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Native Cultures Outline

Native Cultures Outline. Lecture I. Elements of Culture. The Cultural Ecological Paradigm “Culture is Man’s extrasomatic means of adaptation” – White 1951 Culture is shared, learned, & integrated Culture is influenced by environment. Subsistence Strategies. Hunting and Gathering (Foraging)

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Native Cultures Outline

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  1. Native Cultures Outline Lecture I

  2. Elements of Culture • The Cultural Ecological Paradigm • “Culture is Man’s extrasomatic means of adaptation” – White 1951 • Culture is shared, learned, & integrated • Culture is influenced by environment

  3. Subsistence Strategies • Hunting and Gathering (Foraging) • Relies on natural plants and animals in environment • Small group size (20-50) • Low population density (1/50 sq miles to 5/1 sq mile) • Politically simple • Bands or tribes, almost always egalitarian • High mobility, usually seasonal • Housing tipis, wigwams, wickiups • Low amounts of wealth • Baskets, bladders, skins (parfleches) • Lack of food storage • May be technologically simple or surprisingly complex

  4. Subsistence Strategies • Pastoralism • Relies on domesticated animals and sometimes crops • Medium group size (up to several hundred) • Low to medium population density • Politically more complex • Tribes or Chiefdoms, but generally egalitarian • High mobility, often seasonal • Housing like yurts or tipis, but can be semi-permanent • Higher amounts of wealth due to draft animals • Products from animal parts common • Lack of food storage “on the hoof” • May be technologically simple or surprisingly complex) • Not seen in North America • Ducks, Turkeys, Dogs, Cavies, Llamas only domesticates

  5. Subsistence Strategies • Horticulture • Relies on simple cultigens, usually local in origin • Medium group size (several hundred people) • Medium to high population density (50/1sq mile & up) • Politically and socially complex • Tribes and Chiefdoms, but generally egalitarian • High kin importance • Sedentary • Housing Longhouses, Pueblos, Daub and Wattle • Higher amounts of wealth and status goods • Pottery, farming and processing tools • Pottery, baskets, or boxes for food storage • Often technologically complex in arts and subsistence items

  6. Subsistence Strategies • Agriculture • Relies on more developed, often imported, cultigens • High group size (hundreds to thousands of people) • High population density (500/1sq mile & up) • Politically and socially complex • Chiefdoms and States, always stratified • High kin importance and non-kin rulership • Sedentary • Housing Longhouses, Pueblos, Daub and Wattle, Earth Lodges • Higher amounts of wealth and status goods • Pottery, farming and processing tools • Pottery, baskets, or boxes for food storage • Often technologically complex in arts and subsistence items • Monumental Architecture, Sciences, Writing, Public Works

  7. Religious Beliefs • What is Religion? • A set of rituals, rationalized by myth, that mobilizes supernatural powers • Ritual – Patterns of behavior and timing with religious purpose • Myth – Sacred narrative with supernatural actors Occurred long ago Tells how things came to be

  8. More on Religion • Functionalist Explanations • Psychological • Social • Cognitive • Types of Religious Belief • Animism (supernatural spirits) • Animatism (Impersonal force) • Magic (pseudoscience) • Witchcraft (accidental? influence of Force)

  9. Religious Practitioners • Shamans • Priests • Medicine Men • Sorcerers

  10. Religious Rituals • Rites of Passage • Puberty Ceremonies • Vision Quests • Rites of Intensification • Funerals • Weddings • Revitalization Movements • Ghost Dance and Wovoka • Longhouse Religion and Handsome Lake

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