Assignment
Pre Columbian American Societies
AIM: Why is it important to learn the truth about the Americas before the arrival of Europeans?
Questions:
- In Western schools, children are taught that after Columbus, Europeans “carved out” a civilization starting with small settlements on the edge of a vast wilderness of North and South America. Explain why this way of seeing history is oversimplified at best, and entirely false at worst, based on modern archaeological discoveries. Cite or paraphrase something from the Charles Mann 1491 article in the Atlantic that supports the idea that Native American societies had a greater impact on the land than was previously understood:
- What does the scene from Apocalypto suggest about the relationship between ‘Civilized’ (aka Taker) Native Americans (The Mayans) and non-civilized (aka ‘Leaver Native Americans (The unnamed tribe of the protagonist) before the arrival of Europeans? Does the film have an ‘anti-civ’ message or is it something else?
- Thought exercise: What Would North and South America look like today had Europeans never conquered the land?
- How did The Neolithic Revolution occur in The Americas? What were the similarities/differences between the American and Middle Eastern Neolithic Revolutions?
- Respond, in 1-2 paragraphs (can be on the back of this sheet), with your thoughts about the topic, keeping the AIM in mind. When thinking about the ‘big ideas’ of the class such as Power/domination, Control of Nature, Takers/Leavers, and Collapse, what can we learn that would be useful to us today from uncovering the truth about the way the diverse peoples of the Americas lived in relationship to each other and the land before the arrival of Europeans? How can it inform our understanding of the current ‘Anthropocene Age’ and what we can do to save ourselves and the world? What does the subsequent conquest and genocide mean to you with regards to our heritage, culture, and future?
