PEOPLING OF THE AMERICAS

Pre-European contact and cultural Exchange

Focus Questions

• What are several theories of where the indigenous peoples of America’s originated and what questions does the evidence raise?

• What Civilizations existed prior to European Contact and how have they contributed to American economy, diet and culture?

Identification & Study Guide

• Bering Strait• Clovis First• Monte Verde• Pleistocene man• Pre Columbian

contact• Olmec• Hohokam• Mogollon

• Anasazi• Mississippian• Aztec• Pope revolt• Apalachee• Transoceanic Contact

Bering Strait Theory

• small group of big game hunters in Siberia followed the Pleistocene mega fauna—mammoth, mastodon, and extinct bison

• land bridge that formed during the last Ice Age known as Beringia

• 12,000 – 20,000 years ago

Clovis

• 11,500-year-old fluted projectile points found in Clovis, New Mexico.

• "Clovis" culture.

Monte Verde, Chile

• Monte Verde – Southern Chile– Pre-dates Clovis by 1,000

years

• How did people reach South America with no traces in between?– Suggests alternate theory

Pleistocene Man – San Diego

• Yuha Pinto Wash

• Dated 50,000 years old

• Pre-dates Clovis & Beringia theory

Yuha Pinto Wash

overlying sediments are dated at more than 50,000 years old

Pre-Columbian Trans-Oceanic Contact

• 50,000 years ago people migrated by boat to Australia

• DNA retrieved from a 10,000-year-old fossilized tooth from an Alaskan island, with specific coastal

• Tierra del Fuego• Ecuador• Mexico• California

– lends substantial credence to a migration theory that at least one set of early peoples moved south along the west coast of the Americas in boats.

Rainbow Bridge Theory

• Luzia Skeleton, Lagoa Santa, Brazil– Austro-Malaysian & African origin not Siberian– Pleistocene (8,400 years old)

• Columbian River– Oral Tradition

• Nazca, Peru – Hawaiian contact– 1,000 years before Columbus

• Chumash – Hawaiian Contact– Pre-European contact– 500-700AD (2,500 years old+-)– Polynesian Sweet potatoes – origin S. America– Tomolo’o Carbon date 600 AD Technology Transfer– Oral Tradition

Muslim/African voyages

• Olmec Heads in Meso-America• 1178 – Chinese Sung Document records

voyages of Muslims sailors• 1310 Abu Bakari, Muslim King of Malian empire

– voyages to Americas• 1312 Mandiga – Gulf of Mexico to Mississippi

River• 1513 Pri Ries completes first world map includes

America• 1530 10 million slaves to Americas/30% Muslim

Olmec Civilization

1500 BCE – 100 BCE

Cocaine Mummies

• 21st Dynasty of the Pharaoh’s 3,000 years ago– Henet Tui – Lady of 2 Lands

– Dr. Svetla Balabanova, Toxicologist, Munich, Germany• 1992 remains included cocaine & nicotine

• 1/3 of other 134 other mummies 3700 BC -1100AD

– Additional Testing, Sample of 3,000 remains• 89% positive Egypt

• 90% positive Sudan

• 62.5% Positive China

• 34% positive Germany

• 100% positive Austria

China 1421

• Chinese reached America 71 years before Columbus?

• Chinese Admiral Zheng He– 30 year command of Ming Fleet

Civilizations of the Americas

• Some Civilizations of the Americas– Northwestern– Southwestern

• Anasazi, Mogollon, Hohokam, Sinagua, Salado– South East and Mid west

• Mississippian and Mound building civilizations– Meso- America T

• Toltec, Olmec, Mayan & Aztec– South America –

• Wari, Mochi, Paracas, Nazca, Inca

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South West Civilizations

• Hohokam

• Mogollon

• “Anasazi” or ancient puebloan peoples

• Sinagua

• Salado

Hohokam• First Southwestern Culture to Irrigate

crops– >300 miles of Hohokam canals in the Salt

River valley alone• Corn, beans, barley, cotton, tobacco, squash,

agave

• Southern and Central Arizona– Pit houses in earlier periods– Walled villages with multi story above ground

adobe buildings

Hohokam 300 BCE- 1200 CEHohokam 300 BCE- 1200 CE

Hohokam Invented the Hohokam Invented the first etching processfirst etching process

Mogollon

• Descendants of earlier Cochise culture (6000 BCE)

• Mogollon Culture 300 -200 BCE– “Hunter Gatherer” & some agriculture– Deer, bison, pronghorn, rabbit, turkey,

mountain sheep– Beans, squash, corn– Walnuts, cactus, acorns, pinon, agave,

mustard, sunflower, wild tomato

Mogollon

• Small villages

• Pithouse construction

• Later surface pueblo using stone masonry construction, 4 – 5 rooms to 500 rooms such as the Grasshopper pueblo in the white mountains of AZ.

