Environment and Culture in North America

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Environment and Culture in North America
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Culture Areas

• Geographic Area of ethnic groups with similar
  cultural traits.

http//www.nmia.com/jaybird/AANewsletter/southwes
tmap.html
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Names

• Indians
• Holdover from the search by explorers for a route
  to the Indies.
• Some Native Americans dislike this name.
• Amerind, Native American, or First Nation also
  used.

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Names

• Names of tribes are necessarily what they called
  themselves. At the time of contact, some
  explorers used names that other groups called a
  specific group.
• Thus, Navajo prefer Dine and Yuman prefer Quechan.

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Geography and Culture
http//encarta.msn.com/media_461565493/Culture_Are
as_of_North_America.html
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Environment

• Biome
• A larger biological community of interacting
  plants and animals, as exemplified by tundra or
  coniferous forest.
• Habitat
• An area of land with physical characteristics
  such as minerals, soils, rainfall, and
  temperature that affect which plants and animals
  live there.
• Ecotone
• A community of plants and animals found at the
  transition between biomes or other large biotic
  units characterized by a mixture of species that
  may attract predators, including humans.

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N. A.Biomes
http//www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourFames.cgi?to
ur_id14051
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Biomes

• Tundra
• Treeless biome
• Ground frozen year round, permafrost

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Tundra

• Frozen tarn pond in alpine tundra near Dillon,
  Colorado

Images (c) by James L. Reveal, Norton-Brown
Herbarium, University of Maryland
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Coniferous forest

• Evergreens-pine, spruce, fir, and hemlock

Images (c) by James L. Reveal, Norton-Brown
Herbarium, University of Maryland
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Moist Temperate Forest

• Mostly coastal and in low mountains (less than
  9,000 ft)
• Abundant precipitation, rain and snow 25-160 in
  (65-400 cm).
• Cool temperatures, rarely below 5 F or above
  100 F moister and cooler in the north.

http//www.life.umd.edu/emeritus/reveal/pbio/biome
/lec35c.html
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Temperate Deciduous Forest

• Beech - maple - yellow poplar, oak - hickory,
  mixed pine - hardwood.
• Cool /cold winters, warm summers.
• Moist winters, moist summers.

http//forestry.about.com/library/tree/bl_na_biome
s_eastdec.htm Photos Courtesy of Steve Nix,
About Forestry
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Chaparral

• Arid, very little rain in summer.
• Chaparral fire near Ensenada, Baja California
• Images (c) by James L. Reveal, Norton-Brown
  Herbarium, University of Maryland

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Cold Desert/Hot Desert Biome

• Cold Desert-cold in winter, arid.

Cold desert of the Great Basin near Lunar Crater,
Nevada Images (c) by James L. Reveal,
Norton-Brown Herbarium, University of Maryland
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Temperate Grassland

• Plains, Prairies

Mid-grass prairie near Manhattan, Kansas
Images (c) by James L. Reveal, Norton-Brown
Herbarium, University of Maryland
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Water Resources

• Rivers, Lakes, Oceans, Sinkholes, Springs.

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Native American Impact on the Environment

• Environment of the past dynamic.
• Interglacials
• Hypsithermal
• Prehistoric people did impact the environment.
• Clearing forests, diverting water.

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Culture Histories

• Use of archaeological methods to construct
  cultural types based on culture area and
  artifacts.
• Temporal Types
• Artifacts with temporal signatures

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Components

• Component
• An archaeological unit that includes a culturally
  homogeneous stratigraphic or spatial unit within
  a site and is thought to represent a single
  occupation of the site.

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Phases

• Phase
• An archaeological unit consisting of several
  components at a number of sites defined by
  similar artifacts and other characteristics and
  found in a unique geographical area and time
  period phases are thought to loosely represent
  cultures

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Horizons

• Horizon
• an archaeological unit that links phases based on
  traits of material culture that appear to have
  spread widely during a relatively short period of
  time.

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Tradition

• Temporal continuity in material culture the
  archaeological unit that links phases and sites
  based on general attributes of material culture
  that persist over a long period.

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Culture History

• PaleoIndian (Pleistocene)
• Archaic (Beginning with Holocene, continuing
  through contact with some groups)
• Woodland (ca 3000)
• Mississippians, Iroquoians, Plains Village (ca
  1000)
• Historic Period (after contact)

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Culture Concepts

• Band
• Small, mobile groups
• Wild resources
• Little personal property

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Culture Concepts

• Tribe
• Larger groups, sometimes villages
• Kinship groups-clans
• Big men in some groups (NW Coast)

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Culture Concepts

• State
• Monarchy or democracy
• Social Classes/castes

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Culture Concepts

• Egalitarian
• Status based on age, individual, gender
• Ranked
• Social position inherited, nearness to chief (or
  chiefs lineage)higher status
• Stratified
• Sharp class distinctions

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Themes in North American Research

• Settlement of America?
• Adaptation to Environment
• Food Production?
• Complex Cultural Systems?
• Ethnic Identities?
• European settlement