Life In The New World

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Life In The New World

If we go way back to a world-wide crucial time period, the life of Native Americans in today's continental United States, what we encounter is a vast land consisting of various tribes with distinctive cultures, lifestyles and religious beliefs with obviously one thing in common, savagery. As the Europeans started to settle, the Colonial period began, different civilizations clashed with each other which changed the society, economics, and politics for several reasons, affecting the lives of European-Americans, African-Americans, and Native-Americans, creating conflicts and among them.

Before the European colonies arrived, a vast part of America was inhabited by the Native Americans. They were savages, living as numerous kinds of groups and tribes around the continent, they weren't living together like a nation so this disconnection between them resulted in different languages, beliefs, cultures and of course, life styles. The movie that we watched, Cabeza De Vaca is a great example to perceive the life of Native Americans since it's about the 8 year-long journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca who was shipwrecked in Florida and was captured by the natives, so he had to live with them until he reached to the other side of the continent. Before the journey, Cabeza was civilized, however as he started to live with the Natives, he became a savage, a hunter gatherer just like them, a healer, an Indian shaman, and we clearly understood how each Native American tribes differed from each other in terms of beliefs, culture, lifestyles and behaviours throughout his journey. For instance, in one of the tribes women were the dominant ones, another tribe seemed more civilized and settled as they were eating food in...

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...good education while in NY, if you were rich but stupid, you were still honoured. In addition, these two cities were governed differently and Boston was more exposed to wars. NY was more into entertainment, popular culture and art.

If we think about Boston and New York today, we obviously see that they're still pretty much the same, their distinctive features back then are still what makes them unique now. Boston is the place for universities and colleges, a place for higher education and NY is commonly referred as “The city that never sleeps”, a rapidly changing cosmopolitan city which is always alive with full of new beginnings and hopes for individuals.

In conclusion, this time period is very important to perceive the history of America, how the Natives were thrown out of their homeland with the arrival of Europeans and how today's American dream was shaped.

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