Chapter 01 - A Continent of Villages

• More than 2000 distinct cultures
• At one point there was thought to have been decedents of Greeks, Chinese
• Enrico Martin thought there was a land bridge of Pacific side of the continent

• Natives from Americas some 25,000-30,000 years ago
• Common dental pattern in Asia and America from that period
• O Blood type-Asians have all three
• Need at least 25,000 years to develop a distinct language
• Used the Beringia Land Bridge

• Earliest North American tools were similar to Old World tools
• 2000 years ago there was a new tech in North America (Clovis)
• Developed Clovis to feed growing population
• Clovis users were mobile communities of around 30 people
• Hunters drove animals into bogs, then killed with Clovis spear points

• Change in climate (glaciers)
• No giant continental climate
• Learned to adapt to their own regions

• Big game died after climate change
• Combined with Pleistocene overkill
• FNP then concentrated on buffalo

• Can throw quickly
• Range of 100 yards
• Lighter but deadlier than Clovis
• Wooden throwers
• FNP were on the way to developing a diverse diet
• Head smashed in was very complicated in planning
• Pemmican was used to preserved buffalo meat

• NaDene, ancestors of the Navajos and Apaches
• Glaciers once blocked path but now melted

• Inuit crossed in boats

• Archaic Period
• 10,000 years ago
• Desert foraging
• Hunting and gathering
• Desert culture was based on the pursuit of small game and foraging
• Social equality as they had to move = few possessions
• Forest Culture
• Forest efficiency = use all the tree
• Burned forests to stimulate berry plants
• Became permanent = Different roles in society
• The Development of Farming

• Potatoes fueled expansion fueled European expansion
• Rubber and cotton fueled European industry
• Productive plants = less land
• Led to specialists
• Wealth was concentrated in a few hands
• Warfare and religion developed

• 200,000 people
• Center of a trade empire
• Mayans advanced writing and calendar
• Aztecs became an Imperial power

• No farming revolution, it was a long evolution
• Nomadic peoples had vast knowledge of plants
• They ignored farming not cause they were dumb
• Foragers consider their lifestyles to be superior
• They were not devastated by famine
• Can adapt better to changes in environment
• With widespread food like salmon farming, agriculture would be as waste of time

• More people = tribes
• Chief was the leader of the biggest clan, and the leaders of the smaller clans were his advisers
• Rulers were to supervise the economy
• No one owned land the concept was not present
• Land was a common resource-goes back to the foraging days
• Strict division of labor in foraging
• Men were hunters, women were homemakers
• In farms both female and males farmed the land
• Marriage was weak

• Hunting Tradition
• Relationship between hunters and prey
• Used simple shamans
• Agrarian Tradition
• Fertility and seasons
• Groups of priests
• Pantheism-a kinship with all animals

• Farmed maize and corn

• Best known farmers
• Were found in Utah, New Mexico, Colarada, and Arizona
• Population pressures forced them to build apartments
• Bow and arrow was used to supplement farming
• Pueblo Bonito, was the center of the nation
• Road and town communications-mountain signaling
• Had irrigation systems to combat drought
• Driven out by Athapascans

• Left permanent home seasonally to take advantage of certain seasons
• Grew tobacco?
• Grew maize
• Large burial mounds
• Trade network
• Artistically sophisticated

• Hopewell culture failed (drought?)
• Bow appeared from the Great Plains
• Permanent villages
• Master maize farmers
• Sophisticated division of labor, like Cahokia
• Artisans
• Priests
• Rulers
• Great Serpent Mound
• City states like North of Mexico
• Powerful chiefs = power to build public works
• Took advantage of Mexican technology

• Late 13th century climate change
• Lowered potential yields form farms
• Less food = more violence
• Nomads probably didn't fight vs. war in farming societies
• Cahokia had a log stockade

• When Euros came there were at least 350 native societies

• North America had a population of 7-10 million
• Mexico had 25 million
• 60-70 million in the Western hemisphere = same population as Europe
• The nomads were not dense
• California was populated by fishers and had medium density
• In the South where there were farming communities population was dense

• Dry!
• Rancherias-far apart to avoid each other

• Rich climate for farming
• Lived in towns and cities
• Confederation of farming towns
• More powerful clans lived on the flood plains
• Natchez was in the lower Mississippi Delta and were class bred
• Floridians also lived in a complicated class structure
• Their city was built around ceremonial mounds
• Plazas
• Ordinary people were on the fringes

• Cherokee was made up of more than 60 towns
• Iroquois had women in power

• Iroquois
• Population was large and dense
• Iroquois lived here for 4500 years
• Moved from fishing to farming
• Had big houses
• Had wooden stockades
• Iroquois Nations
• Mohawk
• Oneidas
• Onandagas
• Cayugas
• Senecas
• Oral history indicates there was lots of violence
• Confederacy was formed to control violence
• It was acceptable to war against outsiders

• Lived in less elaborate homes
• Lose bands together
• Big, population
• No fortifications
• Farmed, fished and hunted