A brief introduction to the pre-colonial period in North America

The pre-colonial period of North America (also known as pre-Columbian period, prehistoric period and pre-contact period) is the period from the migration of ancient Indians to this area 4,-14, years ago to the contact between indigenous tribes and European colonists in the 16th century, when CE eradicated Native American culture, and Canada and the United States of America replaced it.

Christopher Columbus (l. 1451-156) launched the European colonization of America when he landed in the West Indies in 1492, which encouraged the Dutch, French and British to establish colonies in North America from 1534 to 162, which led to rapid colonization in the next 1 years.

Before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans lived as autonomous countries (also known as tribes) on the whole continent, from today's Alaska and Canada to 48 states in the United States. In order to study this era more easily, modern scholars divide it into several periods:

ancient India-Clovis culture-C.4,-C. 14, BC

Dalton-folsom culture C. 85-79 BC

Ancient period-C. 8-1 BC

woodland period-C. 5 BC-11 AD

Mississippi culture–C. 11-154 AD

It should be pointed out that although precise efforts have been made in this era, various Native American cultures in this area have developed at different speeds and in different ways, and different scholars have different dates for these periods. Every culture in every place has not developed at the same time. Some countries continue to use this technology and adhere to the traditions related to the woodland period, while others develop in the form of Mississippi culture. In addition, this paper uses the name "Dalton-folsom Culture" as the general term of a period, during which many different cultures were identified by their differences in projectile manufacturing. Each of these cultures or countries, such as Evans,

North American countries and cultures have developed a highly complex social order, built huge urban centers, and engaged in long-distance trade.

some countries are nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, which are longer than other countries that build large-scale urban complexes and engage in agricultural activities and trade, but the latter should not be regarded as more "highly developed" than the former. People in the great plains continue to hunt and gather for longer than people on the east coast, because the terrain and games are more suitable for this area.

countries and cultures in north America have developed a highly complicated social order, built huge urban centers, engaged in long-distance trade and agriculture on a large scale, and invented irrigation systems that still exist in some parts of the United States today (such as the southwest, especially the area near Phoenix, Arizona). However, as more and more colonists came from Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, Native Americans were steadily pushed to the reservation and lost the land they had lived in for thousands of years, and these European immigrants finally regarded themselves as the legal owners of the indigenous land.

ancient India-Clovis culture

ancient Indians migrated from Asia to north America 4, or 14, years ago, depending on whether people followed the chronology. According to the distribution and development of countries in North America, Central America and South America, the earlier date is likely to be more accurate. It is also believed that people may migrate by boat and embrace the coast until they settle in modern California, Mexico and the south, while others may be migrating by land. Scholar Ron Fisher commented:

Most archaeologists agree that immigrants from Asia lived in America about 3, years ago, when most of the world's water was frozen, and a 6-mile-wide land bridge connected Alaska and Siberia. People crossed the Bering land bridge without realizing that they were moving. Centuries later, they followed the game, the weather and their own instinct, just like pollen floating in the breeze, and flourished on the continent in front of them. (1)

The earliest established culture is Clovis culture, named after the Clovis Point first discovered in Clovis, New Mexico in 1929. The whole continent. Although it seems that there is indeed an earlier culture than Clovis, the name is used to identify a wide range of hunting and gathering culture, which mainly lives on hunting so-called giant animals, such as large bison, giant beavers, mastodons, mammoths, sabers and other large animals-toothed tigers.

It is believed that Clovis people have been following the migration pattern of large-scale games until they mainly live in certain areas. At this point, they seem to have started trading with others. Fisher pointed out:

Because dots are usually found far away from the place where they were made, archaeologists know that people in different societies exchange them through trade or as gifts. Different sites also tell archaeologists the types of groups that use them: a small site on the mountain may be a man's hunting camp; A riverside venue with tools for making food, a women's campsite. (11)

With the climate change, more and more animals are hunted to extinction, large prey begin to disappear, and small prey survive. At this point, people began to prefer permanent or semi-permanent settlements based on lakes, streams and rivers, and they could harvest fish.

Dalton-Fossen culture

This change of life pattern distinguishes the early Clovis culture from the later Dalton-folsom culture, which, like Clovis, was named after the projectiles mainly found in the southwest (folsom) and the midwest (Dalton), but it has been confirmed in most areas. North America can be traced back to C. 85-79 BC. Alan Taylor, a scholar, commented on this development:

The changing climate and the extinction of large animals urge nomadic people to adopt more diversified strategies to develop a wider range of food sources. Local people must know the local environment more closely before they can harvest shellfish, fish, birds, nuts, seeds, berries and tubers. Indians developed fishing nets, traps and bone hooks to get more food from fishing. Their hunting evolved into patience and long-term tracking of more elusive mammals, especially deer, pronghorn sheep, moose, elk and caribou. Since about 9 years ago, Indians have adapted to their smaller and faster prey by developing atlatl (a spear thrower that provides greater thrust, speed and distance). (8-9)

The tip of a spear thrown by atlatl-a carved stick with a cup at one end for fixing the projectile to be thrown-these Dalton-folsom points are the names of culture. However, atlatl is only one of the tools developed in this period, because Dalton-folsom people are characterized by the development of stone knives, scrapers, drills and other tools. After each hunting, the tip of the spear will be sharpened again with a grindstone, and the blade will be serrated and very sharp, which is used to cut the leather of meat and clothes. This culture also shows the first signs of religious belief and the afterlife based on the tomb objects found in the sites of this period.

