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Understanding of Amerindians

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Submitted By docz83
Words 929
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Martin Feichtenschlager
FORL 2150
08.06.2003

Question #1: Understanding of Amerindian/Native Americans

October 11th (12th), 1492, the coast was rather quite, except for a moderate wind. The breeze was pushing the waves evermore further on the beach, slowly but surely reaching the foot of a dark-skinned native who was keeping watch along the shore. It was after midnight, as the Indians started crying out that they had seen large objects floating towards them. Soon smaller vessels with people, people not yet seen before, their skin so pale and their hair streaming with gold and some brown, was moving towards the shore. Aboard was a man, quite of stature, blond hair (wearing a hat) and a distinct nose, jumped out of the boat with two soldiers and walked towards the indigenous people. This was the first recorded meeting of the Europeans (Christopher Columbus) and the Indians of South America, the first of their kind called the Arawaks. This marked the opening of a New World and new opportunities for the Europeans, but not the Indians, for them it was mainly a disaster as was mentioned in the book Born in Blood and Fire, written by John Charles Chasteen, “Neither the Europeans’ “Old World” nor the “New World,” as they called the Americas would ever be the same afterward.” (Chasteen, pg. 29) They had somehow managed to live peacefully and resourcefully before the white man came. Life in Central and South America was socially and religiously quite simple compared to the European civilizations. Basically people were divided into three groups, the non-sedentary, semi-sedentary, and the fully sedentary. The non-sedentary people were ones who lived in areas that were really difficult to adapt to, such as the desert areas in Mexico. They usually lived in small groups and were mainly hunters and gatherers. They would constantly move to new grounds to hunt. Social and religious organizations were very simple or rather primitive. The Pampas were non-sedentary and they inhabited the Argentinean grasslands. The second, semi-sedentary groups were people that inhabited the forests. They, unlike the non-sedentary people were able to depend somewhat on agriculture; this was mainly due to the fertile grounds and heavy rainfalls. 6These groups had practiced “shifting cultivation,” as mentioned by Chasteen. “Semi-sedentary people built villages but moved them frequently, allowing old garden plots to be reabsorbed into the forest and opening new ones elsewhere.” (Chasteen, pg. 31) Semi-sedentary religion was also quite simple. Gender roles and different tribes organized societies, though social classes were not taken into view. Finally, to the main point of our discussion, the fully sedentary class was made up of the three civilizations we know as the Mayans, Aztecs and the Incas. Their trademark was usually seen as the permanent settlements they had, which is usually the feature of the fully sedentary class. The Mayans center of civilization was in the Yucatan Peninsula, Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas in western South America. Settlements such as these were often found on plateaus. Mainly these three civilizations built enormous empires. This was a good reason as a fully sedentary because the grounds they settled on were usually very arable and they could easily rely on permanent agriculture. The people of all three empires were strongly defined by social class. A family line determined nobility and high military positions. Life rather similar to the ancient middle ages in Europe. The pattern of life was mainly based on a pyramid of class. At the top of the pyramid are the kings and queens, then come the princes and dukes, under them the lords and different landowners, below them military officials, such as generals and knights, then came the priests and bishops, after them artisans and merchants and lastly came the commoners and then the slaves. The three empires were similarly structured. Slaves and commoners were often used to do the hard labors or even used for rituals, like sacrifices to their gods. (Mainly slaves and captured people or orphans.) Each other role had their jobs to do, as you would expect of them in any highly organized society. As for religion, the people of all three empires were polytheistic, believing in a wide variety of gods. The Mayan gods had human and animal characteristics, both young and old. Many aspects of life had gods and goddesses, such as social gods, agricultural gods, and so on. Although the Aztecs and the Incas also believed in a wide variety of gods, their beliefs were mainly based in their understanding of nature and the time space cycles of the sun, moon and the different constellations. They both found the calendar in which they precisely marked everything to by very holy. Sacrifices were also very important in all three empires, at times almost 200 children would be sacrificed in the same day, for example during the throning of an emperor or during a famine or other natural disaster. Lastly, their patterns of life, social and religious organization were very similar with minor differences.

Bibliography

• Chasteen, John Charles, “Born in Blood and Fire,” W.W. Norton & Company, USA, 2001, pg.29-33.

• Lunenfeld, Marvin, “Discovery, Invasion, Encounter,” D.C. Heath and Company, State University of New York, USA, no date Booklet, pg.6.

• No name, “Maya Religion,” “Aztec Religion,” and “Inca Religion,” Religions and Ethics Department, St. Martins College, UK, no date. Internet-online: http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/latam/maya.html, http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/latam/aztec.html, http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/latam/inca.html

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