Native Americans and the Formation of American Identity: A Historical Perspective, Resúmenes de Historia

¡Descarga Native Americans and the Formation of American Identity: A Historical Perspective y más Resúmenes en PDF de Historia solo en Docsity! 𝙷𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙾𝚁𝚈 𝙾𝙵 𝙴𝙴𝚄𝚄 𝙸𝙼𝙿𝙾𝚁𝚃𝙰𝙽𝚃 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙴𝙿𝚃𝚂 ✎Master narrative: a narrative of freedom, positivism and democracy. This narrative was built for the reason to demonstrate that native americans came first, and then the U.S. was created. But what had constituted it was indeed restricted and just included a small portion of the population and just preserved the figure of the white male from the upper-middle class. ✎American Dream by James Truslow Adams: the american dream is a set of dreams (democracy, rights, upward social mobility, liberty, opportunity, hard word). The idea that the government should protect each person’s opportunity to pursue their idea of happiness. *The american dream is not about having stuff, it is about having opportunity. ✎Utopia /Dystopia: The United States is the economic, social and political utopia towards which other nations ought to aspire. They really want to be a model and they think they (the U.S.) are above other nations. ✎American exceptionalism: it can be defined as the superiority of the EEUU. It is the way the U.S has defined itself. It has three main characteristics: The U.S is a unique place in world history with a mission to transform the world with their values. The U.S itself and its mission give the country a sense of superiority over the nations. A turn away from Europe (.... - -𝟙𝟡𝟞𝟘 ✎America’s exceptionalism / nationalism: This exceptionalism is very linked with nationalism, basically, exceptionalism is thought of the nation as a unified national identity, where gender, class and ethnic differences are downgraded because nation is constructed under that homogeneous fixed identity. ✎Anti-exceptionalism / post-nationalism: Has worked on challenging the unified nation ……. by making all this differences visible, it can be seen a difference between classes, genders and ethnic groups. ✎The melting pot: It is a very important to refer to the U.S. and it reflects the notion of homogeneous nation. All kinds of people, no matter where they come from, are melted / mixed, it doesn’t matter their differences because all of them turn into americans, into the same culture. It was replaced by an image of a salad bowl, where we can see the differences between the ingredients conserving their origin, but they are not melted together, they just coexist together. ✎Construction of the nation: The construction of the nation goes through different processes: Defeat, enslavement and genocidal destruction. Expropriation of land, CFR, nationalism and imperialism Racism at the heart of the process. The nation was constructed as the utopya (other nations ought to aspire toward it) white, homogeneous and pure. Native americans enslaved africans and were constructed as ( ) because only a portion of the slave and immigrants’ body was considered as human beings. The extinction of slavement was a necessary step in the advancement of “Anglosaxon civilisation”. *CFR: coast and freight, is a legal term used in foreign trade contracts. 𝙵𝙸𝚁𝚂𝚃 𝙷𝙰𝙱𝙸𝚃𝙰𝙽𝚃𝚂 There are two theories of how to explain the first habitants in America. 𝔼𝕦𝕣𝕠𝕡𝕖𝕒𝕟 𝕨𝕙𝕚𝕥𝕖 ℕ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕋𝕣𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 ❖ Bible creation / evolution debate ❖ Estimates about human settlement of the Americas (70.000 bp - 12.000 bp) ❖ Entered America through the Bering Strait ❖ Rejection of scientific explanations ❖ Iroquois: cestor fell from the sky ❖ Pueblo Navajo: emerged from under the earth ❖ Algolonian: were transformed from ash trees into people 𝔼𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕤 ❖ Geology ❖ Vegetation ❖ Animal and human remains ❖ Written records ❖ Pictographs (found on the riverside of Grand Canyon) ❖ Calendars on buffalo robes ❖ Traditions: story by mouth 𝙸𝙲𝙴 𝙰𝙶𝙴 Theory says that the first american habitants came from Siberia 20.000 years ago, because by then, the part of the ocean that separates each continent was completely iced so Siberians could cross to Alaska. They were not consciously migrating. Once they arrived, they created different groups which developed different traditions. They were not exploiting the natural resources but they respect those resources that nature gave them as important things of life. 𝙳𝙴𝚅𝙴𝙻𝙾𝙿𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃 They developed into very sophisticated areas. Native americans development was: 𝟙Built irrigation systems ➔ ➔ ➔ 𝟚 Cultivated new crops ➔ ➔ ➔ 𝟛 Built communities based on corn and beans ➔ ➔ ➔ 𝟜 Establish trade networks (commerce were very common around different areas) ➔ ➔ ➔ 𝟝 Created rich cultural forms. About 4 to 6 million people live in America which made that more than 60 language families were spoken. There were polytheystic religions. Different social and political structures were created and some of them highly sophisticated. They built cities, roads, irrigation systems and extensive trade networks. 