A Reflection of America's Cultures

Christopher Columbus first cultural perception upon arrival in the Americas, meeting the Tiano people, he saw impoverished extremely backward community. He said that he met a society not willing to adapt to Christianity, one impoverished both parents and children were almost naked in their clothing. However, he did appreciate how they interacted with nature primarily how they came swimming with boats, ships, balls of cotton and exchanged with only religious articles provided. For Columbus, he assumed poor from material possession but rich in culture and somewhat divine. He noted some observed ancient cultures, for example cutting themselves with foreign weapons, demonstrating ignorance. These were not people to be conquered but people to be assisted. They were all of right size and stature, handsomely formed. They were quick to learn the different words, often considering the power of a given deity. Their lack of weapons, but customized tools of ritual and work were a symbol of deep peace amongst themselves.

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In the Enduring Vision by Boyler et al., the documentation of a Negros was one who was entitled in doing high-quality services at meagre services. Negroes were allowed to work for almost 12 hours a day, with one man or woman expected to plant or work on a half-acre a day. Negroe children were not spared either, and they did piece weeding of potatoes patches. Negro completed 1/4 acre daily of clearing grass, areas for the new planting seasons. Quality of working determined the work, while the kind of work determined through cutting and beans gathered progressively. The article also documented other specifications that Negroid were supposed to do, including working on roads and fences. All the manual job were rewarded measured corn flour as per housing unit, despite their extra hard work in working in garden beans, pruning trees, planting cabbage and beans.

Jefferson instructed William Clark and Meriwether to trace and document the source of Missouri River while having trouble leading scouts for thousands of miles, and the team came upon great falls, the source of Missouri. Their report documented encounters. While they faced a significant challenge trying to allocate the source of Missouri, sometimes teams getting lost for 1000 miles before joining the primary group, the Indians were more acquainted with the Rocky Mountains especially near the Gulf of Mexico. The Indians defined Missouri as the river that scolded all others, as the primary river sourcing other tributaries. The rivers at the North were composed of first mud for the character of the river, precisely considering its whitish brown status. Either way, the mountains regions that the river came from were still unexplored, considering the characteristics of the river was heavily based on how it was configured.

Analysis

Ideally, the three sources are historically viable, given that they documented the unknown and undocumented America, presenting the modern world America pre and post-colonial times. The articles validity is still unknown, whether the adventurous encounters of the narrators were true or false. Either way, the narrators provided the modern reader with America status back then, especially considering the geography and terrain while considering the ultimately rich culture. The land was presented as a rich one that supported diversity, and different lifestyle, while the inhabitant people, Indians largely cohabited with the land living correctly with the natural environment.

Most interestingly, they present a virgin land one sparsely unexplored, where the people were introduced in the different diverse status. The unoccupied land of rivers represented abundant lifestyle one whose rich state, presented equally appealing status, inspiring individuals to explore the virgin land. As such, the article validity would not be ascertained. However, mainstream and conspiracy research justified the richness of pre-colonial America. Besides, the analysis of the native tribes inspires the thoughts of the advanced Aztech civilization; however, this was more on the South and not the North.

Are they historically worthy? Are they biased?

The findings are historically worth; however, some could be biased. There is a close connection with the current knowledge and the results, for instance, the documentation of slaves and their challenged lifestyles illustrated the possible backward status of these people. The findings presented evidence and symbols primarily, a native Indian community, a challenged Negroid worker people, and an endless river, clearly demonstrating how geography influenced civilization (Norgren, 3).

The Invading European cultures were more civilized since they face civilizations from the Middle East and a relatively small land that encouraged competition. The European civilization was more interested in the land resources. As such, the articles are not biased but practical (Coward, 27). True, the Indian and black communities lacked appropriate civilization their noted backwardness was due to abundance of resources discouraging them from thinking best utility to solve problems (Boyer, 93). For instance, the native Indian community never saw any needs of weapons, while later in the river exploration, they still did not find any need of reusing the water for navigation as President Jefferson had expected.

However, the findings illustrated the differences in native and invading culture is not clear enough but not biased. It is, however, clear that the indigenous or Negroid cultures were primitive, easy to invade and colonized that invading Caucasian race were civilized because of the religion (Gallay, 145). Instead of the sword, they offer bible, and the invaded communities were conquered hands down. While the Caucasian found the Indians not labour viable presumably, but due to their exotic status, the Negroid black community filled a critical gap the society, labour.

What can one learn about history from these primary sources?

The presented history of the advanced versus primitive culture illustrated the existing social gap existing because of the geography the people originated. The geography of a place influences the culture and a people ability to work around resources. Hence, humankind best thrives in a culture where resources are scarce, and competition motivates survival thinking (People and Bailey, 45). The history of the place as affordable illustrated a virgin land, and the natives were not even interested in farming, probably hunting and gathering. Meanwhile, the Negroid community were more civilized towards working in communities, and agriculture, although they had to be guided by their masters, they were convenient at using the available resource to maximize food production (Gallay, 143). As such, they would survive much better in newfound America, as compared to the Natives who were used to abundant nature but were least interested in using such resources. The relatively advanced Negroid community came from an equal abundant Africa where resources were still not overexploited.

Also learnt, humankind has huge potential only the right technology has not been identified with time. From the extract, technology such as agriculture of shipbuilding came to improve how humankind administrates resources. Either way, humanity remains efficient if he can use fewer resources for survival. These articles, whether true or false, should be advocated for College Year 1-2 students as they illustrate the actual state of a people while showing what the potential fundamental challenges are.

Works Cited

Boyer, Paul., Clark, Clifford, Halttunen, Karen, and Salisbury, Neal. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Volume I: To 1877, Cengage Learning, Print. London.

Coward, John M. The Newspaper Indian: Native American Identity in the Press, 1820-90. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. Print.

Gallay, Alan. Voices of the Old South: Eyewitness Accounts, 1528-1861. Press, 1994. Print.

Norgren, Jill, and Serena Nanda. American Cultural Pluralism and Law. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2006. Print.

Peoples, James G, and Garrick A. Bailey. Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.