedentaries aren’t on board with work or hierarchy, they resist, and are generally not useful to Europeans This is why Latin America developed a core-periphery structure And this is why Spain didn’t settle New England (no sedentaries there) leaving it to the English PowerPoint Presentation false false false 16.0000