𝙰𝙽 𝙴𝙲𝙾𝙻𝙾𝙶𝙸𝙲𝙰𝙻 𝚂𝙴𝙽𝚂𝙴 Adapting to immediate surroundings, most of the groups were living in hard conditions, so they tried to get anything to survive to that clime. Even they created special dancing to attract the rain. : 𝙲𝙾𝚁𝙽 It was an important element because it is an essential food and source of feeding. As a symbol it was a sacred gift from their Gods, due to the fact that its unique development is in America and it needs attentive care as it cannot grow wild. They had complex irrigation systems because the cereal needs water. It can’t leave more than 20-30 days without water. There is no evidence of its cultivation prior to post-Columbus. Colonialist Europeans were impressed by their reach and capacity of grain production. Their diet of corn, beans and squash made a complete protein. Before the colonial population was sustained by a relatively disease-free environment where diseases and health problems were treated with herbal medicine and hygienic ritual baths. Most of them had vegetarian diets supplemented with fish or other animals. 𝙾𝚁𝙰𝙻 𝚃𝚁𝙰𝙳𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 : 𝙾𝚁𝙰𝙻 𝙻𝙸𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙰𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙴 It’s true that for many other societies, oral tradition was essential. But there are some other sources of native that started to show written literature like petroglyphs or newspaper rocks, which were the first instances of native american literatures which predates the arrival of Europeans in the americas. : 𝙱𝙴𝙻𝙸𝙴𝙵𝚂 Words may have an impact on the physical world, the spoken word can bring a physical change (magical) so there are things that should not be spoken. (sacred nature of language). : 𝙳𝙸𝙵𝙵𝙴𝚁𝙴𝙽𝚃 𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝚂 𝙾𝙵 𝙾𝚁𝙰𝙻 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙳𝚄𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 Spell (a set of descriptions), prayer (not in the cristian sense, but as a request), song (description). What these forms have in common is that they are brief, and there are specific patterns, repetitions and formulas. Mnemonic devices are devices that help people to remember. They are key because these are all story forms that are meant to be remembered, especially stories that are passed down generation by generation. : 𝚂𝚃𝙾𝚁𝙸𝙴𝚂 Stories are passed down to generations. Hence its relevance, it’s a cultural background of communities. There is no notion of authorship. Stories are made to refer to natural phenomena, origin of humans, customs and religions, or events beyond people’s traumatisms that have to do with colonisers. But the objective is to share and teach the values and ideas of a culture and to create coherence in a tribe’s life, values and symbols. : 𝙲𝚁𝙴𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 𝙾𝙵 𝚂𝚃𝙾𝚁𝙸𝙴𝚂 Stories have to do with nation, like legends of the creation of the world, myths of human creation, or the origin of the tribe and their culture. They are also known as emerging stories, because sometimes the world emerges. It is important to remember that stories have been historically dynamic, so the words change from generation to generation. In the late XIX those stories started to be transcribed and to be written down by white people who were interested in conserving native’s stories. ( )𝙻𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙺𝙴𝚈 𝙸𝚂𝚂𝚄𝙴 Land continues to be a major source of contentions. For natives, land was never a possession. :𝔼𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕪 𝕧𝕠𝕚𝕔𝕖𝕤 the way they justified their conquer of taking away the natives land: : 𝚂𝙿𝙰𝙽𝙸𝚂𝙷 They claim that they have the right to conquer it, and they have the authority of the papa. The church plays a huge role in the conquest. , : 𝙴𝙽𝙶𝙻𝙸𝚂𝙷 𝙳𝚄𝙲𝚃𝙷 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙵𝚁𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙷 They elaborated very sophisticated legal arguments, like the notion of “vacant land”. It came down arguing according to this DISTINCTIVE ENGLISH PATTERN The english colony follows a specific distinctive pattern of colonization which was quite different from Spain and France. England did not have gold or money (they were in a very critical situation) to invest in colonization, so they followed this pattern 1 A trading company (noblemen + merchants) People with money invest in the international trade (private companies) 2 A royal charter with a geographical area of operations. Establishing a company could stand in the new world in a specific area for them. 3 Monopoly for a company. The company will be given a monopoly and only this company could make the profits of this area. REASONS FOR MIGRATION ➔Surplus population in Europe (America becomes a refuge) ➔Primogeniture laws in Europe ➔Searching for freedom (worship) it was a very important reason due to religious freedom. ➔Increasing rates of poverty: half of the population lived at or below the poverty line so America will become the place where is possible to escape from that social inequalities. SELF-GOVERNMENT They did not have a strong presence or monarchy. In the case of Virginia, there was a progressive transformation into a royal colony. Most of the colonies by the mid 18th century were royal colonies, so they were directly ruled by the monarchy and for instance governors appointed by the crown. VIRGINA (JAMESTOWN) It was the first permanent colony. In 1607 three small ships arrived there ➔Exploration in Chesapeake bay, Virginia and Maryland ➔Establish a settlement in Jamestown which was fortified ➔”The virgin queen” to honor (misogyny) queen Elisabeth I who was virgin SPONSORS ➔Crown hard-pressed for founds ➔The Virginia company was a private business with shareholders (merchants, aristocrats, members of Parliament). ➔The first group of colonizers went to that area were all men that had to do with the aim of the colony whose interest was not in establishing a functional society, but just a trading post. THE BEGINNING OF THE COLONY WAS… ➔Not promising ➔The leader was constantly changing ➔High death rate ➔Expected riches like those found by Spain PROBLEMS One of the biggest problems was mosquitoes, which were carrying malaria around the swamp of the river. That happened during the summer, but in winter came different diseases and people were running short of provisions. Consequently, by the end of 1607, the population was the half they were initially. JOHN SMITH He was a soldier and a leader. He worked for the company and he made the colony work and survive. He had a strict discipline “lion rule” and he helped Pownatans, the land of pocahontas, bringing corn and tobacco with the colonies. Smith played a great role in the survival of the colony contributing to the promotion of migration, because more people was equivalent to more probability of surviving. So, the key concept of these promotions was the fact that 50 acres of land was awarded to any colonist who paid for his own on other’s passage. TOBACCO In 1616, John Rolfe and a sense of planters learned how to raise tobacco. He blend a new lear of tobacco which became very popular in Europe, where smoking was already popular. Tobacco was long cultivated in the west Indies. Initially, King James I denounced smoking as a custom hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain and dangerous to the lungs. He was not really happy about it, but eventually he accepted it because the crown derives large grain from taxing tobacco imports since it was a product whose consumers will pay high prices to satisfy their craving, so that makes loads of money. In that way, tobacco became the main economic investment and the main source of money in Virginia (1638), because thanks to the long, hot and humid growing season, crop thrives in Virginia and not in England. EFFECTS The fact that tobacco became the main economic source has major consequences: Land It has to be extended because tobacco needs large extensions of land and this led into wars with native americans. Labor Initially, the supply of labor come from servants from england that accepted working 5 years and after that period they would be released freedom dues (land+clothes) Slavers As a consequence of the crop growing, they tried to make native slaves but it did not work, so instead they took slaves from Africa. In the case of virginia, colonists forced a treaty of Native Americans, this treaty establish that: ➔Subordinated to the colony ➔Required to move westwards ➔Not allowed to enter areas of European settlement ➔Progressive expansion of European settlements PLYMOUTH AND MASSACHUSETTS These were the two colonies established by puritans in New England, the first one was plymouth in 1620 and then in 1630, Massachusetts which absorbed Plymouth in 1691 and were unified, so the first one disappeared from the map. MIGRATION 162 The May flowers - The Pilgrim fathers That group of colonizers that arrived in America had settled in Plymouth. There is a historical controversy over the destination, because this were not where they planned to go and they already granted permission to settle in Virginia from the London Company. People abroad that ship were colonizers that could pay their own way across the Athlantic, most of them were small property holders (shopkeepers, artisans, farmers, etc). According to Loewen 37/102 passengers were puritans. THE 18TH CENTURY SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES The official date in which started the slavery was the 1619 in Virginia, then the slavery was extended to the rest of the colony and keep growing, so by the late of the 17th century there was a consolidation of the system. On the 4th of July of 1776, the declaration of independence was