1. Unit 2 CULTURAL CONTACT

2. In this chapter, we will consider:  different perspectives of cultural contact.  examples of cultural contact between indigenous peoples and Europeans. While doing so, we will have the opportunity to think about the effects of cultural contact and how these effects persist today.  The examples of cultural contact in this chapter will help you explore the Chapter Issue: To what extent does cultural contact affect people?

3. Everyone has a world view – that is, a way of interpreting the present, understanding the past, and imaging the future. Your world view reveals your attitudes, beliefs, and values. At the time of contact, Aboriginal peoples and Europeans had very different world views

4. At the time of first contact, The Aboriginal World View was a web of life in which all living things are in harmony with one another and all are equal partners.

5. The European world view, at the time of first contact, was a pyramid in which humans were at the top dominating all other things beneath them.

6. Aboriginal Perspective – all living things exist in harmony and no one group is above any other. European Perspective – pyramid system with humans at the top dominating all other things beneath them.

7.  The arrival of European explorers in the Americas in the 15th century launched a series of cultural contacts between the newcomers and the diverse peoples that already lived here.  As contact became more frequent, these cultures began to interact with one another.  Different Cultures have different values, beliefs, and traditions that influence their thoughts and actions. These form the basis for their perspectives about the world and their place in it.

8.  At the time of early contact, Indigenous peoples were part of a complex network of independent nations living across the Americas. (NA)  These Indigenous peoples,  spoke many different languages  had many different systems of governance.  held a variety of spiritual beliefs  had established long- standing alliances and rivalries.

9.  Although each group of indigenous peoples was unique, they shared similar philosophies and world views in which they lived in harmony with nature.  They were part of their natural environment, and respected it as they relied upon it. The land was there for everyone to share.

10.  At the time of contact, the most powerful nations of Europe were competing with one another for economic and military supremacy(dominance).  Their ambitions prompted them to seek power and wealth beyond their own horizons and they found lands that were previously unknown to them, and they claimed ownership of these lands for their monarchs.  They also set out to spread the Christian faith and European values to all parts of the world.

11.  Before Europeans arrived in North America, hundreds of indigenous societies lived all across the continent.  Following the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492, explorers from many European nations came to North America.  They were searching for:  A water route for trade with India and China  Fishing stocks  Fur trade relationships

12.  Cultural Contact between two different groups can have a dramatic effect on the economic, social, and political lives of one or more of the groups involved.  Conflict, disease, loss of resources, cultural change, and assimilation can lead to the depopulation of a culture.

13.  Late 1400s, early 1500s, European’s first explore the Atlantic shores of what today is Newfoundland.  First contact was limited but Europeans were after the fish supply so they set up summer fishing villages along the coast.  As a result, they blocked the Beothuk’s access to the sea and restricted their access to the natural resources  17 th century – fur trade expanded to Newfoundland but Beothuk did not participate. English fur traders moved further inland for the greater supply of furs.  As they did, they competed with the Beothuk for furs and foods

14.  Tensions between the two cultures reached the point of open conflict, which English traders attacking, and often killing, many Beothuk.  With the loss of their traditional resources and their clashes with the Europeans, the number of Beothuk began to decline.  By 1829, cultural contact had led to the extinction of the Beothuk people.

15.  The Potlatch ceremony was a social, political, and economic institution shared by several Pacific Coast cultures in North America. They were central to the traditional cultures of the Pacific Coast.  The chief invited guests to the celebration where there would be speeches, singing, dancing, feasting, and witnessing of formal business, passing of oral traditions in story form, celebrating a marriage or birth.  Sharing food and gifts displayed the host’s generosity and wealth and helped to establish or maintain the family’s social status in the community.

16.  One major effect the Europeans had on the Potlatch was economic.  Their economy was based on obtaining renewable natural resources through hunting, fishing, and gathering and the gifts (blankets, cedar-bark hats) given at Potlatch’s were made from these resources.  Europeans introduced non- renewable (silver bracelets, fabric) trade goods into Potlatch communities, and the potlatch hosts began to give expensive European goods as gifts.  This changed the nature of the economy in these communities.

17.  The changes became much more dramatic in 1884, when the Canadian government banned the potlatch tradition.  They also started assimilating the indigenous peoples by sending the youth to residential schools.  Many potlatch met to perform potlatch ceremonies in secret.  These secret gatherings continued until 1951, when the law banning the potlatch was lifted.  Since then, First Nations of the Pacific Coast have launched a cultural revival to restore their traditional ceremonies.

18.  When the Potlatch was banned, many religious and government leaders believed suppressing traditional practices was necessary to “civilize” Aboriginal peoples.  Another perspective is that suppressing traditional cultural practices was an attempt to eliminate different cultures altogether.

19.  In Sudan in northeast Africa, civil war reflects the consequences of past cultural contacts.  Currently, there is still conflict in Sudan and there are multiple ways that earlier cultural contact is connected to this cycle.

20.  Britain colonized and ruled Sudan beginning in 1881.  In 1889, Britain and Egypt agreed to rule Sudan jointly.  In the 1920’s, they created a “closed door” policy to separate the peoples and cultures of north and south Sudan from one another.  Northern Sudan = Arab people and Southern Sudan = African origin

21.  In 1956, Sudan gained independence from Britain and Egypt.  They abandoned the closed door policy and the two sides reunited with the power being handed over to the Arabs in the north.  As a result, they began to impose Islamic culture and religion and the Arab way of life on all Sudanese people, regardless of their race or religion.  The peoples of southern Sudan who resisted converting to Islam were denied many of their rights.  These policies led to cultural, racial, and religious tensions between the northern Arabs and the southern Africans. This led to a civil war that led to depopulation and displacement of Sudan’s Indigenous peoples to the south.

22.  Cultural contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples around the world, had impacts on all of the cultures involved.  For example, all cultures were affected by the exchange of distinct goods and technologies, such as foods, clothing, and tools.  These exchanges had a direct impact on cultures – impacts that persist today

24.  Depopulation of Beothuk  Potlatch traditional ceremonies banned and later restored  Canadian Government suppressed First Nations peoples to “civilize” them or as an attempt to eliminate them altogether.

25.  In Sudan, in northeast Africa, civil war reflects the consequences of past and cultural contacts.  These tensions ignited a civil war that led to the depopulation and displacement of Sudan’s Indigenous peoples in the south. You have the remaining class time to work on the snapshots for Section 2.