Native -American culture

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Native -American culture

• New revelations about America prior to European
  Settlement

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• What do you think of when you think about
  Native-Americans?
• New research over the last half century has
  revealed many surprising aspects
• After this lecture, is your view of
  Native-American society of a more complex nature?

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• Indian Population Dynamics
• In the Americas, the population estimate in 1491
  was around 100 million people
• More than Europe
• Different Indian cultures inhabited cities
• Tiwanaku (1000 A.D.) in South America had 115K
  people and 250K in surrounding areas
• Paris would not hit that until 1500
• Wari (700 A.D.) in South America was 70K
• Cahokia (near modern day St. Louis) was 15K
• Many of these Native-American cities consisted
  of
• Botanical gardens
• Buildings six stories high
• Promenades
• No sewage in the streets
• Markets with goods from hundreds of miles away
• European fishing colonies in the 1500s observed
  New England colonies as thickly settled

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• Social Aspects
• Indian families were close and loving, more so
  than European families
• Europeans expected their kids to work around age
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• Indians regarded pre-puberty as a time to play
• Health
• Europeans observed Indians as healthy specimens
  without pox scars

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• Social Aspects
• Indian families were close and loving, more so
  than European families
• Europeans expected their kids to work around age
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• Indians regarded pre-puberty as a time to play
• Health
• Europeans observed Indians as healthy specimens
  without pox scars
• Ate an estimated 2,500 calories in New England
• Indians observed Europeans as
• Having little intelligence
• Being physically weak
• Being atrociously ugly
• Just plain smelly
• During the middle ages, one South American
  Indian society eradicated hunger
• When Spanish came, they saw warehouses filled to
  the brim with supplies

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• Governmental Aspects
• Native-Americans had a very similar democratic
  system comparable to how our Constitution was
  written
• Some historians believed that our Constitution
  was at least partially inspired by different
  Native-American systems
• One European noted, Their whole constitution
  breathes nothing but liberty.
• Females were the head of clans and spoke
  directly to higher-ups for their people
• System of checks and balances
• Human Sacrifices
• According to some Native-American societies,
  human sacrifice was necessary for religious
  purposes
• Most of the time were criminals and POWs
• Comparable to European executions
• Public executions, Europeans paid entrance fees
• Between 1530 and 1630, England executed 75K

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• Governmental Aspects
• Native-American Warfare
• Was not as brutal as European warfare, not as
  massive
• Viewed massive warfare as wasteful
• Attacked guerrilla style, got revenge, then
  stopped
• Scalping
• Some Indian societies did scalp their enemies
  after death in war
• English often times put Irish soldiers heads on
  stakes

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• Environmental Interactions
• It is often thought that Indians lived with the
  land, not creating detriment to the environment
• Historians and archaeologists today disagree on
  many levels
• Forest Burning
• In North America, Indians deliberately set fires
  annually or bi-annually
• First white settlers in Ohio found forests that
  resembled English parksthey could drive their
  carriages through the forests
• Bison roamed from NY to GA because of cleared
  lands
• Farming
• Intensive farming-the Maya collapsed because
  they overshot the carrying capacity of their
  environment
• They ended up starving themselves to death
• Europeans would see 4 villages with 8-16 square
  miles of corn fields surrounding them

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• Environmental Interactions
• Waterways and Roadways
• Indians would divert waterways for irrigation
  purposes
• In South American, Native Americans had a
  complex highway system for trading

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• Environmental Interactions
• Waterways and Roadways
• Indians would divert waterways for irrigation
  purposes
• In South America, Native Americans had a complex
  highway system for trading
• The Amazon Basin
• Geographers and archaeologists believe that at
  least 12 of the Amazon Rainforest is man-made