Introduction to the Cultures of North American Aboriginal Peoples

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Introduction to the Cultures ofNorth American
Aboriginal Peoples

• Introduction

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• Readings
• Social, political and mythological structures
• Seminar
• Economic structures, material culture
• Materials on website
• http//www.phil.muni.cz/vndrzl/indians/aj17050.ht
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• Ethnographic Present
• Problems
• Division of labor
• Gender
• Equality

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Resource Distribution

• Resources
• Food
• Non-food raw materials
• Agricultural/non-agricultural groups
• Sedentary/non-sedentary
• Impact on material culture
• Other important factors
• Mobility of resources
• Predictability of resources

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Cultural Regions

• North America is normally divided into eight
  cultural regions
• Each region has its own characteristic cultural
  adaptation or lifeway
• The regions are

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Cultural Adaptations

• The adaptations in these eight regions can be
  divided into two groups
• Hunters and Gatherers
• People who hunt animals and collect plants found
  in nature
• Arctic, Sub-arctic, Northwest Coast, Plateau,
  California, Great Basin, Great Plains (post-1700)
• Horticulturalists (Agriculturalists)
• Planted crops and harvested them
• Corn (maize), beans and squash
• The Three Sisters
• Southwest, Great Plains (pre-1700), Northeastern
  Woodlands, Southeastern Woodlands
• On the Great Plains the introduction of the horse
  and the movement of peoples from the east allowed
  the creation of the well known bison hunting
  culture

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Terminology

• English-Czech vocabulary
• See glossary
• American Indian
• Native American
• First Nations/First Peoples
• Group References
• Tribal names may refer to
• A language grouping
• Sioux
• A political grouping
• Iroquois
• A linguistic-political grouping
• Hopi

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Group Names

• Terms for groups may not be the same that the
  groups themselves use
• Sioux
• French, short for Nadouessioux, from Ottawa
  dialect of nadowe-is-iw, naadoweesiwag, an ethnic
  name, lit., adders (1761) Dakota, Lakota
• Dakota/Lakota/Nakota
• Dakota dakóta, allies, from da to think of as
  koda friends (1804)
• Eskimo
• Danish, of Algonquian origin akin to Cree
  askimowew he eats it raw (1689)
• In Canada, term used today is Inuit
• Inuktitut inuit, plural of inuk person (1765)
• In Alaksa, Eskimo is still used
• Inuktitut-speaking
• Yupik-speaking