NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES Origin story important for a nations identity Indians seen as an obstacle to be overcome passive victims Indian beliefs environmentalism o Their origin stories usually begin with them already in the Americas o Anthropoligists say peoples from asia crossed the land bridge and spread south Diversity among native americans environment is a shaper of culture environmental determinism Pueblo culture o Hopi zuni and others o Adobe pueblos in cliffs shade or atop mesas helps with defense Made of mud and bricks o Agricultural economy arid Makes as agricultural workers need cooperation Ditch irrigation Men farmed women actually owned the lands matriarchal societies Corn squash beans o Theme adaptation to environment Pacific northwest cultures o Environment o Coast salish makah Tlingit o Wooden clan houses o Hierarchical society Clans goes down to servants o Totem poles to display history and culture o Higher up on the totem pole the more important Economy o Potlatch gained service through generousity o Typically illiterate o Economy Harvest from sea and forest not typically agricultural Invested in whaling Moundbuilder culture o Central states Mississippi and ohio vallies o Burial mounds and other earthworks o Centralized society and govt o Monarch someone making the rules o Diversified economy Women tending fields Men hunting in forests o Towns enclosed by palisades o Located in present day north eastern states o Political sophistication of the Iroquois confederation Seneca Onondaga Oneida Women owned property and made decisions like whether to go to war or not Women carried out the agriculture and took care of the fields o Lived in timber lodges Iroquois Cayuga mohawk o 1100 ad came together o Matrilineal society o Importance of agriculture o Families organized into clans o Lived in houses sided with bark Indians vs Europeans o Indians o Europeans Polytheistic Adapting environment Communal Consensus Important roles for women Monotheistic Destrying environment Male dominated Capitalist Autocracy Recondidering environmental determinism o Environmental determinism walter p webb the great plains o Modifying the environment William cronon changes in the land Algonquian peoples New England great lakes upper idwest and down to the Carolinas New England tribes and changes in the land Set low fires in forests and killed ticks it was more inviting to deer and bears Grew beans right below corn to protect corn from weeds o Indians would change their environment to suit their individual needs Fatal contact Big game hunters o Peoples of color are inferior races who are destined to die out o Indians as a vanishing race o Paleio indians o Hunters of megafauna with artful stone points clovis folsom and atlatl o Megafaunal extinctions climate change or human agency Hunters and gatherers o Archaic Indians non agricultural o Adapted weapons for smaller game o Bison corrals and buffalo jumps o Complex knowledge of and resources o Madison buffalo jump near Bozeman MT Village farmers o Arrival of plains woodland traditions bow and arrow pottery cultivation o Adopting of village lifestyle in river valley o Mixed economy farming and hunting
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