More on the First Americans

1. More on the First Americans Jargon, Themes and Early European Encounters

2. Jargon • Paleolithic Period: from beginnings of human life through ~10,000 BCE when people were nomads. • Nomad: person who belongs to a group of people who move from place to place seasonally in search of water and food. • Neolithic Revolution: Beginning about 10,000 BCE when they started to cultivate crops and domesticate animals.

3. Jargon, 2 • Social Class:a group of people within a society who share the same social, political, and economic status. • Class usually determined by work performed like farmer, craftsman, priest, and warrior • Civilization: a society having a high level of culture and social organization including organized government, job specialization, and an organized belief system.

4. Jargon, 3 • Council of Elders: • usually ran the villages • Composed of the heads of the village’s various families • Some villages may have had a chief elder as a single leader. • In times of scarce resources, warfare increased between villages. • Some men gained stature as great warriors during time of warfare.

5. Neolithic Revolution • Changed the way humans lived. • Agriculture allowed permanent settlements, social classes, and new technologies. • New technologies • Simple calendars to track planting and harvesting. • Simple metal tools like plows. • May have used animals to pull the plows. • Metal weapons.

6. Neolithic Revolution, 2 • Took place in places besides Western Hemisphere • Some of these early groups settled in the fertile valleys of the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Yellow, and Indus Rivers. • Rise of great civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, and India.

7. In North America • First Americans of the North • North of Rio Grande • Less complex and coercive societies • Lacked occupational diversity, social hierarchy, and strong state institutions • Most were self-governing kinship groups based on lineage

8. Hopewells • ~100 CE, present-day Ohio • Spread influence from Louisiana to Wisconsin • Organized in large villages • Extensive trade networks and domesticated plants • Obsidian from Rocky Mountains • Copper from Great Lakes • Pottery and marine shells from Gulf of Mexico

9. Built large burial mounds. • Artisans make ornaments to bury with the dead. This map shows the Hopewell mounds and earthworks around Chillicothe Ohio. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/images/34.jpg

10. In the Southwest • ~ 600 CE Hohokam and Mogollon cultures • Hohokam used irrigation to grow crops • Worshiped their gods on platform mounds • By 1000, lived in elaborate multi-room stone structures called pueblos • ~ 900 CE Anasazi • Master architects • Built residential-ceremonial villages in steep cliffs • Chaco Canyon houses 1,000 people

11. Chaco Canyon

12. Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park (New Mexico)

13. In the Southwest, 2 • These societies collapsed ~ 1150 • Drought ??? • Invasion ??? • Illness ??? • Descendents include Acomas, Zunis, Hopis, and Navajos

14. Mississippian • ~800, Mississippi River Valley • Last large-scale culture to emerge north of the Rio Grande • ~1150, Cahokia was largest city • Near present-day St. Louis • Population of 15,000 – 20,000 • Temple mounds as large as great Egyptian pyramids • Tributes paid by peasants supported the privileged class of nobles and priests

15. Mississippian, 2 • ~1350 • Decline due to overpopulation, urban disease, and warfare

16. Muskogean-speaking • Included Algonquian-speaking peoples • Lived further north and to the east • Included modern-day Virginia • Farming became the work of women • Used flint hoes • Corn, squash, and beans • Men hunted and fished • Matrilineal inheritance system developed among many due to importance of farming.

17. Mediterranean Crossroads • African, Asian, and European peoples interacted in the Mediterranean region • West African gold enriched Turkish sultans. • European guns strengthened North African armies. • Indian spices found their way to Italian kitchens.

18. Religion and Politics • Closely intertwined in Mediterranean commerce. • From 7th to 14th centuries, Islam spread to Southeast Asia, West Africa, and much of Southern Europe. • Roman Catholic rulers introduced Christianity to central and northern Europe. • Frequent religious cooperation to secure commercial ties and fight piracy.

19. Gender • Some Africans and Native Americans were matrilineal -- children traced descent through mother’s bloodline. • In many agricultural societies, women as well as men farmed. • In some, women did most of the field cultivation. • Europe divided tasks by gender • i.e., men were weavers but women were spinners. • Primogeniture in Europe

20. European Encounters • Explorers financed by King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile • Columbus • October 12, 1492, disembarked on an island in the present-day Bahamas • Native inhabitants were the Taino, Arawak, and Carib • Future expeditions began colonization of West Indies

21. European Encounters,2 • Hernan Cortes and the Aztecs • Pizarro and the Incas • Desoto explored much of southeastern US • Spanish invasion changed life forever in the Americas • Disease and warfare wiped out virtually all of the Native Americans of Hispanola (300,000) • Conquistadors

22. Demographics • Between 1500 and 1650, ~350,000 Spaniards migrated to Mesoamerica and Western South America • 75% were men who took Indian wives • Mestizos = mixed race population • Elaborate race-based caste system emerged • 3.2 million Spaniards, 5.5 million Mestizos, 1 million African slaves and 7.5 million Native Americans • Surviving Native Americans lost most of their cultural identity

23. Columbian Exchange • Profoundly impacted Americas, Europe, and Africa • Changed natural environment through new flora, fauna, minerals, and diseases • Native Americans catastrophic population losses • European nations economic profit from precious metals • New class of peoples (mestizos) • And ultimately, African slaves

25. Sources • Kokopelli: firstpeople.us • The Enduring Vision by Boyer, et al • College Board Teacher Resources • http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/images/34.jpg (picture) • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_Culture_National_Historical_Park (picture) • http://www.nps.gov/meve/planyourvisit/visitcliffdwelling.htm (picture) • The American Vision by Appleby, et al (picture)