Humanities Homework Help

For this week’s discussion blog, please write a 400 word minimum response to this week’s readings based on the following questions. Also don’t forget to post a 200 word minimum response to a peer!

1. How do this week’s materials relate to/build off of the materials we covered in last week’s Module 4?
2. Why do you think this week’s chapter from the textbook is titled, “Cult of the Covenant”? What is a quote or example from the chapter that really seems to capture your interpretation, and why?
3. Reflect on your previous understanding of the interactions between the first settlers and the indigenous groups in what later became the United States. How does what you learned previously compare to our materials this week? Why might this be important to consider?
4. Using the “Cult of the Covenant” chapter as a lens, how would you analyze William Bradford’s journal excerpts from “Of Plymouth Plantation”? How do these excerpts connect to this week’s materials on “early misrepresentations” of Native Americans? Make sure to include quotes from Bradford’s journal to support your response.
5. What is “the true story” of Pocahontas, according to the article? How does the true story compare to the Disney movie version?
6. What are the origins of the Pocahontas Perplex, according to Green’s article? What are the impacts of the Pocahontas Perplex on modern society? What does Green advocate for in the conclusion?
7. Why do you think this week’s chapter from the textbook is titled, “Bloody Footprints”? What is a quote or example from the chapter that really seems to capture your interpretation, and why?

For this week’s blog post, please answer the following questions in at least 400 words (total, not per question.) Remember, you’re always welcome to go over the word minimum requirement, just not under! Also, don’t forget to post a response of at least 200 words to a peer. 

1. Last week we learned about the importance of historical thinking and analyzing texts and history based on context. Practice analyzing the context of the Bering Strait Theory (BST) articles from last week. Who was the author? When/where were the articles published? Who is the intended audience? Why should the author’s credentials, time and place of publication, and intended audience be considered?

2. According to the author, what are the controversies surrounding the Bering Strait Theory? In contrast, what are the current scientific perspectives on the Bering Strait theory, according to last week’s PowerPoint lecture? Why are both theories important to consider, and why do you think we began our course by investigating this topic?

3. Based on this week’s Module 3 materials, why might it be important to briefly learn about the peoples’ history of the Valley of Mexico, Central America, and South America before discussing the first peoples of the modern-day United States based on the textbook chapter? In other words, how might the history of the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca encourage us to think differently about how American history is taught?

4. What is Dunbar-Ortiz’s overall argument in the chapter, “Follow the Corn”? In other words, what seems to be the main idea or most important take-away? Please include direct quotes from the chapter to support your response.

5. How might this week’s Module 3 materials connect to at least one of our key terms from last week’s Module 2?

6. What was overall argument of Winona LaDuke’s TED Talk? What connections did you see to our “Follow the Corn” chapter, and why might it be significant in our understanding of this week’s material? 

7. Lastly, please share your own thoughts/reactions/reflections on this week’s materials. 

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thank you so much. please reply to these two posts with a minimum of 200 words 1. This weeks material is a continuation of last weeks culture of conquest, doctrine of discovery, and misconceptions about prominent historical figures such as Columbus and Pocahontas. The culture of conquest and doctrine of discovery go hand in hand, as the doctrine of discovery was a means of rationalizing a culture of conquest. In this weeks readings we saw that settlers were actively looking for reasons to wage war on Native American and justified their actions by claiming that they were enlightened by god and that it was their duty to create and spread godly societies. This was further perpetuated by heroizing and giving bounties out to people who indiscriminately slaughtered Native Americans. We also read about another prominent figure of American history, Pocahontas, and learned about her true uncensored history and how the world’s perception of her has been twisted by folklore. 2. I think the chapter “Cult of the Covenant” was named so because it discusses how colonization was justified through a covenant between god and it’s followers which states that if people should come together to form a godly society, they shall be rewarded with prosperity. And how this covenant and its variations were the political, economic, and militaristic basis for the founding of the U.S. One of the ideas from the section of this chapter “The Calvinist Origin Story” was that “certain individuals are ‘called’ by god and are among the ‘elect’”(48). That is, some people were inherently above others because they were enlightened by god. The colonists believed that they were the “elect” and it was their religious and moral duty to “save” the “damned” Native Americans, and by doing so the colonists shall be rewarded with prosperity in their new land. 3. Growing up I had always been taught that settlers and indigenous groups had been friendly with each other. I remember learning about how when settlers arrived they had a hard time cultivating crops and how indigenous people taught them to use fish as fertilizer. And as a kid, I had never really questioned it because it was the common idea taught in schools and portrayed in pop culture. But as I grew up and learned more, I learned that these interactions which I had been shown my entire life were false, and in reality, things were almost the opposite to what I had always been taught. As seen on page 60 of the textbook, indigenous groups were forced to provide settlers with food or else they would all be killed, despite the fact that the indigenous would be more than happy to help if approached nicely. Additionally, there was no real hint of friendship between settlers and indigenous groups, and the reality of it was that the settlers were looking for any minute excuse to kill them and ravage their land. Things such as this are important to consider because it shows us how backwards everything we’ve been taught is. It begins to show us how misconceptions and stereotypes were developed and evolved to portray the reality of carnage as a fairytale of friendship. 4. The true story of Pocahontas (her real name was Matoaka) is that she was taken prisoner at 17 and held for a year, only let free after agreeing to marry John Rolfe and changing her name to Rebecca Rolfe, moved to England to have a child, and died at 21 before ever returning to the Americas. This is very different story from the Disney movie which portrayed Pocahontas as falling in love with and saving John Smith from execution and almost going to England with him. The only possible connection between Pocahontas’ actual life and the Disney movie is that she saved John Smith from death but even that is heavily debated.5. The Pocahontas Perplex has roots in European folklore as early as the year 1300. The folklore had the general premise that an English explorer travels to a new land, is captured and sentenced to death, and the daughter of the leader of the new land saves the explorer and sends him home, the daughter then follows him to his land and marries him. This trope was then applied to the story of Pocahontas, merging American and European ideas and history. The impact of the Pocahontas Perplex was the characterization of Native women into European roles and ideas, especially in regards to their relations with white European men. They were not allowed to build their own identity because were defined by European ideas and religion, as such, they had no way to escape or change these preconceived notions. Additionally, they would always be seen as savages and had the need to be “rescued” by European idealogy. In Green’s conclusion, they advocate that we need to define Natives in Native terms instead of by European ideas and stories. They shouldn’t be defined and characterized by their relations to men. And that we have too long clung to the romanticized relationships told in folklore and songs, Natives should be defined by who they are, not who we want them to be.  6. I think this weeks chapter is called “Bloody Footprints” because it tells us the story of indigenous slaughter and the gruesome history that led up to Americas independence. One example is “settler colonialists again chose their own means of conquest. Such fighters are often viewed as courageous heroes, but killing the unarmed women, children, and old people and burning homes and fields involved neither courage nor sacrifice”(59). This quote tells us that there was nothing noble or honorable about the settlers victories, and that one can be labeled a hero by killing innocent women, children, and elders detattched from conflict. Settlers would wage war over any minor reason they could find and would do as much as they could to exterminate any remenants indigenous peoples. And as settlers waged more wars, drew more blood, and expanded their territory, they left a trail of indigenous blood behind with every step towards expansion.

1. The author of the Bering Strait Theory is Alexander Ewen. The articles were published June 13, 2014 and were updated September 13, 2018. The intended audience is anyone who is interested in learning about the bering strait theory and the many contradictions it has had and is still developing today. Its target audience is also for those truly interested in the origins of American Indians. An author’s credentials are important in determining an author’s validity and the validity of the statements that the author is making. Relevance is important also as the more recent an article is the less out of date it could be as new information and facts could come out and help formulate the article better than an article that was outdated. 2. According to the author there has been a plethora of contradictory evidence that supports the bering strait theory and now it has led many scientist to begin to rethink the origins of American Indians. Currently this is a heavily debated topic there has been many different pieces of evidence that supports competing theories and continues to change the way we think. Currently more credible solutions have popped up for example the claim for the oldest human settlement lies in South Carolina dating back 15,000 years ago calling into question how people got there. We began our course with this because it is important to gather all possibilities and keep an open mind to make interpretations ourselves. 3. Because learning about the different peoples and the history of the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca help us formulate new ideas about the old ways we were taught. It’s likely that those people of the South america were not much different than those in America. It is important to evaluate how they engaged with each other and how they engaged with different people so we can make guesses about how those in america were. 4. I would say that the key takeaway from Follow the Corn was to deeply analyze the true complexity of trade routes along with the many interactions that came along with that. It also serves to analyze the relationship between the survival of the indigenous people and the global impact that corn had as well as the development of traditions.  5. Module 3 could connect to 2 through the key term of historical thinking. That is understanding and thinking critically about history rather than just memorizing the facts. This correlates with module through as we were analyzing the Mayan culture and the Inkan culture. When reading about these two it is important to think critically about their history and the history of those people. 6. The overall argument was to discusses the many different importances of space to the relation of food. She also discusses the important relationship between food and the indigenous relation to traditional foods. I think this Ted talk and follow the corn compliment each other as each talk about the importance that certain foods have to the indigenous people. It talks about how culture, tradition, and history is all wrapped up in these foods. 7. I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s learning materials. I think each article and video was very entertaining and kept me engaged throughout.