European and Native American Cultures - Assignment Example

Differences and Similarities between European and Native American Cultures al Affiliation Differences and Similarities between European and Native American Cultures The outflow of Europeans in great numbers from different parts of the continent (mainly from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France and England) to Central, South and North America led to the contact of two civilizations with different social dynamics and system of beliefs. The harmonious coexistence between two strikingly different cultures of Native American Indians and European colonists was out of question. The meeting of Native American and European civilizations was doomed to cause misunderstandings and conflicts, since each of the party relied on their way of living as the only possible way to effectively organize well-balanced relationships within a society. In this essay I will identify similarities and differences between European colonists and indigenous Native American ethnic groups and analyze how the most significant differences between European and Native American cultures made the conflict of two civilizations inevitable. Before the first Europeans settlers stepped on the American land, it was inhabited with more than 500 Native American tribes speaking more than 300 languages.1 In fact, Native Americans had lived in South, Central and North Americas for thousands of years already; they had their own culture, system of religious beliefs and effective societal organization. Some indigenous tribes were sedentary, while others were nomads. Many Native American ethnic groups, like Hurons and Iroquois for instance, were engaged in rivalry between each other, which made them quite similar to European colonialists that came from different competing countries. However, there were more differences between Native Americans and European newcomers than similarities. There is no doubt that European colonialists represented a much more advanced civilization. The technologies they brought to America with them impressed indigenous tribes a lot as the latter had never seen anything like that before (for instance, weaponry, ships, household goods etc.). Europeans had showed Native American Indians how to handle horses, use cattle, taught how to operate firearms and a lot more. On the other hand, Europeans were impressed and surprised by the way Native American societies were organized because it was strikingly different from what the newcomers used to see back in Europe. The societies were bound by kingship and extended family ties. The societal organization of most of Native American tribes was matrilineal. Women owned the property and did agricultural work, while men were in charge of hunting and defense of their villages that were a collection of extended families or clans. Not only the gender roles were different, but approaches to farming as well. Most of Native American tribes had no individual ownership for land; chiefs of tribes gave land to clans and families. A great number of Native American tribes preferred to move their villages to another place, once the fertility of soil got depleted. Unfortunately, European colonialist neglected nuances of societal organization of Native American tribes they encountered and did not treat them with due respect, which created conditions for conflicts between the newcomers and indigenous ethnic groups. Although, the initial contact of European colonialists and Native Americans produced intense admixture processes in South, Central and North America, more than 90 per cent of Native American population was killed by Europeans by 1600.2 Thousands of Native Americans died because of diseases brought by colonialists from Europe, which the immune system of indigenous tribes was not unadjusted to. Spaniards and Italians, who came to North America as a part of Columbus expedition in 1492, were allegedly the first Europeans to encounter Native American tribes. The difficulties in communication between newcomers and indigenous Native American tribes upon the arrival of Europeans due to inability to speak any common language led to numerous instances of quid pro quo and created a series of misconceptions that could hardly be removed. Apart from the linguistic barrier there was an evident sign of deep cultural differences between two civilizations, namely indigenous tribes and newcomers from Europe. Europeans came from the world where Christianity was a dominant religion and were unwilling to accept and respect the religious views of Native Americans. Christian newcomers from Europe looked at the system of religious beliefs that various Native American tribes adhered to as paganism or even devil worshipping.3 Despite the existence of a great variety of indigenous ethnic groups on the territory of the East Coast of North America, where the expedition of Columbus first landed, all of the Native Americans shared one thing in common, namely the system of religious beliefs that was based on animistic views. The vast majority of Native Americans believed that everything that one sees and does is related to the spiritual world, while the divide between spiritual and physical worlds in Christianity was well-defined. This view contrasted with the belief that a human being is not a supreme creature in the universe but only one of its many souls, who as valuable for the Creator as animals and plants. Such animistic concept was shared by most of the Native Americans.4 Europeans scoffed at ritual practices and religious myths of Native Americans and revealed their disrespect to animistic system of beliefs by doing things that insulted indigenous tribes. The Ethnocentrism of Europeans, as well as their ignorance and intolerance with regard to the system of religious beliefs of Native Americans, made them assume that indigenous tribes had no religion at all and engendered conditions for confrontation between indigenous ethnic groups and the newcomers from Europe.5 The first attempts of European newcomers to impose Christian worldview upon the Native Americans they encountered met resolute opposition. According to Wunder, the process of destruction of Native American culture started with the first Columbian contacts.6 Later it became a norm for conquerors from Spain to make slaves out of Native Americans or force them to provide Spanish settlers with gold. Those who disobeyed were tortured and killed. There is no wonder that the relationships between Native Americans and Europeans started worsening since the first expedition of Columbus came to the North American continent. As a result of his second voyage to America Columbus brought more than five hundred of Native American slaves and sold them at one of the markets of Spain. These slaves were a symbol of the clash of European and Native American civilizations, which was impossible to avert from the very beginning. The behavior of Europeans in the so called New World and their treatment of indigenous tribes were based on the sense of superiority of European culture over that of Native Americans. During the colonization of North and South Americas by Spanish conquistadors and later settlers from the Netherlands, British Isles and France thousands of Native Americans were killed relentlessly. On the other hand, it must be noted the process of admixture between Europeans and Native Americans was quite intense as well, especially in South and Central America where Native Americans had sophisticated societal organization and were treated by European colonialists with more respect as compared to indigenous tribes of North America that were less advanced. References Hakim, J. (2005). The first Americans: Prehistory - 1600 (3d ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Luebering, J. E. (ed.) (2011). Native American history. New York: Britannica Educational Publishing. Purvis, T. L. (1999). Colonial America to 1763. New York: Facts on File. Verdu, P., Pemberton, T., Laurent, R., Kemp, B., Gonzalez-Oliver, A., Gorodezky, C., ... Hughes, C. (2014). Patterns of admixture and population structure in native populations of Northwest North America. PLoS Genetics, 10 (8), 1-17. Wunder, J. R. (1996). Native Americans and the law: Contemporary and historical perspectives on American Indian rights, freedoms, and sovereignty. New York: Garland Publishing. Read More