The belief in higher divine power in ancient times informed the cultures of ancient times, whose main feature was the construction of large mounds, which gave them the nickname "mounds builders". These mounds were originally built as sacred spaces for holding ceremonies, and may also be used as "homes for the gods", raising priests above the rest of the community.

The earliest mounds can be traced back to the so-called medieval period around 54 BC. They are mainly located in modern Louisiana (especially the Wa Hita mounds in Watson Blake, the oldest mounds in North America), Mississippi and surrounding states, and sometimes seem to have become the religious or political centers of surrounding communities. At this time, permanent settlements were established and plants and some animals were domesticated. By this time, the dog has been domesticated. According to some scholars, it first arrived from Asia.

in the late archaic period, when the ruins such as poverty spots in modern Louisiana were established, the small communities in the early and middle archaic period developed into larger cities. The site of Poverty Point is named after the unknown person who built it-Poverty Point Culture-both of which are derived from the names given by Phillip Guier for his 19th century plantation. Guier didn't realize that the concentric semicircle "hill" was an artificial earthwork created by Native Americans when he cultivated the land. Until 1953, an aerial photograph clearly showed the concentric earthwork facing the plateau, and no one realized it.

Woodland Period

Mound buildings continued to develop during the Woodland Period (usually divided into early, middle and late periods). This term is usually related to the eastern and central parts of North America, but it is also applicable to similar southwest and great plains. The whole African continent has made progress. Ceramics have become more refined, and so have handicrafts, as evidenced by statues, tools and weapons. In the southwest, countries like the Hohokan people have built cities and designed efficient irrigation systems. In Alaska, the Inuit developed stone lamps, big hooks, better knives and harpoons. In the East, various countries not only built mounds as holy places, but also for burial and residence purposes. Each different group engaged in long-distance and local trade.

One of the most important developments is in the religious field, which is proved by the cultural relics found in different places. The poverty point clearly shows the high level of a certain religious activity in the early days, but religion is only one aspect of the place, because it is also a residence. Some sites in the Woodland Period, such as Pinson Mounds in modern Tennessee, were built and used entirely for religious purposes. Pinson site includes 17 large mounds, and the cultural relics found there clearly show that it was never a residence, but was used for sacred purposes.

Native Americans have observed the religious belief of animism-believing that everything in nature is inspired by a spirit and everything is interrelated-so they realize that the invisible world is as real and powerful as the world they walk through in their daily lives. Taylor comments:

Local people believe that human beings live in natural and supernatural networks, not far away. They think that their behavior towards all non-human beings is essentially social, and the creatures involved are more like themselves than themselves. Indeed, in their myths and dreams, people and aliens can be transformed into each other. Like all aspects of indigenous life, the basic principle of harvesting nature is to pursue reciprocity. People feel that it makes sense to occupy a place in another life around them, but they feel obligated to repay by paying ceremony honor and minimizing waste. (19)

This reciprocity takes the form of personal and public gestures, expressing gratitude to animals for their lives or cut down trees, but holy places like Pinson Mountains are another expression of this feeling. It is generally believed that mound architecture is a response to the invisible world, because the forces of nature can be concentrated, perhaps controlled by concentrating them in a mound, which lifts the celebrants to heaven, but keeps them in close contact with the world. Earth. Because mounds are often raised by water, people think that the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water are all celebrated and thanked in the mound ceremony.

Mississippi culture

It is called Mississippi culture because people mainly live in the Mississippi Valley, but they have also established cities and villages in the Ohio Valley, Tennessee Valley and other places from the northeast to Louisiana and then to Indiana. The most famous communities of Mississippi culture are Adna culture (8 BC-1 AD) and Hehe culture (1 BC-5 AD). They built many mounds and further developed trade, commerce, handicrafts and technology. Adena built a cone-shaped mound, while Hopewell was more complex, usually in the shape of an animal, but both of them had religious functions.

Like poverty spots, the mound of harmonious culture can only be fully understood and appreciated from above. How people can create works that they can't see is unknown. Adena and Hopewell have impressive skills in ceramics, artworks and irrigation ditches, as well as their talent and trading ability in agriculture. Yvonne Wakim Dennis, a scholar, commented on the view that Native Americans were regarded as "noble barbarians" wandering quietly in this land. He wrote:

Far from the passive sons of nature described in the colonial report ... Indians practiced planned and extensive resource management. The people in the midwest are not simple nomads, but urbanized engineers, long-distance businessmen and large farmers. (135)

Another country, considered different from the two Adena, built the city of Cahokia (in modern Illinois), the largest urban center in North America before the 18th century, in which C flourished. 65 - c。 In 135 ad. Cahokia may have developed through the appeal of the clergy class to neighboring communities, who came to participate in the construction of the city's huge ceremonial mound-today known as the monk's mound-and 119 other mounds used for other purposes.

Cahokia is a magnificent city with a wide central square, shops, stadiums, solar calendars, houses of the lower classes and other elites, and long fields of corn and other crops. The cultivation of corn by Cahokians is an aspect that distinguishes them from early cultures that did not master this crop. Their corn planting is very successful, which not only feeds the urban people, but also is used for local and long-distance trade.

another big city, today called Moundville (located in Alabama), engaged in long-distance trade and attracted people in 11–C. In 145 ad. The original names of Cahokia and Moundville are unknown. Cahokia is named after the tribe that lived nearby when Europeans first noticed the site in the 19th century, while Moundville's name is quite unimaginative because there are many mounds beside the Black Warrior River.

Mandeville people maintain a strict hierarchical social hierarchy, which is proved by the architecture of the city. The rich live in wooden houses on the top of mounds, which all face the central mounds of the square below, while the lower floors live in thatched huts on the other side of the square. At some point, the city seemed