New empires would emerge from these tenuous beginnings, and by the end of the seventeenth century, Spain would lose its privileged position to its rivals. An age of colonization had begun and, with it, a great collision of cultures commenced.
Rising globalization fueled the need for new markets, manpower for production, and raw materials—ushering in a proto-capitalist society
Typically in Woodland communities, women practiced agriculture while men hunted and fished.
Gender roles were present -> how egalitarian were these communities? Has gender stratification always existed?
Corn—as well as other Mesoamerican crops—spread across North America and continues to hold an important spiritual and cultural place in many Native communities.
...continues to hold an important spiritual and cultural place in many Native communities.
What effects did the production of cash crops have on a cultural scale? We mainly know it from the economic and social lens.
The Salinan people of present-day California, for example, tell of a bald eagle that formed the first man out of clay and the first woman out of a feather.1 According to a Lenape tradition, the earth was made when Sky Woman fell into a watery world and, with the help of muskrat and beaver, landed safely on a turtle’s back, thus creating Turtle Island, or North America. A Choctaw tradition locates southeastern peoples’ beginnings inside the great Mother Mound earthwork, Nunih Waya, in the lower Mississippi Valley.2 Nahua people trace their beginnings to the place of the Seven Caves, from which their ancestors emerged before they migrated to what is now central Mexico.3
Just how much did their origin stories/mythology diverge from one another? How does a civilization's topography shape their culture - the means and ways it is translated?
Native Americans built settled communities and followed seasonal migration patterns, maintained peace through alliances and warred with their neighbors, and developed self-sufficient economies and maintained vast trade networks.
What sociological aspects played a role into self-proclaimed European superiority during this century? How is it that they did not recognize the cultural diversity and advancements made by already existing communities?