Okonkwo realizes that change is inevitable and experiences the injustice of cultural collision. Change is something that comes along with cultural collision. In the novel, Okonkwo’s motherland, Mbanta and fatherland, Umuofia, goes through many transitions once the Europeans arrive. They try to convert the Ibo people to Christianity. The colonization and “the arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta” because they began to alter the traditions of the tribe (Achebe 138).
This upset many, but it would not cause the indigenous people to revolt until the reform of the church occurred. Spain ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits, who helped in educating and converting many indigenous people. The Creoles, who were educated by the indigenous people, became angered as well. Soon the change had begun to grow more and more upsetting to many. The rich grew richer and the poor grew poorer.
. . did not easily accept the new teachings, which not only threatened their traditional ways of life but also introduced alien concepts such as the existence of hell as a punishment for wrongdoers.”2 Europeans used religion as a way to dictate the Indians and take away old traditions “that had served them well for centuries”.3 Sometimes when Europeans couldn’t get the Indians to convert, steps were taken to punish those continuing to worship traditional beliefs.4 The white men tried very hard, sometimes with violence and sometimes without, to force Native Americans to convert from their traditional beliefs to Christianity. On the other hand, some Indians did convert to Christianity and did well. White man Reverend Eleazar Wheelock converted many Natives who went on to become missionaries helping spread the word back to their tribes as well as others, such as Samson Occom.5 Wheelock also created Moor’s Indian Charity School, where many converted Indians attended.
We are always taught that the white settlers came and took all the Indians’ land and killed many of them in doing so. Both of those are terrible things, but it is even more important to look more closely, and realize the smaller, just as important things that were ruined, like the incredible, self taught languages that they developed. Now, we can look back and appreciate the language for being so incredible, but we can also look back feeling shameful that something like that happened. It is such a shame that a sense of greed (land and expansion) on the settlers’ parts led to the destruction and near extinction of the people that were here
Spain on the other hand felt that the native people were not using the land to it's full potential. It was their obligation to put the land to better use. Through the generations of colonization and invasion, both the Spanish Empire and the native people met several ups and downs. Spain initially conquered many of the Natives such as the Aztecs and the Pueblos. Eventually the Pueblos blamed the Spanish for their hardships and misfortunes because of the fact that the Spanish had, in a sense, outlawed their ancient rituals and ceremonies.
Book Review – Lakota Woman By Mary Crow Dog Since the American government passed laws to push for progress and to help ‘civilise’ the Native American peoples, Indians have suffered as they can no longer practice their cultural customs or speak their native languages and yet are considered to be less than human in the eyes of the White Americans. In the book “Lakota Woman” by Mary Crow Dog these White American ethnocentric views are highlighted from experiences in Crow Dog’s life and are compared to the degree of ethnocentrism displayed by the Indians to keep their culture in defiance of the White Americans plans for them. Growing up on an Indian reservation Mary Crow Dog experienced the ethnocentrism
Many different circumstances have led to this. Whether he is referring to how the whites forced native children into boarding schools and banned the use of their language and tried to teach them English in a way of trying to make them more “American”. Or maybe it is how the new generations of the Lakota have made a sort of ‘reservation language” that branches off from their traditional language. These people still know words that their elders speak of, but their definitions for those words are distorted and seemed to revolve around alcohol in the text. Plus there were all the different interpretations that were going around and being taught by groups such as the Christians or the anthropologists, which lead to the Lakota’s meanings being corrupted.
The Indian Department policy started in the late 1830’as a re-establishment of the Indian Department policy, which ended up lasting until the 1970’s with some modifications. This did massive damage to the relationship between the First Nations and the white people. Up to the time when Queen Victoria died in 1901, the white people had systematically attacked Native identity, education, governance, and spiritual practices. Although the First Nations were treated so poorly, they still had a feeling Victoria would watch over them as their children and make sure nothing got to
The Plymouth and Chesapeake Colonies a Comparison Many individual issues helped shape both the Plymouth and Virginian colonies. As a result the colonies developed different styles of life. Religion played a major part in the Plymouth colonies for the settlers abandoned England to shape a new religious freedoms. However the Virginian colonies settled in order to find gold and silver and where driven by profit not giving much thought to religion. Both settled colonies suffered life loss adapting to the hash weather and conditions of the new settlements.
Sir Edmond Andros was an English military man who openly affiliated himself with the Church of England. The people of New England despised him because along with being a part of the Church of England, he had his men teach the people ti drink, blaspheme, curse, and damn. He changed everything cherished by New England by intentionally interrupting cherished town meetings, restricting the court, the press, schools, and revoking all land titles. 28. The Glorious Revolution was the dethroning of the unpopular Catholic James II and enthroning Protestant rulers William III and Mary.