Throughout this semester, our cultural anthropology class has discussed numerous ideas, norms and beliefs from various cultures to help us, as students, better understand the world around us. As part of our final project, we were assigned to read an ethnography book and relate the culture we learn about to the topics we have discussed in class. For this assignment, I chose to read an ethnography book written by Bruce C. Trigger and titled, The Huron: Farmers of the North. Before diving into the connections between the book and class, it is important to understand some background information about the Huron. Research shows that the group was originally formed by hunter-gatherers who had inhabited the region for a long time (2). The original Huron settlement was located between Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe in the southern part of Ontario (1). The tribe was discovered by the French in the year 1610 and the French …show more content…
Bronislaw Malinowski believed that, “magic and religion are responses to uncertainty and anxiety” (Powerpoint). Essentially, humans want to garner a sense of control over tasks or situations that seem daunting. We also talked about baseball players and their unique superstitions that they believed helped them to perform well. Although the superstitious act may seem unrelated to the sport by some, the player believes that because of the superstitious act he will be able to perform well in the game (CLASS DISCUSSION). The author describes several very interesting rituals and taboos performed by The Huron at various times in their lives. The first taboo that I thought was interesting dealt with pregnant women. If a pregnant woman entered the house of a sick person, it was believed that the sick person would become even sicker (75). Likewise, the presence of a pregnant woman was believed to be “essential” for an arrow to be successfully extracted
Chandler Cook November 5th, 2015 HIST3417 Book Review Embodying agriculture in Gender Systems Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country gives readers a look into the federal government’s failed policy to preserve grazing lands by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of livestock with a particular focus on women. Centering around women because they are the primary owners and caretakers of livestock in Navajo reservations. Weisiger’s narrative explains the relationship of “livestock grazing, environmental change, cultural identity, gender, and memory during the New Deal era of the 1930s and its aftermath” (p xv). Weisiger relies on oral histories, environmental science, and government documents.
When considering the birth of America, most people look to Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock. In An Infinity of Nations, Michael Witgen looks to shed light on the role Native Americans played in the formation of early America. Witgen analyzes the social relationships between the European settlers and the indigenous tribes of the Anishinaabeg and the Haudenosaunee in order to tell the story of the westward expansion of early American civilization. Witgen depicts agreement and conflict between the colonizing groups while also explaining the formation of power within them – but his analysis is incomplete. The incorporation of Joan Scott’s and Michael Foucault’s definitions of gender and power relationships into
However, Richter establishes the notion of imagination in the reader’s mind to make up for the amount speculation he uses. Using the scarce amount of sources at his disposal, Richter writes about what likely happened during Euro-Indian contact. A prime example of this is Richter making a connection between European shipwrecks, evidence of nontraditional items in Native communities before European contact, and movement of Indian tribes to coastal areas. The author relies on what is known of Native people during the Mississippian Period, and European accounts of their travels to North America. Lack of primary sources becomes a strong point of the book, allowing Richter to use his historical prowess and imagination to channel an unknown world in Indian
He accentuates the idea of respect that indigenous people have for their environment. Salmón is interested in this topic because it is related to him; he is a Rarámuri. In his book, he gathers stories of American Indian farmers, including the Rarámuri people and describes their land management practices. What is more, the author outlines the advantages of such methods and claims that it is necessary to use traditional food practices to avoid future agricultural and environmental problems. Although Salmón exemplifies some future issues in the agricultural industry, he does not dive deeper into this topic. The author does not pay much attention to the impact of industrialization and modern agricultural technologies on indigenous farmers and the environment in general. Nevertheless, the book is an excellent collection of American Indian stories. Salmón fulfills the above mentioned task and reveals how culture remains relevant to food
There are three parts in West’s book; the first part focuses on the sociological, ecological and economic relationships of the plains Indians, starting with the first establish culture of North America, the Clovis peoples. Going into extensive detail pertaining to early geology and ecology, West gives us a glimpse into what life on the early plains must have looked to early peoples. With vastly differing flora and fauna to what we know today, the early plains at the end of the first ice age, were a different place and lent itself to a diverse way of life. The Clovis peoples were accomplished hunters, focusing on the abundance of Pleistocene megafauna such as earlier, larger forms of bison. Though, little human remains were found, evidence of their s...
