1.6 How Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans shaped each other

As contact between the Europeans and the various indigenous peoples of the Americas increased, they asserted divergent worldviews

Worldview: a peoples constellation of cultural experiences- their history, belief system, language, etc- that dictates how that people make sense out of the worlds people and events

Differing Worldviews

Europeans

Land use- Land could be owned by individuals

Religion-

• ChristianityComplex set of doctrines

• Belief in a single god

Gender role- Patriarchial

Family strucuture- Nuclear Family

Indigenous People

Land Use

• Land Contained a spirtual quality

• Belonged to all people

Religion

• Belief in multiple gods and spirits

• No seperation in spirtual and material world

Gender Role

• More egoliterian

• Sometimes even materarchial

Family Structure

• Lived together in extended families

In some cases, europeans and native americans adopted some useful aspects of each others culture

Cultural Adoption

• Indigenous people converted to christianity

  • Largely due to the Spanish effort to establish Christian missions in southwest NA

  • Polytheistic

• Indigenous people adopted Christianity

  • Syncretism: Adopted to own world view

• Europeans adopted aspects of indigenous culture

  • English settlers learned local agriculture techniques

  • French settlers intermarried with indigenous women to benefit fur trade relations

Out of this encounter with Christianity and the Indigenous belief systems, a blending occured in which the indigenous people developed a form of Christianity that reflected their own world view

Resistance

• Diplomacy

  • Native Americans defended themselves from Europeans by allying with them against other native groups

• Violence through military resistance

  • Taino Rebellion

    • Native People of modern day puetro rico rebelled against the spanish

    • Superior weapons of the spanish allowed them to supress the rebellion

Racial Debates

• Bartolome de la casas

  • Was previously a conquistador, he owned land and slaves

  • Argued indingious people were fully human

    • Should not be subect to inhumaine encomienda system

  • Still had paternalistic view of indigenous peoples

• Juan Gines de Sepulveda    

  • Argued indigenous peoples were less than human   

    • Subjugation and brutality helped transform them into fully human