Origins of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
Overview
Origins of Indigenous Peoples of the America
The indigenous peoples of the Americas arrived in the Western Hemisphere during the last Global Ice Age sometime over 12,000 years ago.
Learning Objectives
Discuss the origins of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Clovis Culture: early hunters and gatherers in North America c. 12,000 – 8000 BCE who shared a common culture based on the stone tools that they produced
Simple culture: a culture with a subsistence economy and egalitarian society, that is organized by ties of kinship
Complex culture: a culture that produces a surplus of goods and possesses a hierarchal social stratified society, as well as a formal system of government
Origins of Indigenous Peoples of the America
Our understanding of the settlement of the Western Hemisphere by indigenous Americans has been clouded recently by some spectacular archaeological discoveries. Historians once agreed that the ancestors of indigenous Americans crossed over from Northeast Asia to North America along a land bridge, which once connected the two continents, which is today the Bering Strait. According to this theory, these nomadic hunters and gatherers migrated during the last Ice Age when ocean levels were much lower than today, thereby exposing this land bridge. Moreover, it was maintained that many of these immigrants arrived around 12,000 BC and that these "Paleo-Indians" shared a common culture—which was labeled Clovis Culture—and flourished until approximately 8,000 BCE. The term "Clovis" was coined to describe the types of stone tools and weapons, which were originally found in Clovis, New Mexico and later at many Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) sites across the continental United States.
Recent archaeological discoveries have resulted in the proposal of alternative theories concerning the immigration of Native Americans. For example, excavations at Monte Verde in Chile have shown that a unique culture flourished at this site in South America earlier than the Clovis culture in North America. This discovery indicates that the migration across the Bering Strait land bridge must have begun far earlier than 12,000 BCE. Other recent archaeological discoveries have cast doubt on the notion that this land bridge was the sole route for the entry of immigrants into the Western Hemisphere. In 1996 the discovery of the 9,000-year-old skeletal remains of "Kennewick Man" in Washington state stunned historians because of his "Caucasoid" features—physical traits associated with the peoples of Europe, the Middle East, and Eurasia. Up to this point, Historians were in agreement that indigenous Americans were physically akin to the peoples of East Asia, such as the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. The physical similarities between "Kennewick Man" and peoples in the isles of Polynesia and Japan (the Ainu), who also possess "Caucasoid" features, has fueled speculation that the ancestors of the Native Americans may include people from these parts of Asia who made the voyage across the Pacific.
The Development of Simple and Complex Cultures
Beginning around 7000 BCE and continuing for the next 5000 years, the peoples of the Americas witnessed the development of diverse cultures. Different population groups adapted to particular environments, which played an important role in shaping their respective cultural traits (i.e. language, religious beliefs, social customs, and means of subsistence). Consequently, in the continental US, for example, the culture of the inhabitants of the arid southwest differed from that of those dwelling in the woodlands, east of the Mississippi. This adaptation often involved the use of new technology such as more refined and complex tools and weapons (i.e. the bow), as well as the domestication of plants with the introduction of agriculture.
The attributes of simple cultures apply broadly to many of these different Native American peoples. Historians label cultures worldwide as either simple or complex based on certain criteria concerning their economy, social structure, and political organization. The level of simplicity or complexity varies from culture to culture. A nomadic hunter and gatherer society represents the simplest culture, whereas American society in the 21st century represents the most complex. The majority of cultures that had developed within the continental US and flourished until the arrival of Europeans were more simple than complex.
Simple cultures generally possess a "subsistence economy" with very little economic specialization. In other words, families in such cultures rely mainly on their own resources and skills to acquire and to produce their basic needs, such as food, shelter, and clothing. There are very few specialized occupations since most members of society must devote much time to meeting basic human needs. Artistic work from such societies, for example, is often less sophisticated than that from more complex societies since artists didn’t have time to develop their skills.
Political organization among simple cultures is based on ties of kinship. Families are grouped into clans, who all may share a common ancestor. Clans in turn form larger configurations of tribes, whose members believe that they share a common ancestral origin. In these cultures, community decisions—such as those concerning war or peace or the settlement of internal disputes—are reached by consultation with the clan or tribal elders. The community selects its leaders in such societies based on their personal qualities (i.e. courage, fighting ability, public speaking skills, and charisma).