• Last pueblo occupied until about 1400 CE near Springville, AZ.

Anasazi Anasazi • Colorado Plateau• 1CE• Corn, squash,

beans• Agave, walnuts,

pinon, acorns, yucca, prickly pear, Indian rice grass, wild potatoes

Mesa VerdeMesa Verde

• Elk, deer, pronghorn,

• Mt sheep, rabbit, turkey, birds, fish

PUEBLO BONITA, NM PUEBLO BONITA, NM

• A.D. 1030 and 1079

• Constructed the first Apartment Bldg until New York in 1882

Mississippian CultureMississippian Culture

• Hopewell 100 BCE – 600 CE

• Mississippians descendents

• Urban & Agricultural centers– Same population

as London did in 1200

Cahokia Creek near Collinsville, Illinois, At its height, around A.D. 1200

North Eastern Woodlands• Indian democratic tradition

• Suffrage for women

• Chief or leaders were servants of the people

• Diversity respected

• First government to recognize the existence of a state within a state

• First governing body: League of 5 nations or the Iroquois before 1600

– Oral constitution

– 50 representatives on a council

– Onandaga, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Mohawk, and 100 years later the Tuscarora

– Clan mother selected chiefs

– Women owned crops, houses and had voting rights

– Smaller yet the dominant nation in the region

Agricultural Influence Today

• 40 plants domesticated that make a significant portion of agriculture today

• 42% by weight: corn, potato, peanuts

• 48% of the money generated from the sale of agricultural products

The Peoples California

Terms from Lecture

• The sacred

• Clowns

• Status of old aged

• Death’s place

• Interdependence

• Bird Songs

• Hygiene

Who are “Indians”?

• The People

• First Nations

• Rich Diversity of cultural expressions and languages

• Some beliefs & life ways held in common among most

Belief systems & Life ways

• Shared Concepts– The sacred as a practical system of knowledge– Respect– 7 shared concepts of the sacred way– Status of old age– History and knowledge transmission– Death’s place in the cycle/concept of the circle– Hygiene/epidemiological– Subsistence– Identity

The Sacred

Explanation of sources of life and ways of knowledge

Concept used to explain ways of

life, beliefs, traditions & observances

Practical System of Knowledge

Western views/ indoctrinated religionsAttempt to dominate and control unknownTo overcome human frailty & weakness

Has begun to destroy equilibrium among people and ecosystems

The SacredLimits amount of explainingGuides behavior toward natural laws

If you seek to leave nothing unexplored, you will bring disaster – Trying to be like gods rather than humans

Seeking Life

o Acknowledged the sacred and maintaining a constant relationship between sacred and oneselfo Cooperation, sharing and taking no more than

needed, giving thanks, equilibrium

o Capitalism o “making a living” o Competitiono Without balance, without sacred acknowledged

Respect

For those who protect the sacred ways and help them growSpiritual life – most important expression

of humanity vs. material wealthSacred never indoctrinated, sectarian or

evangelicalSimple way of seeking life – Respects all

other’s expressions and life waysIndividually and communally

Shared concept ofThe Sacred Way

1. The Great Mystery2. Interdependence3. Commitment to the sources of life4. Morals & Ethics5. Sacred Practitioners6. Humor is integral to the sacred ways7. Status of Old Age8. Learning/history & knowledge

