Wrong actions can affect your surroundings negatively, and can clearly have profound effects on people, animals, or nature. One of the examples that have led to the destruction of culture and nature is colonization. Colonization is the mistreatment of a weak country by a powerful country, moving their people into the territory of interest, and exercising power to rule over the people, and the land. Some of the colonization that took place ended up eradicating people’s spiritual and religious beliefs and replacing it with theirs. Rather than destroying other peoples’ beliefs, the colonizers should have practiced spiritual syncretism. Spiritual Syncretism, also known as spiritual hybridity, is the cultural mixing of spiritual and religious beliefs. This happens when those colonized do not to lose all their beliefs and customs, and instead chose to mix them with the beliefs of the colonizers. An example of this is in the Latino culture where catholic saints and tribal African deities are worshipped as the same entity. In this essay, I will argue that, how European Colonizers eradicated the Native American worldview and forcibly converted them to their own beliefs was unjust. I will also argue that spiritual hybridity is a better solution than eradicating other peoples’ beliefs. During the European expedition in America, they founded colonies in North America that attracted thousands of settlers. The Europeans tried to get rid of the Native Americans in order to get what they wanted, which was economic wealth, landowning, slave trade, property ownership, and tobacco. M. Zylstra writes about “Colonization of History”, hybridization of history, and what the colonization of the natives by the Europeans lead to. Zylstra states. Euro... ... middle of paper ... ...by all countries. Disagreements between countries should be handled tactfully so as to avoid wars and resultant occupation. The United Nations should have more powers to enact resolutions passed. The spread of democracy should be encouraged on so that several sovereign governments can deal with problems amicably. Works Cited "History of Missions." Home - Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. . Mintz, S. (2007). "European Perceptions." Digital History. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. . Munene, Fred. Personal Interview. 11/20/2011. Zystrla, M. "Colonization of History." Welcome to Study Anthropology; A Resource for Applied and Cultural Anthropology. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. .
In George E. Tinker’s book, American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty, the atrocities endured by many of the first peoples, Native American tribes, come into full view. Tinker argues that the colonization of these groups had and continues to have lasting effects on their culture and thus their theology. There is a delicate balance to their culture and their spiritual selves within their tightly knit communities prior to contact from the first European explorers. In fact, their culture and spiritual aspects are so intertwined that it is conceptually impossible to separate the two, as so many Euro-American analysts attempted. Tinker points to the differences between the European and the Native American cultures and mind sets as ultimately
The Europeans were relentless in their attempts to get rid of the Native Americas the attitude of the Europeans was felt among the Native Americans.
The European influences to the Native Americans were Europeans carried the new diseases to the Indians. “Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them. Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time” (Kincheloe). Slave trade was another influence to American Indians. Europeans soon realized that they could provide commercial goods such as tools and weapons to some American Indian tribes that would bring them other Indians captured in tribal wars, and these captured Indians were bought and sold as slaves. Therefore, “slavery led to warfare among tribes and too much hardship. Many tribes had to move to escape the slave trade, which destroyed some tribes completely. In time, the practice of enslaving Native peoples ended. However, it had greatly affected American Indians of the South and the Southwest” (Kinchloe). Lastly, Europeans change Native America and African’ roots. Native Americans
Native Americans have had a long history of resistance to the social and cultural assimilation into white culture. By employing various creative strategies, Native Americans have attempted to cope with the changes stemming from the European colonial movement into the Americas. There are fundamental differences in world views and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. In this paper, two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies will be examined: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic world views and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in terms of explaining changes (or lack thereof) in Native American societies because they suggest that the Native American world view is more cyclical and its components are interlinked, while Western societies have a clear demarcation between cultural elements, such as religion, kinship, and morality. However, there are certain limitations to the theoretical frameworks that explain conservatism in Indian cultures because these theories are oriented around the Western world view and were developed based on the Western terms; therefore, indigenous population was not taken into account when these theories were developed.
The Europeans colonized most of America because they saw the land they had available where they could expand their influence on the world. Also, they were able to establish colonies that sent raw materials home which would make them money. Through the analysis of Jared Diamonds video Guns, Germs, and Steel, this essay will show that the Europeans were able to conquer the Native American’s so easily because of their geography, weapons, and diseases.
