- [Instructor] In the first years of interaction
between Native Americans and Europeans,
there were a lot of aspects of each other's cultures
that each group found, well, just plain weird.
Europeans and Native Americans looked, dressed,
and thought differently in fundamental ways
that lead to misunderstandings
and even violence between them.
So let's take some time to compare some ways
in which Native American cultural ideas differed
from European cultural ideas.
So how is it possible to make a direct comparison
between Native American cultures and European cultures?
One way is to choose a few categories
of social interaction and belief
and identify how each group conceived of them.
Here, I've chosen ideas about land and property ownership,
gender roles, and religion as areas to compare.
Now before we start, I wanna put a big asterisk here
and say that these are generalizations,
just as the English, French, Spanish, Dutch
didn't have all exactly the same religion
or a concept of proper gender roles.
The Algonquians, Iroquois, Pueblos,
and Mississippians weren't identical either,
but there were some similarities among European groups
and among Native American groups that allow us
to compare and contrast them more broadly.
So let's start identifying these differences
and exploring what effect they may have had
on how the two groups perceived and interacted
with each other.
One major difference between Europeans and Native Americans
was in their ideas about land ownership.
To Europeans, land was owned by individuals
and passed down through families.
They had the right to fence off a plot of land
and prevent trespassing.
For Native Americans, land ownership was less defined
and more temporary.
One tribe might claim control of a hunting range
or one family might farm a plot of land for a season
but they didn't own it forever.
Most land was free for everyone to use
but not to own.
So when Europeans arrived, Native Americans might agree
to let them farm and hunt in their territories
but they didn't expect that Europeans would then fence off
that land and prevent others from using it.
Likewise, Europeans were confused when Native Americans
continued to use land that they thought
they had purchased to own forever.
Native Americans also tended to have
a more communal approach to property and trade.
To them, trading relationship were important
and they require a lot of feasting and gift giving
to cement ties between tribes.
Europeans were frequently frustrated by the amount
of pomp and circumstance Native Americans demanded
to complete what they saw as a simple business transaction.
Partly, this had to do with how Native Americans
viewed property in general.
While Europeans gained high status in society
by owning a lot of things and therefore being rich,
Native Americans achieved high status by giving
a lot of things away, being a source of riches for others.
So unlike in Europe where there were huge gaps
between the rich and the poor, Native American societies
were comparatively egalitarian.
It was pretty rare for someone to go hungry
if their neighbor had food to spare.
Europeans couldn't tell if Native Americans
were just naturally generous, kind people
or if they maybe just didn't get how business worked
and to Native Americans, Europeans seemed greedy
and selfish, allowing others to starve and do without
so that they could enrich themselves.
Differences in gender roles also confused the groups.
In European societies, men were the heads of household
and they were in charge of outdoor labor.
Women took care of the home but they also have
relatively few rights.
They couldn't participate politically,
own property, or get divorced.
In Native American societies, men hunted and fished
and conducted warfare which often meant
that they were away from home for weeks or months.
Consequently, women did the farming
since they were home to tend the crops.
Native women also had a lot more freedom
than European women.
They could get divorced, they could give
political advice to councils.
Many Native American societies were matrilineal
so children belonged to their mother's family
rather than their father's and when a couple got married,
the man moved in with his wife's family,
not the other way around.
To Europeans, gender roles in Native society
almost seemed like they were flipped upside down
and they took this as evidence
that Native people were uncivilized.
To Native Americans, it looked like Europeans
could barely care for themselves.
They had to be taught how to farm, how to fish,
even how to hunt effectively in the new world.
Finally, Native and European religious practices differ,
at least, on the surface.
Native Americans tended to believe
that one great creator had made the world
and that nature was imbued with spirits
who would reward or punish them based
on how well they took care of the land.
In fact, this actually wasn't that much different
from the Catholicism of Europeans
who believed in a single god but also many helpful saints.
But where they differed was in exclusivity.
When Europeans introduced them to Jesus and Mary
and the saints, many Native Americans were happy
to include them in their pantheon of helpful spirits.
But this angered Europeans who insisted
on exclusive worship of the Christian god.
All of this differences lead to fraught interactions
between Europeans and Native Americans.
But despite these differences, they also adopted
many useful aspects of each other's culture over time
especially in terms of trade.
Native Americans were keen to get their hands
on the metal implements for cooking and farming
and hunting that Europeans possessed
as well as guns and horses which were great
for transportation and also for making war.
Europeans were also willing to take part
in the social rituals and trading rituals
of Native Americans, sometimes even marrying
into Native American families so they could get access
to furs hunted by Native Americans
and to Native Americans as allies
in their wars against rival European powers
and the Americas.
So as we wrap up, I encourage you
to take a closer look at this chart.
Is there anything you find particularly surprising
about these differences?
Where do you think that Europeans and Native Americans
were most likely to find common ground between them?
And lastly, which of these cultural aspects
do you think was the most significant difference
between Europeans and Native Americans and why?