Transmission9. Death’s Place in Life cycle – concept of the

Circle

The Great Mystery

A belief in or knowledge of unseen powers or what some people call the Great Mystery or Great SpiritDeities or spirits A “Feeling” that something exists that is

sacred & mysterious Unseen powers

Pit River People of N. CaliforniaA continuous “religious” or sacred experience

Interdependence of Life Life depends on understanding and respecting

all life and equilibrium that is struck between relationships of all things If you destroy or alter one relationship, all others will

be affected and ultimately destroyed alsoNatural resources are not infinite

Modoc People of N. California

Dominate western ideologyMan’s control of natural worldProgress = exploitation of natural resources

indefinitely w/ help of science and technologyAll mysteries, uncertainties, and unknowns can

ultimately be Conquered and Explained

Worship: personal commitment to sources of Life

o Reinforced the bond between the individual, community and Great Powerso Seeking life

o community mattero intensely personal one

o Ritual & prayer – to better understand the forces of order, disorder, growth and change

Forms of Worship

• Rituals: to revitalize and put in order the elements in a tribes cosmology– Important times of the year

• Summer & winter Equinox/Spring & fall solstice: Make people conscious of economic and social responsibilities connected with planting, harvesting and distributing food

– Significant changes• Birth, naming, renaming, puberty, tattoo:

Awareness of contribution to the life of the people

Forms of Worship

• Prayer : directed toward something, the force of individuals will (or groups)

• Song: composed for dances, healing, hunting ,honoring, cradle songs– When sung with an objective in mind, they are

powerful– Magic words, shadow words

Morals & Ethics

Morals set the limits and boundaries of personal behavior

Ethics teach social behaviorBehavior – necessary for survivalResponsibility for self and communityAccountability for one’s actions and to community

Instruction vs. Sin/HellFigures taught to instruct or coerce children into

behaving certain waysClowns – unselfishness, awareness, patience, cleanliness

Sacred Practitioners

Responsible for passing sacred knowledge from generation to generationOften gifts are hereditaryA person may show inclinations at any time in

lifeDifferent titles in different communitiesHeal through prayer, faith, medicinal

knowledge of plants and minerals

Humor

• Necessary part of the sacred

• Humans are weak, not gods, weaknesses lead to foolish acts

• Too much power & seriousness leads to imbalance

• Cannot take ourselves too seriously

• Clowns needed to show us how we act and why

Status of Old Aged

Status of honor and respect Lived long, favored

PrivilegesAsked for names and blessingsGive adviceLectureCounsel Right to make opinions known

Instruction vs. Command & Corporal punishment

Knowledge Transmission

• Methods of learning– Initiations, survival training, listening, waiting,

remembering

• Modes of Learning– Stories, legends & Myths

• Methods of recording & passing knowledge– Oral histories, Rock paintings and

picto/petrographs, Basketry, other art forms

Origin Stories

What is transmitted: Where the people came fromHow stars were created and light became divided by

darknessDiscovery of fireOrigination of deathBasic survival tools

“coding” abstract notions of behavior, cosmology, ways of seeking knowledge

Discover meaning of things or ideas on your own, not indoctrinated or imposed

Death’s place

• Philosophy of life: never ending path or road – circular thinking– Conveys eternal return– Death in some way returns to the beginning of

life– You know all when you are born and slowly

forget– Not to be feared, another transition in life

• Death ceremonies

Hygiene

• Cleanliness synonymous with good health and living– Daily bathing and sweating– Knowledge of soap roots and purifying plants– Population controlled – understood limits of the

land – Medical people successful and Respected

• 18th century Europe– Suffered disease as result of poor hygiene– Overcrowding and malnutrition– Medical doctors unsuccessful and detested by

population

Subsistence

• Acorns/Pinon/Mesquite Beans: Major Staples of first nations Diet

• Oak/pine/Mesquite Trees

• Can be Made into Flour or Meal by Pulverizing after Leaching (acorn) or Washing

• Stored for Winter or Later Use

Subsistence

• Winter house/Summer house• Managed the landscape• Intimate knowledge of all resources and when and

where can be found• Land use songs – Bird/Salt/Deer Songs

– Songs hereditary or gifted– Rights to use land, shared with permission – Resources generally shared and distributed evenly– Absence of malnutrition or starvation

• western concept of ownership – Paper, legal, private ownership

Diversity

• California’s Diverse Landscape and Isolation Has Produced Diverse:

– Groups– Languages– Subsistence Practices– Modes of Dress and Shelter– Expression of Cosmologies