History of American Indians and the United States

Interpreting cultural change

Dr. Kane

mkane2@albany.edu Humanities 109 | MWF 9:20 - 10:15 AM

Office Hrs: M 10:20 - 11:20 & F 1:30 - 3:30

Social Science 60S

Monday, October 30

coming up

  • Objects paper Nov 6
  • email your images by Nov 5 - mini presentations in class
  • Final proposal - Nov 13
  • this week - politics of colonial history
  • next week - pre-contact

today's class

  • gender & contact - Iroquoia
  • trade & cultural change - Iroquoia
  • gender & contact - Plains
  • trade & cultural change - Plains

where are we?

  • Contact period
  • early contact - 1450-1600
  • late contact - 1600-1650
  • Enganglement period
  • middle ground - 1600-1800
  • French & Indian War - 1754-1763
  • Pontiac's War - 1762-1763

looking backwards

  • who made the records?
  • how did cultural bias affect what they recorded?
  • how has the creation of records affected narratives of history?
  • how do narratives of history affect peoples' lives?
hudson
iroquois
iroquois
iroquois
iroquois

trade dependence?

acctbk
acctbk
anon
anon

who is dependent on who?

beaver
beaver
stround
stround
cloth
cloth

Hernando de Soto, 1542

desoto
desoto

Cofitachequi

  • paramount chieftancy: central town ruling alliance of other towns
  • matriarchal, possibly polygamous
  • importance of inter-tribal politics
  • impact of first-contact disease

ripple effects

  • southeast realignment
  • Great Plains: "a vast desert ocean of grass"
  • theft and trade of horses
  • Great Plains: pressure from southeast, southwest, Great Lakes
  • development of "traditional" Plains culture

interpreting change

  • European dependence on Native allies
  • Native integration of European goods - dependence or not?
  • does the research harm or benefit the community with which you're working?
  • what does "cultural change" or "loss of culture" imply?
  • who gets to control the direction of research?