The culture of the Mississippi River has an effect on geography and in turn geography impacts the culture along the Mississippi River. The geography of the Mississippi River provided early settlers with the natural resources to survive and thrive. At the same time the aggressive expansion of culture significantly impacted the Mississippi River’s region.
History of settlement along the Mississippi River illustrates the fact that the geography of the river is a natural attraction to settlers. Archeological evidence establishes that Native Americans occupied land and developed civilizations along the Mississippi River as early as 10,000 B.C.E. Records show that inhabitants on the river adapted and evolved utilizing the Mississippi River’s geography. For example, archaic sites between the years 8,500 B.C.E. and 600 B.C.E. indicate that there were different types of settlements that served different functions. Professor Larkin explains that there were local camps which had a living function and extractive locations where archeologist found evidence of hunting functions. In addition, James Crutchfield reports in his book, It Happened on the Mississippi River, that prehistoric American Indians, in 700 B.C.E, constructed a “metropolis along the stream’s eastern bank”, now known as Cahokia. Cahokia’s citizens resided in a “four-thousand-acre-town” and in this town there were over one hundred platforms and burial mounds that range from little mounds to mounds that reach one hundred feet high. Inhabitants made their living off the river by “farming the rich bottom lands…fishing the local streams, and hunting in the surrounding forests.” Rich bottom lands, streams and forests are only a few of the many assets that attracted ...
... middle of paper ...
...t of the region it used to occupy. As a result, the original site of the settlement is not now in Louisiana at all, but on the other side of the river, in the State of Mississippi.” In addition the rivers geographical natural phenomenon’s such as earthquakes and hurricanes have affected its culture. For example the New Madrid earthquake in the year 1811 raised or dropped part of the river by eight feet. Plus, it reversed the flow of the river. Professor Barbara Headle explains that “the Mississippi River is not just a placid landscape. She is an active participant in what happens to residents along her bank.”
The Mississippi River history is a notable example of the relationship between culture and geography. Prehistoric settlement and development along the river has illustrated that while culture affects geography, geography in turn affects culture.
In a passage from his book, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, author John M. Barry makes an attempt use different rhetorical techniques to transmit his purpose. While to most, the Mississippi River is only some brown water in the middle of the state of Mississippi, to author John M. Barry, the lower Mississippi is an extremely complex and turbulent river. John M. Barry builds his ethos, uses elevated diction, several forms of figurative language, and different styles of syntax and sentence structure to communicate his fascination with the Mississippi River to a possible audience of students, teachers, and scientists.
...ective." Louisiana History 53.2 (2012): 133-167. America: History and Life with Full Text. 9 Apr. 2014. Web.
Panfio de Narvaez led the expedition in 1528 to the Mississippi River mouth. Years had passed and Hernando de Soto did something similar, traveling to the north and the western states of Mississippi then migrated to the Mississippi River traveling to the Gulf of Mexico where they begin to experience great interest in Louisiana. In the 17th century, French and French Canadians were in search of the ability to rule and control the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast, also looking for religion and commercial operations. France claimed many states on both sides of the Mississippi river in order to trade wi...
The world around us if full of many wonders, some world renown and appreciated, or some immaculate and taken for granted, such as the Mississippi River. In the passage from Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America, author John M. Barry communicates his fascination with the Mississippi River by analyzing its complex mechanics and describing its enchanting nature. Through the primary application of two rhetorical strategies—logos and pathos—the author services his argument with intelligence and intuition while chartering his passion and zeal for the Mississippi River.
The main ideas presented in “Why Geography Matters…More Than Ever!” revolve around what exactly geography is, and the implications of the subject. Geography is the study of the physical world and human actions, it also covers the affects of human actions. Geography influences a plethora of topics and geographers do research on numerous subjects. “Geographers do research on glaciations and coastlines, on desert dunes and limestone caves, on weather and climate, even on plants and animals”(7). The author stresses how underrated geography is the present times, and how the introduction of social studies have doomed the subject of geography for future generations. In a section detailing the teaching of geography
Social geography plays a big role in a person's life. Social geography includes segregation, economics, class, and race. All of these factors play a part in how a person lives and the way they are treated in society. Another factor that affects a person's society is the way that a person looks. Monstrosity can affect a person's entire life as far as where they live and even their class. In the novels Frankenstein, The Monster and Native Son, there is a relationship between social geography and monstrosity. The characters in the novels were victims of the relationship between monstrosity and social geography.
The Native Americans of the southeast live in a variety of environments. The environments range from the southern Appalachian Mountains, to the Mississippi River valley, to the Louisiana and Alabama swamps, and the Florida wetlands. These environments were bountiful with various species of plant and animal life, enabling the Native American peoples to flourish. “Most of the Native Americans adopted large-scale agriculture after 900 A.D, and some also developed large towns and highly centralized social and political structures.” In the first half of the 1600s Europeans encountered these native peoples. Both cultures encountered new plants, animals, and diseases. However, the Indians received more diseases compared to the few new diseases to the Europeans. The new diseases resulted in a massive loss of Native Americans, including the Southeast Indians which had never encountered the new diseases. Three of the main tribes in the southeast were the Cherokee and the Creek. They were part of a group of southeast tribes that were removed from their lands. These tribes later became known as “The Five Civilized Tribes because of their progress and achievements.”
Most people know Mississippi for its music such as; gospel, blues, jazz music, and rock and roll. But it is much more than the creator of blues it is much deeper than that. Mississippi wasn’t Mississippi at first it was discovered by European travelers. The first major European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was that of Hernando Desoto to who passed through in 1540. Another part of Mississippi was claimed by the French. They claimed territory that included Mississippi as part of their colony of New France and started settlement. Did you know a lot of Mississippi’s counties and parts are named after Indian tribes that were here hundreds of years ago? They included the Natchez, the Yazoo, the Pascagoula, and the Biloxi. Hundreds of years ago Mississippi was controlled by a lot of people. On December.10, 1817, the western portion of Mississippi territory became the state of Mississippi, the 20th state of the union. A lot of people think that Jackson was always the state capital it wasn’t. Natchez was the capital of Mississippi first; the capital was moved to Jacks...
There have been several Native American people living in this area since around the 4th millennium B.C. Many tribes lived along the shores, and used it for a source of food and crop watering. In the lower Mississippi, tribes such as the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Quapaw, Caddo, osage, Tunica, and Natchez lived and created tribes. In the upper Mississippi, tribes such as Sioux, Sac and Fox, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Illini, Menominee, and Winnebago did the same. The river provided them with means of transportation, clean water to drink, and food like mussels and fish.
These movements west of the Mississippi river caused the newly relocated Indians to give up some of th...
If this culture had survived, European settlement would have taken much longer than it originally did. The Mississippian people would no longer fear the Europeans, because of all the anger and resentment they had towards them for the devastation and despair they caused them. It would have taken a very large and skilled army to take down the Mississippian culture a second time.
Human activity has major effects on geography. When studying the earth you can come to several conclusions about the geography of any particular civilization. Distribution of life in the civilization allows you to analyze whether their geography is their own destiny. Do people control their own destiny? Is geography something that people can control? Technology is really the key to why geography can be overcome by any people.
From the excerpt Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, Twain describes his experiences on the Mississippi River while he is controlling a steamboat. Twain begins the story by describing the atmosphere of the river, the qualities of the river, and the spectacular view from the steamboat. He vividly projects the river by comparing it to a book that is legendary and nonetheless absorbing of attention. However, his perception of beauty towards the river changes as he encounters boredom, disinterest, and emptiness.
Blij has clearly put this book into historical significance by mentioning the idea of geography and how it plays a role in societies all over the world. However, the five themes of culture regions, cultural diffusion, cultural interaction, cultural ecology, and cultural landscapes are all clearly defined within a specific context to a particular nation. Through reading this intriguing piece of literature I received the underlying notion that Blij firmly believes that landscapes of the world realm are not going to change. De Blij worldview of regions, diffusion, interaction, ecology, and landscapes has allowed him to simultaneously link issues together from the United States all the way to Southeast Asia.
Geography is the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by it, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries. Environmental influences, such as cost, changing weather, climate patterns, their potential impacts, and the threat of spreading diseases, are of increasing concern. Geography allows us to participate and enjoy our planet. It gives us a sense of reference to where we live and where we may be going in relationship to where we have been, and the appreciation of the world we live in. Anthropology is the study of human kind and culture, everybody wants to know where and how humans came to be. Our daily lives such as family, friends, co-workers and the under...