The Pueblo Indians religious history is different than the average Christian religion history. Their religious beliefs are based on the creation of life. The persons seen as the creators of life are the centrality and the basis of their religion. In the early 1900’s these Indians were looked upon in different lights. White man compared the Pueblo rituals and religious routines with his own. Pueblo religious beliefs, practices and social forms were criticized, scrutinized and misunderstood by white Christian American settlers. The major religious practice and worship of the Pueblo Indians involved ritual dances. White men attempted to stop these Puebloan ritualistic dances because they did not meet his own religious standards and this happened before the Indians had a chance to explain or define what their dances really stood for. Women played a significant role in Puebloan ritual dances and religious
Throughout human history, religion has played a fundamental role in societal development, regardless of the culture. Christianity, in particular, has profoundly shaped the last two thousand years of history and continues to do so today. This holds true in the case of European development and exploration of the New World. As exploration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries flourished, many countries set out to declare land on behalf of their country, and in an effort to bring honor to their God. When English settlers first developed colonies in New England, one of their goals was to share the word of God with the Native Americans they encountered. This drastically conflicted with the views of the Native Indians, and completely altered the development of North America. European religious views in early North American exploration set the tone for America’s development into a commodification driven society that exploited the environment as a means of economic potential.
The discrepancies of beliefs between Natives’ and Europeans’ and ambitious evil purpose both contributed the conflict. For Europeans in 15th century, the Catholicism was a major belief, and for Natives
The Spanish and French push for conversion among the Native Americas was a major mark in early American history. The missionaries came to convert the pagan Indians and bring to them the laws of Jesus Christ. Some of the missionaries had success and others had the very opposite, which lead to war. Some natives were eventually accepting of the French and Spanish and some were not. Just like some views that the Spanish and French had about the Indians differed depending on the circumstances. Overall this paper discussed a few of those differing views and how the missionaries’ tactics were used to convert the Indians.
The arrival of Europeans marked a major change on Native society and it’s spirituality. Native Americans have been fighting to keep their spiritual practices alive. Right from the beginning, Native American religious practices were misunderstood and forbidden. The United States government tried to force Christianity upon the Indians in a desperate attempt to destroy their traditions and to assimilate them into white Christian society. Many of the Native Americans were forcibly converted to Christianity.
Early American history began in the collision of European, West African, and Native American peoples in North America. Europeans “discovered” America by accident, then created empires out of the conquest of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans. Yet conquest and enslavement were accompanied by centuries of cultural interaction—interaction that spelled disaster for Africans and Native Americans and triumph for Europeans, to be sure, but interaction that transformed all three peoples in the process.
Their convictions were not comprehended and the intricacy of their religion was not seen. This was somewhat the aftereffect of not having a composed arrangement of rules. In the place of ministers and pastors were shaman and medicine men. These men were sometimes said to speak with the divine beings. They were astute and experienced and they delighted in a larger amount of status among their groups. They had essential parts in choices, functions, and customs. "The culture, values and traditions of native people amount to more than crafts and carvings. Their respect for the wisdom of their elders, their concept of family responsibilities extending beyond the nuclear family to embrace a whole village, their respect for the environment, their willingness to share - all of these values persist within their own culture even though they have been under unremitting pressure to abandon them(Berger, paragraph
While increased trading with European settlers provided Native Americans’ with trade goods that made their lives easier, the dishonest trading practices by the European settlers ultimately led to the forced relocation of many Native American tribes from their
Exploration led to colonization and was carried out for many reasons but the main reasons include religion, status, economic purposes, resources and militarily tactical purposes. Much of early colonization was for trading of raw materials between continents and countries. Dominant religions sought to spread gospel and “civilize” the indigenous people by making them conform to Western beliefs and ways. Status and recognition was also pursued by country leaders w...
The traditional American believes about divine are defined along the influence of the of the new world European settlers on the Indian culture that was prevalent. The advent of the American religious belief was first developed in North America, and it included the establishment of the cosmologies. The indigenous cultural orientations of North America were dominated by myths related to the creation of humankind. These myths were transmitted from one generation to another, and they had the explanations on how the societies emerged. This time, Christianity manifested itself in numerous denominations. However, this was the common ground along which the white settlers in America gathered in order to lay their invasion in the Native Americans.