History 307 – History of Latin America – August 29, 2003

AMERICA BEFORE THE EUROPEANS

  

1. First review: go back through the Keen documents.  Review your list of “things learned” about Native American societies thusfar. 

 

2. Now make a second list, covering the last four documents (8-11);  what does each tell us about Native American societies?

 

3. The Europeans would have a very difficult time understanding the Native Americans, and they would have a hard time understanding the Europeans.  The Europeans would typically swing back and forth between two radically different visions of Native Americans. 

On the one hand, some Europeans found very little to admire in Native Americans societies.  To these Europeans, the Native peoples were simply as savages, that is, persons profoundly primitive and brutal.  Sometimes this took on a deeply racist tone, and some Europeans even questioned whether Native peoples were even human.

 

The reaction to this was to view the Native peoples as noble savages, that is, as persons “innocent,” “in-tune-with-Nature,” “brave and good,” etc.  Far from being inferior to Europeans, these “noble savages” were superior to Europeans.

 

            Based on Keen’s documents, how would you describe Native American societies? 

 

4. Native peoples lived in North, Central, and South America.  Think for a moment about the US and Canadian experience, and compare and contrast it to the Central and South American experience.  In each case, Native peoples encountered Europeans in the 1500s.  So how are these various experiences alike?  Different?

 

 

 

 

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