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The Native Americans
The first Americans: 30,000 - 5000 years ago
During the most recent of the
Ice Ages,
lasting from 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, an
undersea bridge between Siberia and Alaska
emerges /возникает/
from the sea.
Known as the Bering Land Bridge, it develops a
steppe-like ecology of grasslands, grazed by
large animals such as horses, reindeer and even
mammoth.
Over 20000 years ago the hunters of the Siberian
steppes came across the land bridge and into
America. When the melting ice destroyed the
bridge, about 10,000 years ago, these northeast
Asians become isolated as the aboriginal
Americans.
The Siberian hunters probably make their way
south along the north coast of Alaska and down
through the valley of the Mackenzie river.
Archaeological evidence shows that by about
15,000 years ago the central plains of America
are widely inhabited.
During the next 5000 years, while the glacial /ледниковый/
period continues, humans move far into South
America.
The retreat /Отступление/
of the ice caps makes northern regions habitable
/жилой/
both for large animals and for the humans who
hunt on them. By 8000 years ago hunters have
moved up the eastern side of the continent into
Newfoundland and the prairie provinces /равнины/
of Canada.
From about 7000 years ago human groups adapt to
the conditions of the northern coast of Canada,
living mainly as hunters of sea mammals
/морских
млекопитающих/.
They spread gradually eastwards along the edge
of the Arctic Circle, eventually reaching
Greenland. These hardiest of all human settlers
survive today as the Eskimo (or, in their own
name for themselves, inuit - meaning
simply 'the people').
The first American farmers: 5000 - 2500 BC
The cultivation of crops in
America begins in the Tehuacan valley, southeast
of the present-day Mexico City. Squash and chili
are the earliest plants to be grown - soon
followed by corn (or maize) and then by beans
and gourds.
These are all species which
need to be individually planted, rather than
their seeds being scattered or sown /разбросаны
или
посеяны/ over broken ground. This is a distinction of importance in American
history, for there are no animals in America at
this time strong enough to pull a plough.
At first these crops merely
supplement the food produced by hunting and
gathering. But by 3000 BC the people of this
area are settled agriculturalists. In this
development they are followed by the
hunter-gatherers of south America and then,
considerably later, by some in the northern part
of the continent.
The earliest known settled
community in south America is at Huaca Prieta,
at the mouth of the Chicama river in Peru. By
about 2500 BC the people here have as yet no
corn, but they cultivate squash, gourds and
chili. They also grow cotton, from which they
weave a coarse cloth.
The first American civilizations: from 1200 BC
The earliest civilization in America develops in
the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico.
The
Olmecs
represent the beginning of civilization in
central America. They are followed, about three
centuries later, by the earliest civilization of
south America - the
Chavin
culture of Peru.
These two first American civilizations, in
Mexico and Peru, set a pattern which will last
for more than 2000 years. Archaeology provides evidence of these various cultures, but the only ones known about in any great detail are those surviving when the Spaniards arrive - to marvel and destroy. These are the very ancient Maya, and the relatively upstart dominant cultures of the time, the Aztecs and the Incas.
The people of North America: 1500 BC - 1500 AD
The original people of North America live in all
parts of the country. On the east side of the
continent there are woodlands, where they kill
elk and deer. On the grass plains of the Midwest
they hunt to extinction several American
species, including the camel, mammoth and horse.
In the desert regions of the southwest human
subsistence /пропитание/
depends on smaller animals and gathered seeds.
In the Arctic north, where there is very much
more hunting than gathering, fish and seals are
plentiful.
The first village life is in the southwest,
where by the 1000 BC, squash and corn (or maize)
are cultivated (see
hunter-gatherers).
The natives of this region get their crops from
the more advanced civilization to the south, in
Mexico. The next custom of the tribes was the
earth houses.
During and after this period two regions of
North America develop quite advanced farming
societies - the Mississippi valley and the
southwest. Farming and village life spread up
the east coast, where fields are cleared from
the woodlands for the planting. But in most
parts of the continent the tribes continue to
live in the traditional manner of
hunter-gatherers, even though they lack the one
animal which makes movement on the plains easy.
Pre-Columbian Indians: before AD 1492
The arrival of
Columbus
in 1492 is a disaster for the original
inhabitants of the American continent.
Where the tribes develop a closer relationship
with the new arrivals, they are frequently
tricked, tormented and killed by their visitors.
Two elements make the Europeans both strong and
ruthless - their possession of guns, and an
unshakable conviction in the rightness of their
Christian cause.
The event of 1492, the biggest turning point in
the history of America, has had the Eurocentric
effect of defining that history in terms of this
one moment. Historians describe the previous
American cultures as pre-Columbian. And the
original people of the continent become known as
Indians, simply because Columbus is under the
illusion that he has reached the
Indies.
In recent years Native Americans has come into
use as an alternative name. But it is a
misleading phrase - meaning, but failing to say,
aboriginal or indigenous Americans. In spite of
its quirky origins, American Indians remains the
more direct and simple term.
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| © Щагина Татьяна Владимировна, 2010 | |||