When the French arrived there were no intentions of enslaving the Huron or Iroquois for farming or mining. Jacques Cartier was the first French colonists to interact with the Huron in 1534. The French exploited the relationship the Huron had with other tribes to establish trade from the St. Lawrence River to further inland towards the Great Lakes. The French colonists relationship revolved around the Huron when it came to hunting, skinning and trading for furs. The Huron would do most of the work when came to the fur trading, however, for their work they would receive weapons and metal goods for trade. Like many other Native American tribes, the Huron became
Scholars, who study these things, notice a duality in the culture, i.e. good and bad, men, and women, and so on and so forth. This book also discusses things such as who are their descendants and the use of treasure maps to discover new things. Concepts such as who the descendants are and using treasure maps to discover new things. This book was an easy read, in fact, the chapters flew by pretty quick, because they flew by quickly, I often had to re-read some sections. By making this book an easy read, Pauketat does a good job of not assuming that anyone knows about the Cahokian culture. He does however, does an excellent job of explaining things in detail. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about a Native American culture.
His name is Wautheeweela. It means Bright Horn, referring to horns on a deer. He is ten years old, and ready to make his journey to prove his manhood. He and other boys from his Shawnee tribe have been physically toughened and taught to be independent since an age of around six. In winters, they have had to break the ice to jump into the freezing river to continue their daily routine of learning to survive with Nature and its elements. Now will be his test of endurance. He is sent into the woods with a bow and arrow and told not to come back until he had shot something to eat. His face is blackened with charcoal, a sign to all who saw him that he is on his quest and cannot be helped. He would not end up like his friend, Little Wildcat Alford, who went two days alone in the woods without food, and became to weak too shoot, but did manage to kill a quail and return as a man (Wallace, 1970). Bright Horn was better then that, mentally and physically, and has waited for this day to come. Face blackened and weapon in hand, he heads out of his tribe's settlement. He must be smart. He walks along the creek with many bends, the Conodoguinet, until the sun reaches the land. Now he rests on the bank, throwing pebbles into the creek, watching little fish swim around with no apparent direction what so ever. He waits until nightfall to move inland a little bit, to scout out a spot where animals might come to the creek. He sets himself up against a tree and falls asleep. He awakes with a crackling of a twig. A full moon is shining, creating many eerie shadows on the ground. He waits patiently to see what is approaching. He sees a reflection of an eye, a greenish glow coming from it. It is deer comin...
Banks, D., Erodes, R. (2004). Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. Ojibwa Warrior. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://www.oupress.com/bookdetail.asp?isbn=0-8061-3580-8
(“Métis Culture” para 14). “The Métis had a unique presence in art, music, dances, and storytelling.” (para 7). Their culture was very loud because of all the celebrations and music festivals they had (para 9). Music was a huge part in the culture that was called Red River Jig and it is still known through Canada today (para 10). Woman were talented in their artistic skill so they would make different paintings and sculptures to sell (para 11). They were also known for the beads and jewelry they had on many of the things they wore (para 9). A big part of the culture was their language that was called Michif and was a combination between French nouns and Cree verbs (para
When the Frenchmen first came to Canada they became surprised over that Indians were living there. Under the 17th century the French started to colonize the land, later on Québec was founded and people from Europe started to live there, the Indians and the Frenchmen became friends and agreed on sharing the land. The
Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 195. Detroit: Gale, 86-110. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Tulsa City County Library. 22 Oct. 2009 .
Bibliography: Bibliography 1. John Majewski, History of the American Peoples: 1840-1920 (Dubuque: Kent/Hunt Publishing, 2001). 2.
Prior to the use of agriculture, life was extremely different for women. The information that historians have obtained is limited, but there are certain aspects of Paleolithic society that have been discovered and point towards a more liberal lifestyle for women. Generally, a woman’s job was to gather food and tend to her children while her male counterpart hunted. These simple divisions allowed both men and women to play significant roles in hunter-gatherer society, which further allowed women to be held in equal if not greater esteem then men. According to Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis and Anthony Elser, authors of World History: Connections to Today, women also held...
"The Ojibways affirm that long before they became aware of the white man's presence on