The social structure of such societies is rather egalitarian. The standard of living of the wealthiest and most prestigious families differs little from that of the poorest and least prestigious. Since there are few opportunities to amass wealth in such societies, it is difficult for any elite group of families to dominate others for an extended period.
Before the first wave of European explorers arrived on the shores of the New World, complex cultures or civilizations emerged in the Continental United States. These societies, however, did not achieve the same size and wealth as those more complex cultures of Central and South America such as the Maya, Aztec, or Inca.
Complex Cultures
Complex cultures differ substantially from simple ones regarding their economic, social, and political organization. Complex cultures require an agricultural surplus. Farmers must produce more than what they need for themselves or their families. This resulting surplus feeds various specialists who are not engaged in agriculture and who provide society with various goods or services, such as craftsmen, traders, officials, or priests. In all complex societies worldwide before the advent of the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the late eighteenth century around 90% of the population were needed to serve as farmers to raise this surplus, which sustained the remaining 10%. These societies must also have an exchange and distribution system so that the surplus can be distributed among those who are not engaged in agriculture. This system is centered in an urban area or city where the non-farming population resides.
Complex societies are also socially stratified. Society is organized into different classes or strata, individual members of which possess a similar level of wealth and status. Stratified societies are hierarchical in that these strata are arranged in descending order, like layers of a birthday cake. The position of each class in this hierarchy depends on the degree of prestige and wealth of its collective membership. Membership in a particular class often imparts certain rights and privileges that are denied to members of a lower class. Stratified societies also possess an elite or ruling class, which sits a top of this hierarchy like frosting on a cake, whose members alone provide leadership to their communities based on their abundant resources and high social standing. In stratified societies, the standard of living of those in the upper classes is often much more affluent than those in the lower classes.
A complex culture has a formal system of government or state. Decisions regarding the community as a whole and the settlement of internal disputes fall under the jurisdiction of the state and its laws. Participation in the government is often limited to certain classes or to a ruling elite alone, who specialize in performing government functions (i.e. judges, generals, lawmakers, and financial officials).
Primary Source: Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca
"Indians of the Rio Grande"
Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1528-1536)
They are so accustomed to running that, without resting or getting tired, they run from morning till night in pursuit of a deer, and kill a great many, because they follow until the game is worn out, sometimes catching it alive. Their huts are of matting placed over four arches. They carry them on their back and move every two or three days in quest of food; they plant nothing that would be of any use.
They are very merry people, and even when famished do not cease to dance and celebrate their feasts and ceremonials. Their best times are when "tunas" (prickly pears) are ripe, because then they have plenty to eat and spend the time in dancing and eating day and night. As long as these tunas last they squeeze and open them and set them to dry. When dried they are put in baskets like figs and kept to be eaten on the way. The peelings they grind and pulverize.
All over this country there are a great many deer, fowl and other animals which I have before enumerated. Here also they come up with cows; I have seen them thrice and have eaten their meat. They appear to me of the size of those in Spain. Their horns are small, like those of the Moorish cattle; the hair is very long, like fine wool and like a peajacket; some are brownish and others black, and to my taste they have better and more meat than those from here. Of the small hides the Indians make blankets to cover themselves with, and of the taller ones they make shoes and targets. These cows come from the north, across the country further on, to the coast of Florida, and are found all over the land for over four hundred leagues. On this whole stretch, through the valleys by which they come, people who live there descend to subsist upon their flesh. And a great quantity of hides are met with inland.
We remained with the Avavares Indians for eight months, according to our reckoning of the moons. During that time they came for us from many places and said that verily we were children of the sun. Until then Donates and the negro had not made any cures, but we found ourselves so pressed by the Indians coming from all sides, that all of us had to become medicine men. I was the most daring and reckless of all in undertaking cures. We never treated anyone that did not afterwards say he was well, and they had such confidence in our skill as to believe that none of them would die as long as we were among them. . . .
