Term Paper on "Encounters and Conflicts"

Term Paper 3 pages (1069 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

New Worlds for All: Europeans, Indians, and the Remaking of Early America

When positing why America is unique as a nation, Americans often respond with references to American legal guarantees of freedom that date back to the founding of the Constitution, or, at the earliest, the 1776 Declaration of Independence. However, early American historian Colin Calloway contends that America's uniqueness as a nation extends far back in its history, long before the founding of the nation itself, to the plurality of nationalities and cultures that made up its early ethnic and cultural landscape during the first American settlements. Calloway challenges the idea that America was 'naturally' of the Native peoples and then impinged upon by European cultures. He also challenges the European historical worldview that Native culture was completely destroyed by immigration and European encroachment. Rather, he suggests that the varieties and pluralities of Indian culture were in dialogue with Europe in the so-called New World, and these cultural dialogues created a cultural landscape never seen before. Although the Europeans may have ultimately become the conquerors of the territory of what is now the United States of America, the cultural dialogue between native and conquering people is still in evidence. This has been true throughout history, from the Anglo-Saxon absorption through cultural "confluences" after the 1066 sacking of England, but is no were 'as true' as the European settlements' role in reconfiguring the culture of the Americas. (Calloway, 2)

Calloway relies primarily on primary source documents to make his case, although he begins his book by copiously citing other authors and historians, whose views he is largely attempting to argue against, while making his case about the uniqueness of Early American culture. His book proceeds in a vaguely chronological form, from the first encounters of the kind that gives the book its name, to the final, founding of the colonial nation and dominance over America's land. But the book is not strictly chronological, because Calloway is dealing with a variety of tribes and European nations, all of whom had slightly different interactions. Thus, Calloway may proceed chronologically, but thematically organized along the lines of chapters that discuss the impingement of new diseases upon the bodies of native peoples, missionary efforts of Europe vs. The natives, and the spread of Europe from the early waterside colonies into the frontier.

Calloway makes use mostly of letters, settlement accounts, and early government documents from Europe. He shows how he frontier was one of the most fertile sites of cross-pollination, including intermarriage between cultures. Because Europeans left more written sources, thus a clearer cultural picture of Europe emerges. However, a great deal of the anger of Europeans at home comes through, as Europeans were accused of forgetting civilized manners and being stripped of civilization in favor of animal skins and muskets, as they ate Indian food, adopted Indian ways, and lived in a way that perhaps seemed to be more amenable to the land. But human as well as environmental factors created this interaction, Calloway believes. (3)

Culture is never static, stresses Calloway. The transformation of Europe and Indian culture was mutual, despite the presence of missionaries and other apparently homogenizing forces. In fact, these homogenizing… READ MORE

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