Clash Of Cultures In Colonial America

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Shawn Frost Topic 2: Early Clash of Cultures HIST 321/ Prof. Le Vine Topic 2 brought us to the early clashes of cultures that took place. We will look at how the interactions with different people can change a whole culture and society. We begin by looking at the contact Indians and Invaders experienced and what came from those interactions. James Axtell discusses how large of an influence the Indians were in “Colonial America without the Indians”. Within Axtells text DeVoto goes to say that without the Indians, America would not be America as we know it. The interactions were hugely impactful. The contact with Indians taught us how to survive. They showed us how to farm, showed how to hunt effectively, introduced medicine, showed the Invaders where gold was, amongst other incredibly influential tasks. Zelinsky goes on to discredit the Indians as if they are non-factors. In the text we read, “…Had the European colonists found an utterly unpopulated continent, contemporary American life would not have differed in any major respect from its actual pattern.” In my opinion I do not understand how Zelinsky can just discredit the existence of the Indians. I find it impossible to think that early North America would be the same without the contact with Indians. I share the shame viewpoint that DeVoto expresses. In Calvin Martin’s piece we look at the European impact on the Indian culture in terms of Ecology. We looked at the Micmac Indians of eastern Canada and how the Europeans shattered their value structure. The Micmacs believed that everything has a spirit. Beavers were an animal that the Micmacs held very high spiritually. Once the Europeans had moved into their territory, the Micmac tribes were socially seduced in a way. The fur trade changed them for the worse. They went from being people who believed in Manitou to people fully absorbed within the
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