History 347
1/27/15
Native American Hunter/Gatherer/Fisher Peoples * Upon migration from Eurasia, all American indians were hgf. Most ag peoples supplemented diets with hgf * This substinence strategy structured many aspects of Indians lives and societies * Its effectiveness and long term viability were shaped by techno, demographics, and sociopolitical relationships
Where did NA hunt gather and fish? * Everywhere * Heavy reliant * Pacific coast * Great lakes * Great plains
How did hgf peoples obtain food? Some consequences * Mobility * Seasonality of food * Annual migration cycles * Wild plants and animals * Lack of domestication=reduced disease resistance * Acquired immunity * Genetic immunity
How did this subsistence strategy structure society? * Clan size=small * Flat social structure=not hierarchical * Kinship unites bands * Loose affiliations * Gendered division of labor * Usufruct property rights=right to use, not to own
How did Pawnee Indians rely on hgf lifeways?
Where did Plains people come from? * Clovis peoples arrive on Plains 9,000 BC * Plains people/culture emerge from these early arrivals * Simultaneously other culture groups emerge across the Americas * Each defined by culture, language, geographic boundaries, etc
How did the Plains peoples mode of production develop? * 9000 BC = Climate Warms * Bison hunting flourishes on Plains > plainsmen culture * 5000-2500 BC=Drought * plainsmen abandon plains. Move west to rocky mountains * 500 BC-AD 1000 * emergence of eastern plains what peoples and cultures over time emerged on the plains?
How did the Pawnee arrive in the Loup Valley? * AD 1200-Pawnee ancestors migrate east during dry period from high plains to Loup Valley * Maintain habits and subsistence strategy * Pawnee culture develops
How can resource shortages lead to societal changes? * Scarcity of Resources >>> competition * Pawnee use a variety of adaptive strategies on the plains to cope with resource competition * Tech development * Migration * Cooperation * Conflict/violence
What were the foundations of Pawnee subsistence? * Pawnee blend energy sources from three ecosystems * Tall grass praire * Mixed grass plains * River valley * Seasonal cycle
How did Pawnee use river valley ecosystems? * Agriculture * In flood zones of river bottoms * Spring planting, fall harvest * Corn, beans, squash
How did Pawnee use river valley ecosystems? * Hunting wild game * Year round * Beaver, waterfowl, elk, bear, deer * Valued for skins as food safety net * Gathering wild plants * Year round * Indian potatoes, wild artichokes and onions
How did pawnee use river valley ecosystems? * Buffalo hunts * Summer and winter * Buffalo meat * Limited value * Used plants
How was labor divided?
Males
* Early spiring tilling (assist) * Summer and winter buffalo hunts
Females
* Agriculture * Child rearing * Gathering of wild plants
Children
* Hunt small game * Gather wild plants
How did techno affect pawnee society? * Dogs horses * Social hierarchy * Gender dynamics * Energy systems
Guns 1860s
How did Pawnee understand life cycles? * Tirawahut=origin of power * Ceremonies * Alternative worldview to western science
What caused the decline of pawnee society? * Disease * Subsistence failures * Cultural breakdowns * Sioux attacks
Conclusion
* What determines subsistence strategies? * Climate * Ecosystems * Culture * What modes of production do the plains support today?
3/3/15
Evrn 347
Native Americans and Disease * European disease ravaged NA populations, leading to massive demographic decline. American Indians lacked immunity to these diseases.
Why did NA have so few epidemics before 1492
What diseases were deadliest? * Crowd diseases * Smallpox, measles, bubonic, influenza, malaria, yellow fever, typhus, whooping cough * Small pox was worst * High mortality over 40 percent * Ghastly symptoms * Longer periods of incubation and communicability * Native diseases
Where did these diseases come from, and when? * Dawn of agriculture (10,000-11,000 ya) * Evolve from domesticated animals * Social animals * Evolve new vectors: typhus (rat fleas > human lice > flying squirrels) * Example: rinderpest (cattle) and measles * Rise of cities
Why did American Indians have few deadly diseases? * Bering land bridge * Submerged before domestication fully under way * Lack of domesticated animals * Indian ag develops independently * Domesticates= dog, llama, alpaca, pig, fowl * Cold screen of Siberia * Mainly small societies * Disease often kills entire group, doesn’t spread
How did biological forces cause Indian epidemics?
How do people become immune to disease? * Genetic immunity (inherit) * Evolution * Genetic homogeneity * Acquired immunity (develop) * Exposure builds antibodies * Indigenous no less biologically equipped than Europeans
How did the nature of European diseases cause virgin soil epidemics? * Virgin soil thesis * Alfred Crosby * Acute infectious diseases * Tended to kill adults and very young children * High morbidity and mortality = sick untreated, crops unharvested * Example: New England smallpox, 1630s * William Bradford
How did indigenous peoples respond to diseases? * No quarantine * Treatments don’t work * Psychological response * Fear * Fatalism (resignation)
How did cultural forces accelerate indian epidemics?
How does disease ecology model explain epidemics differently? * Disease may spread slowly on its own * Ecological conditions foster spread of disease * In southeast, circumstances shaped by colonialism * Malnourishment * Dislocation * Warfare * Indigenous slave trade * Why important?
Disease ecology in action: Where? When? Who? * Where: todays southeaster US * When: 1492
How prone to European diseases were southeastern Native Americans before 1492? * Transition to agriculture * Dispersed settlements * Native diseases * Economics and trading * Limited contact with others * Warfare more likely * Lack of immunity to European disease * Animal borne = only malaria * Human borne = none (requires human networks)
To what extent did Spanish colonization spawn epidemics in the southeast? * Casuality requires temporal ordering * Spanish colonization 1492-1659 * Mesoamerica * Hernando de soto 1539-43 * Florida * St augustin 1564 * No massive depopulation in southeast
Why did Indians trade with the English? * Kinship vs. commercialism * Reciprocity * Guns * Captives * Economic dependence
How did the English construct a slave network in Carolina. 1670-1700 * Carolina colony 1670-1700 * Exploit existing tensions between natives * Build vast trade network * Reaches miss river * Upper path * Example
How did the slave trade exacerbate the death toll from epidemics? * Already vulnerable * Provides the network for diseases to spread * Great southeastern small pox epidemic 1696-1700 * Virgina>Carolina>miss * Florida escapes * Why?
Conclusion
* Major disease microbes evolve from old world agriculture * Native americans in new world before widespread domestication * Lack immunity * European colonization creates conditions for disease to spread