Guide to Lecture 1 (Native Americans before & after Columbus)
Migration to the New World
Beringia—20-30,000 years ago—land bridge with East Asia
Pursuit of game across land bridge
Over 1,000 years—spread all over North & South America
Ca. 8,000 BC (10,000 years ago)—global warming, melting, isolating
them from Asia
Diversity of These “Indians”
Nomadic bands to highly advanced Indian empires
Meso-America
Téhuacan Valley of Mexico—9,000 years ago—selective mutation
created a grain called “maize” or corn—incredible achievement
Agriculture—sedentary habits, larger communities, making of
pottery
Teotihuacán—2,000 years ago, religious and trading center
Obsidian tools and weapons
Ca. 650 AD, population about 125,000
Yucatán Peninsula—Mayans very advanced in astronomy,
mathematics, written language. Massive temples and public
buildings—engineering capabilities
Classic civilizations of Meso-America came to end between 300 &
900 AD, reasons unknown
13th century—Mexica (Aztecs)—founded Tenochtitlán on Lake
Texcoco
North America
Mostly hunters
Far-flung trade evident
Poverty Point, Louisiana: enormous mounds—materials from
Great Lakes, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio
Craftsmen making jewelry, stone figurines, tools and clay
objects from 1800 BC.
Similar settlements in Florida and Missouri
Ohio Valley—mound-builders—Hopewell people (100 BC to 400
AD). Artifacts from hundreds of miles in all directions
Far north—Eskimos and Aleuts adapted to severe conditions—
primarily fishing
Southwest
Most distinctive cultures—corn 3,500 years ago—oldest in North
America
By 500 AD, three similar cultures
Hohokam in Arizona—irrigation canals
Mogollon (ancestors of the Zuni)—Arizona and northern
Mexico—dug houses into earth
Anasazi (ancestors of the Pueblos)—large aboveground
housing complexes, elaborate water systems
East
Cahokia—Missouri trading center—up to 20,000 people,
pyramids
Cultural Traits (Generalized)
Enormous cultural chasm between Indians and Europeans
Nature—Indians in harmony, Europeans dualistic view (conflict)
Spiritualism—Indians deeply spiritual—animism, shamanism.
Europeans monotheistic—highly offended by animism (“Black Robe”)
Property—Indian concept different from Europeans. Ownership of
land incomprehensible to Indians, but of high importance to Europeans
Warfare—frequent intertribal warfare among Indians—used to
Europeans’ advantage
Justice—Indians believed in retribution (“eye for an eye”). Retaliation
and huge kinship networks, far more important than for Europeans
Economy—Indians, subsistence—gathering, hunting & fishing,
agriculture. Clear separation by sex of labor responsibilities (farming
was woman’s work). Irony: Indian development of corn and potatoes,
plus squash and beans led directly to increase of European population.
Level of development—Indians literally stone age people without the
wheel, becoming highly dependent on white man’s inventions
Effects of European Trade on Indians
Dependence on Europeans for firearms, re-supply as prove more effective
than old methods.
Alcohol wrought havoc with Indians, created toxic dependence.
Utter devastation of Indians due to European diseases—smallpox,
influenza, chicken pox, measles.
Attrition rate in some areas as high as 95%
Mexico—25 million people in 1519, 1 million by 1605
No prior exposure, no immunities
Syphilis the one exception which went the other direction
Importance of the Diseases on Indians
Facilitated conquest of large areas with small numbers of Europeans
Psychological effect deadly—offended the spirits—shamans unable to
help—questioning ancient beliefs.
Settlers of Jamestown (1605) native populations already largely
depopulated, demoralized, debilitated by disease.
Indian literally doomed from the moment the white man set foot on the
shores of the New World.