Sunday, May 27, 2012

Be prepared to answer EVERY PART of the question using VERY SPECIFIC references to historical events and circumstances. 1. Discuss the differences between the worldviews of the European settlers and Native Americans. Choose one European group and one specific Indian tribe to illustrate your discussion. Make sure you discuss relationships between people and the natural world as well as the role of women. Use specific historical events and information to illustrate your explanation. (About 200 words)

You can answer this question in a number of ways and use different historical sources. You might want to look at chapter 1 of Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. This chapter describes the interaction between the Arawak tribe in the Bahamas and Columbus's crew from Spain (though Columbus was from Italy). 
In his writings, Columbus noted right away that the Arawaks did not have the same sense of private property as Europeans did. He wrote:

"They. . . brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned."

Zinn notes that the Europeans found the Arawaks' generosity astounding, as it was so dissimilar to what the Europeans practiced. The Europeans were far more interested in making money from commerce and in controlling the Arawaks and their resources.
Zinn also quotes Las Casas, a Spanish priest who observed the interaction between Columbus and the Arawaks. Las Casas wrote of the Arawaks' interaction with the natural world:

They prize bird feathers of various colors, beads made of fishbones, and green and white stones with which they adorn their ears and lips, but they put no value on gold and other precious things. They lack all manner of commerce, neither buying nor selling, and rely exclusively on their natural environment for maintenance.

The Arawaks were able to interact with their environment to get what they needed but did not value hoarding natural resources as the Europeans did.
Las Casas also noted of the women among the Arawaks:

"Marriage laws are nonexistent and men and women alike choose their mates and leave them as they please, without offense, jealousy or anger. They multiply in great abundance; pregnant women work to the last minute and give birth almost painlessly; up the next day, they bathe in the river and are as clean and healthy as before giving birth. If they tire of their men, they give themselves abortions with herbs that force stillbirths, covering their shameful parts with leaves or cotton cloth; although on the whole, Indian men and women look upon total nakedness with as much casualness as we look upon a man's head or at his hands.

Women in the Arawak tribe were treated far more fairly than women in European society at the time. The women's sexual freedom surprised European observers, who were used to women being subject to strict laws about childbirth and marriage and the patriarchal society of Europe.

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