signed. In 1803, the international slave trade was outlawed and consequently in 1865 the slavery in United States was abolished. THE STRUCTURAL DIMENSION Privilege, the American Dream, the construction of the master narrative, and the construction of the nation and processes and facts will keep processing by the 18th century, but there is a new dimension that needs to be added, which is racism and as a consequence of this, slavery started to be supported by laws, courts, religion and the education system. There appears progressively, notions of racial differences where civilisation was equal to christianity. Human beings can be properly classificated by skin colour. WHY AFRICAN SLAVERY There was initially a tried out in slaving the native americans and poor european immigrants, but it didn’t work because of a series of problems with natives: ➔highly susceptible to diseases ➔natives outnumbered the colonists ➔well acquainted with the territory So, they preferred africans because there was a large number. Moreover, they could physically stand hard working conditions in hot climates and were resistant to diseases like Malaria and Yellow fever. Another advantage was their black color which had a high visibility. Slavery was for life, if a child was born in slavery then he belongs to a master. HOW WERE THE SLAVES TAKEN TO THE AMERICAN COLONIES Through the middle passage, where africans in particular people already vulnerable (captured in war, guilty of some crime or kidnapped) participated in this trade. The middle passage took 2 months long, but slaves were initially captured to a barracoon where possibly up to 4 months while waiting for a slaver ship. Ships were going from barraccoon to barracoon until full cargo and then the passage started. People already died in the passage to the ship and more into the ship due to the fact that conditions were awful. Furthermore, they were all naked because in that way they could make sure that there weren’t weaponry on board and also it had a psychological impact stripping slaves from their dignity. Also, the space on the ship between them was so poor because they ensured that a high number of slaves reached america. VULNERABILITY OF WOMEN Their experience were specially hard, they suffered from sexual violence, they were raped on the ship by the crew and the captain, but also on the colony because they were slavery as a gendered experience. If they were pregnant, they had to work hard anyway. There were mutinies like the “Amistad” which some of them were successful and some not, but most of them were lots at the sea and did not know how to redirect the vessel. IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES There were different power dynamics to keep this privilege. So, those in power and with privilege (men, white, male planters and rulers) find ways to protect their interests as mechanisms of control / restriction and the use of term race, a construction of difference that separates whites from the rest. SLAVERY American colonies Africa ● Racial hatred: something that developed in time ● Policing of the system ● Lifelong ● Morally devastating ● Plantation-based ● Sharp distinction (freedom vs. non- freedom) ● Serfs: due to the crucial system, a class issue ● Absence of racial components SLAVERY IN THE SOUTHER COLONIES There were a large number of slaves and it existed as a pyramidal classification. ____________ ____________Large planters____________ ____________Numerous lesser planters____________ ____________________Tenant farmers____________________ ____________________Convicts, indentured servant________________ _____________________________Slaves______________________________ SLAVERY IN THE NORTH In the north, slavery also existed, not as much as in the south, but it existed. A small percentage of these colonies' populations were slaves and normally they worked in farms, artisan shops, loading and unloading ships, and personal servants. Slavery was not completely marginal. LIFE IN THE PLANTATIONS ➔Progressive increase in numbers (1619-1825). It was due to the arrival of the first slaves in 1619 to virginia. Slavery was officially abolished in 1685. ➔Progressive consolidation of a discourse about racial difference and discrimination. ➔Physically demanding. ➔Intricate system of control as more and more slaves populate the colonies. ➔A way to control slaves was not that physically and psychological system that makes them feel they were slaves and own to somebody, not to themselves. A constant reminder of their inferiority. ➔The “mentality of the slave”. Make feel they are a possession without nights and degrading them. ➔Devastating effects of a communal life, rituals… ➔Vigilance of a superior: Process of about 3 years in which a slave was trained. ➔Disunity: different groups of slaves from different areas and different languages. ➔Hierarchy: different status: field slaves + privileged slaves. ➔Sexual abuse. ➔Break up families. ➔Acts of resistance: killing of masters. 18th - 19th CENTURY