Synthesis Of American Culture Essay

1. How can an understanding of the complexities of culture help us make sense of the day-to-day world which we live? Give an example from your life to illustrate your answer.

The Europeans and the Native American’s come from very different customs and cultures. The colonists had very

Although the Chesapeake and New England colonies were the earliest English colonies to flourish in the New World, they were both extremely different in the ways that they developed. Similarities between the colonies can be found, but the colonies were mostly different. The colonies differed most in religion, society, culture, economy, and their relationships with the American Indians of the region. The reasons for such differences can be understood by realizing that the colonies were settled by incredibly different people who possessed different cultures, religious beliefs, and motivations for settling in their respective colonies in the first place. The Chesapeake and New England colonies had similarities and differences in their development, including how each colony affected nearby American Indians. Their differences and similarities can be understood by analyzing each colony’s geography, economy, religions, and cultures.

The European colonists and the Native Americans of North America had very different views on nearly everything they encountered in their lives. Living in vastly different cultures lead both groups to have two extremely different outlooks on four main topics; religious beliefs, the environment, social relations, and slavery, differences which the colonists used to their advantage when conquering the peoples of the New World.

Within the Native culture and the Colonial cultures in North America, there are confusion, misjudging, assumptions and conflicts among the two.

The relationship between the English and the Native Americans in 1600 to 1700 is one of the most fluctuating and the most profound relationships in American history. On the one side of the picture, the harmony between Wampanoag and Puritans even inspires them to celebrate “first Thanksgiving”; while, by contrast, the conflicts between the Pequots and the English urge them to antagonize each other, and even wage a war. In addition, the mystery of why the European settlers, including English, become the dominant power in American world, instead of the indigenous people, or Indians, can be solved from the examination of the relationship. In a variety of ways, the relationship drastically alters how people think about and relate to the aborigines. Politically, the relationship changes to establish the supremacy of the English; the English intends to obtain the land and rules over it. Socially, the relationship changes to present the majority of the English settlers; the dominating population is mostly the English settlers. Economically, the relationship changes to obtain the benefit of the English settlers; they gain profit from the massive resource in America. Therefore, the relationship does, in fact, change to foreshadow the discordance of the two groups of people.

Economic factors, however, were not the only discrepancy between the colonies and England. As time passed, cultural differences became increasingly evident. Pragmatism and diversity were the overlying themes of colonial culture. Indians already lived in America and immigrants from England, France, Spain, Germany, Africa, and Holland soon arrived (Text, 41). These people were all from vastly different cultures, but mutual survival forced them to coexist peacefully. Living side by side created a mix of customs, traditions, and ideas that had never been seen in England. Over time, the different cultures merged and created a uniquely American culture with a modified language and artistic style. English settlers began using words from other countries, creating regional dialects and accents (Text, 41). “Life in colonial America was as coarse as the physical environment in which it flourished, so much so that English visitors expressed shock at the extent to which immigrants had been transformed in the new world” (Text, 41). The

The Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida, they inherited all of these lands from their ancestors who cultivated for generations. According to Elias Boudinot the natives considered themselves to be just as equal as the Whites, he states, “What is an Indian? Is he not formed of the same materials with yourself?” (Boudinot, 1826) The natives saw themselves to be no different from the Whites, in fact they cared for one another as a whole, they lived in kinships, where there was never an Indian left alone without a family. They followed a society based off of the concept of interdependence, they had in their mind that everything is dependent of something. The Indians were very advanced, and were able to prosper in their society, although the Whites believed otherwise, and believed that the natives were uncivilized.

The possesion of land has proved to greatly amplify and draw out several different stereotypes and conflicts between societies in the world 's history. From Many different accounts all over the world today there has always been a dispute over land. However other disputes shadow in that of the colonial New England settlers and the Native Americans, both virtually revolving their lives around this concept of land distribution. For the settlers it meant wealth and prosperity, for the natives it meant staying alive. William Cronon 's book, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England, illustrates the differences between these two separate societies and describes what life was like during the period of exploration and settlement in the New World. There are several other facts or opinions that one could take away from this passage, but the three main points are differences in the Colonist and Native conceptions of property, as well as how cultural stereotypes and eventual conflict emerged from mutual understanding of the land and use of property by each group.

Through the 16th and 17th centuries European Nations colonized their way across the New World. through ruthless murders of Native Americans and endless colonization, they gained access to the valuable resources the New World had to offer. Consequently, colonies settled by different nations, in the early 18th century had created their own individual societies that operated a lot different from each other. These colonies were founded on different terms, and their labor systems, and the needs for labor, were completely different. Although they had their differences, their attitudes toward the Native Americans remained constant throughout the different colonies.

In the 16th and 17th century, the Americas was being explored by Spain, Britain, and other countries. Many of these countries set up colonies in the Americas where Native Americans were living. Europeans moved into colonization of the Americas and brought changes to the land and its people. Europeans traded, hunted to warfare and personal property. As Europeans established their colonies, their societies also became segmented and divided along religious and racial lines. Most people in the societies were not free. They labored long hours as servants or slaves to produce wealth for others. As more Europeans came to settle the land in the Americas, their presence had a tremendous effect on the native peoples who were living in the Americas. The Native peoples’ life in the Americas provided lots for the Europeans to use. They traded cattle, chickens, horses, pigs, sheep, sugarcane, and wheat, for chocolate, pineapple, potatoes, pumpkins/squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco. The diets of the Natives and Europeans widened as different food types was being traded. The Natives were very open to the Europeans as they came into their land and communicated with the Natives. Over time, the landscape changed as more European communities increased. The Europeans held on to their idea of land ownership while the Natives idea of the land was for the person that need it. Also, the Europeans hoped to change the Natives to Christianity but also trick them into being slaves for the

By 1600, England’s feudal system was nearing extinction, as a new family (Tudor’s) came to power and wanted support from the middleclass and the establishment of new liberties for Englishman (i.e. trial by jury and no arrest without a warrant), which resulted in a large amount of local and self initiative to prosper in the community: yet many beggars now existed, culminating in an increased need for colonial expansion both for personal prosperity and more space for the existing population.

Loans of language are very common to see around the world, do many people learn foreign languages. One main factor is the use of technology that has the purpose of connecting people with another individual fast. During this process, people with different cultures reach a level at which they begin to mix. However, the use of the mass media has influenced in more teenagers to start to get interested in different cultures and also start to use the language loan in their social groups. In this study, we will focus in the Korean Culture and we have the purpose of identifying all those factors that influence Mexican teenagers to take Korean words instead of using our mother tongue.

National flags hung behind tables and were painted on children’s faces. Small talk roared in many languages and the smell of various culture’s cuisines wafted throughout the gymnasium. I was thirteen, standing proudly behind the table that strung the letters “USA” across it. My classmates ran from booth to booth. The Koreans boasted of their “BBQ,” the Germans their bratwursts, and the Taiwanese their Tapioca tea - which my best friend’s mother spent three days making. A stunning compilation of people, the Culture Fair at Canadian Academy is one of my fondest memories of living abroad.

Throughout the premodern period, we see how the nature of cross-cultural trade, migration, and disease is related to how certain historical events has taken place. It is understood how the nature of cross-cultural trade, migration, and disease effected the civilization during the premodern era through documented evidence such as Journey of Faxian to India, Journey of Friar of Pian de Carpine to the Court of Kuyuk Khan, 1245-1247, Pegolotti’s Merchant Handbook, The Decamaron, Novel 1 of the 3rd Day. These documents historically identified numerous reasons as to why certain events occurred that effected the nature of cross-cultural trade, migration, and disease.