The women brought many mats, with which they built us houses, one for each of us and those attached to him. After this we would order them to boil all the game, and they did it quickly in ovens built by them for the purpose. We partook of everything a little, giving the rest to the principal man among those who had come with us for distribution among all. Every one then came with the share he had received for us to breathe on it and bless it, without which they left it untouched. Often we had with us three to four thousand persons. And it was very tiresome to have to breathe on and make the sign of the cross over every morsel they ate or drank. For many other things which they wanted to do they would come to ask our permission, so that it is easy to realize how greatly we were bothered. The women brought us tunas, spiders, worms, and whatever else they could find, for they would rather starve than partake of anything that had not first passed through our hands.
While traveling with those, we crossed a big river coming from the north and, traversing about thirty leagues of plains, met a number of people that came from afar to meet us on the trail, who treated us like the foregoing ones.
Thence on there was a change in the manner of reception, insofar as those who would meet us on the trail with gifts were no longer robbed by the Indians of our company, but after we had entered their homes they tendered us all they possessed, and the dwellings also. We turned over everything to the principals for distribution. Invariably those who had been deprived of their belongings would follow us, in order to repair their losses, so that our retinue became very large. They would tell them to be careful and not conceal anything of what they owned, as it could not be done without our knowledge, and then we would cause their death. So much did they frighten them that on the first few days after joining us they would be trembling all the time, and would not dare to speak or lift their eyes to Heaven.
Those guided us for more than fifty leagues through a desert of very rugged mountains, and so arid that there was no game. Consequently we suffered much from lack of food, and finally forded a very big river, with its water reaching to our chest. Thence on many of our people began to show the effects of the hunger and hardships they had undergone in those mountains, which were extremely barren and tiresome to travel.
The next morning all those who were strong enough came along, and at the end of three journeys we halted. Alonso del Castillo and Estevanico, the negro, left with the women as guides, and the woman who was a captive took them to a river that flows between mountains where there was a village in which her father lived, and these were the first adobes we saw that were like unto real houses. Castillo and Estevanico went to these and, after holding parley with the Indians, at the end of three days Castillo returned to where he had left us, bringing with him five or six of the Indians. He told how he had found permanent houses, inhabited, the people of which ate beans and squashes, and that he had also seen maize.
Of all things upon earth that caused us the greatest pleasure, and we gave endless thanks to our Lord for this news. Castillo also said that the negro was coming to meet us on the way, near by, with all the people of the houses. For that reason we started, and after going a league and a half met the negro and the people that came to receive us, who gave us beans and many squashes to eat, gourds to carry water in, robes of cowhide, and other things. As those people and the Indians of our company were enemies, and did not understand each other, we took leave of the latter, leaving them all that had been given to us, while we went on with the former and, six leagues beyond, when night was already approaching, reached their houses, where they received us with great ceremonies. Here we remained one day, and left on the next, taking them with us to other permanent houses, where they subsisted on the same food also, and thence on we found a new custom. . . .
Having seen positive traces of Christians and become satisfied they were very near, we gave many thanks to our Lord for redeeming us from our sad and gloomy condition. Anyone can imagine our delight when he reflects how long we had been in that land, and how many dangers and hardships we had suffered. That night I entreated one of my companions to go after the Christians, who were moving through the part of the country pacified and quieted by us, and who were three days ahead of where we were. They did not like my suggestion, and excused themselves from going, on the ground of being tired and worn out, although any of them might have done it far better than I, being younger and stronger.
Seeing their reluctance, in the morning I took with me the negro and eleven Indians and, following the trail, went in search of the Christians. On that day we made ten leagues, passing three places where they slept. The next morning I came upon four Christians on horseback, who, seeing me in such a strange attire, and in company with Indians, were greatly startled. They stared at me for quite awhile, speechless; so great was their surprise that they could not find words to ask me anything. I spoke first, and told them to lead me to their captain, and we went together to Diego de Alcaraz, their commander.
Study Questions:
1. Summarize Cabeza de Vaca’s impression of the people he came upon during his journey. What are his impressions of their habits and customs? What seems to be his attitude toward these people?
2. How were the author and his companions received and treated by the Avavares Indians? 3. Describe the various difficulties faced by Cabeza de Vaca and his companions during their travels.
Attributions
Title Image
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fort-blount-paleo-indian-tn1.jpg
Paleo-Indian point found on the Fox Farm (which contains the Fort Blount-Williamsburg site) in Jackson County, Tennessee, USA.. Collection of Gene Smith, Jackson County, Tenn.
Brian Stansberry, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
User:Roblespepe, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons