Indigenous culture and how it has evolved Introduction Native American Culture Culture is a set of beliefs and patterns of behaviors that are shared by the members of a specific group. These values can be reinforced or expressed through stories, songs, art, and rituals. A language is an important tool for preserving culture. Many groups of people have their cultural practices that are part and parcel of their lives. However, Native Americans have a richer and varied culture. They have a history that is rich in triumph, strife and struggle. Many familiar symbols that are at times taken for granted were created by Native Americans. Lots of aspects of our current life were adopted from Indian cultures that were practiced many centuries ago. Some Everything in their lives from animals to native plants to weather and housing held a lot of importance in Indian life. To start with plants, they were cultivated and harvested and used for different works dyeing blankets. Animals, on the other hand, were revered as spirits even though they could be hunted and killed. Their hides and skins were used as drums and clothing the spirits of these animals on the minds of the people. The sun and the rains also served an important purpose in that they were considered as Gods who gave signs of changing As they sought to harmonize with the world around them, they also influenced it in a way. American culture still shows to be part of Native American culture. The U.S is sometimes called a ‘melting pot’ where particular cultures have contributed their different culture to the American culture. Just as other cultures around the world have affected American culture, currently American culture is also influencing the world. The term Western culture that is commonly used always refers to American culture. American culture entails the traditions and customs of the United States. Culture includes food, what we wear, religion, our language, music, marriage, what we believe to be right or wrong, how we greet visitors and how we sit at the table. Also, it includes how we treat our loved ones and how we treat the elders. American culture is just but an example of how culture has evolved since the ancient times and its
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
People have been living in America for countless years, even before Europeans had discovered and populated it. These people, named Native Americans or American Indians, have a unique and singular culture and lifestyle unlike any other. Native Americans were divided into several groups or tribes. Each one tribe developed an own language, housing, clothing, and other cultural aspects. As we take a look into their society’s customs we can learn additional information about the lives of these indigenous people of the United States.
Duane Champagne in Social Change and Cultural Continuity Among Native Nations explains that there has never been one definitive world view that comprises any one Native American culture, as there is no such thing as one “Native community” (2007:10). However, there are certain commonalities in the ways of seeing and experiencing the world that many Native communities and their religions seem to share.
American culture is in my opinion a mixture of all cultures in the world. In some states, minorities have become majorities because of the huge masses that have immigrated there. Those groups have integrated their own customs to Americans and at the same time, have made American customs part of their lives. In that enormous alloy called Americans, you can meet diverse kinds of persons, languages, foods and words. At the same time, specific traits make this culture as any other unique. The British writer Lesley Hazleton describes in the essay The First Game her experience when she attended a baseball game for the first time in her life. It was her first time visiting America as well and the way the scene is described shows in some way her perception of what Americans are. Among their several qualities, she distinguished the idolization of achievers and their lives based on a theocentric society.
Native Americans lived on the land that is now called America, but when white settlers started to take over the land, many lives of Native Americans were lost. Today, many people believe that the things that have been done and are being done right now, is an honor or an insult to the Natives. The choices that were made and being made were an insult to the Native Americans that live and used to live on this land, by being insulted by land policies, boardings schools and modern issues, all in which contain mistreatment of the Natives. The power that the settlers and the people who governed them had, overcame the power of the Natives so the settlers took advantage and changed the Natives way of life to the
TheNative American culture were very intresting when it came to how they lived.They told all types of stories to explain where, what,when,and how things came to be .An example is the amount of respect that the Cherokee Tribe showed and gave to animals.In the story it repeadtly says “The Fox said...The Possum said..The Buzzard said”.This shows that theNative American culture favored and
The introduction of of European materials, tools, and techniques transformed Native American art aesthetically as well as it’s role within Native culture. European technology produced goods that made Native American art easier to create and allowed Native American art to become more elaborate and detailed. However, the distinctive styles of each unique tribes’ art was diluted as the tribes obtained the same European materials rather than what was native to the land they lived on. in many cases European encounter caused Native American artwork to become less culturally significant; For instance, many crafts that held religious ceremonial roles, or served spiritual symbolism, became available to anyone, as a greater emphasis on its economic
“Perhaps there is no other group in the world that has quite so diverse and rich culture as that of the Native Americans. With their gilded history that is rich in strife, struggle, and triumph, the Native American culture is indeed very colorful” (Bantwal). Native American culture is very diverse and it has a very colorful history. It is extremely diverse and in fact the term Native American is a broad term that is used to cover all Native tribes in America. Throughout history there has been conflict not only among the different tribes but also there was plenty of fighting against the white men. Much of the fighting between the Native Americans and the white men was due to misunderstandings, mistrust, and miscommunication. Many thousands of years ago “the nomadic ancestors of modern Native Americans who hiked over a “land bridge” from Asia to what is now Alaska” (History.com). Once they reached Alaska they slowly spread out across the continent of North America. They spread out and separated into different tribes who all have many of the same core ideas but the main thing that separates them is their location in the country. There are Indians from the plains, the pacific coast, the southwest, and the northeast and different locations also. One main idea that is pretty much the same for each tribe is the closeness and respect they show for the land they live on. The history of the Native Americans as a whole is pockmarked by conflict. The conflicts between the tribes were very common and happened because of land disputes or just because of the close proximity of the tribes. But when the white men entered the picture this is where miscommunication and mistrust came into play. The white men wanted the land that...
Native Americans have orally passed down stories that describe everything about the world and the correct morals that people should follow. They are magical and relates heavily with nature. Puritan literature on the other hand is very strict and religious. They are closely related with God and they only learn to gain salvation. Puritans and Native Americans have very different cultures. Nevertheless, they both have similar intentions of teaching their young; thus it is important to keep in mind that even if other cultures seem strange there is not much difference when it comes to the core and that there needs to be respect for
Within the United States there is a huge diversity of cultures. Culture is many different things, it is a tradition, it is the values and beliefs passed down from generation to generation, and culture is the identity of any country. Culture helps to identify one cultural group from the other. Although we may live in the same country,city, or state we still differ from one another by the way we dress, our beliefs, language, traditions, music, art, food, religion, and politics.
Although the Native Americans have a complicated system it is sure an interesting one. With an in depth culture there is no end to the learning of it. It is one that no one but the Native American themselves can fully understand. Native Americans have a special connection with themselves, the world around them and the land under our feet. That is a very special value to have. They are strong people and they would not be that way without their culture and without their beliefs.
American Indians and Native Americans refer to the descendants of indigenous people who populated the North American continent for centuries previous to the arrival of European settlers. These native groups were arranged into tribes and nations. Each tribe or nation preserved long-held cultural traditions that were swayed by provincial and environmental indicators that differ among them, and the cultural customs of these tribes cannot be typecast into one pattern. They learned to hunt, fish, battle the severe weather conditions, construct shelters or housing, and grew grains. The entrance of Europeans meant a shortfall in farming, hunting, trapping, and fishing grounds.
The United States is a country with a diverse existing population today; this country is known as a melting pot of different cultures, each one unique in its own respect. Culture; differentiate one societal group from another by identification beliefs, behaviors, language, traditions, Art, fashion styles, food, religion, politics, and economic systems. Through lifelong, ever changing processes of learning, creativity, and sharing culture shapes our patterns of behavior as well thinking. The Culture’s significance is so intense that it touches almost every aspect of who and what we are. Culture becomes the telescope through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us. Trying to define the perplexing term of culture with varying component of distinguishable characteristics is difficult to restrict. Presenly, culture is viewed as consisting primarily of the symbolic, untouched and conception aspects of human societies.
What is culture? Culture is the study of conflict. The divergence between each Native American tribe is for one, they settled in different areas of the land. Second, they brought on different approaches like adapting to climate and high and low temperatures for example. Nonetheless, the indigenous people all had one thing in common and that was believing. Some tribes prayed by the sun and others had many gods and the rest believed in peace. Also, they discovered the smallest blessing as a gift from the gods and knew nothing better, but to share the gift with everyone. “ Black Hawk: the great spirit gave it to his children upon, and cultivate as far it, they have a right to the soil to the soil” (9). With that being stated, the Europeans made
Commercialization of culture: It is very obvious to see the western culture dominated all the other minor cultures by so many means. Fast food culture is wide spread around the globe. Western dressing is considered to be cool and good looking.