1

Siri Bandam

US History 1301 (49086)

Professor Lopez

Exam #1

September 29, 2022

There are many theories about the hypothetical origins of Native Americans. One such

theory is the Diffusion Theory. The Diffusion Theory states that all human beings originated

from Africa, the cradle of humanity, six million years ago. This leads us to believe that there is

only one true race: the human race. During this time, an Ice Age occurred due to a pole shift,

which caused the temperatures to drop drastically. The Ice Age left humans an ultimatum: either

move or die. This was the beginning of climate creating history.

The Diffusion Theory is one of the most common theories about Native American origins

in academia. During the Ice Age, it was colder near the equator and warmer near the poles, so

animals began migrating to warmer areas. Early humans relied on bodies of water and animals

for survival, so they stepped out of Africa and followed their food source to Europe, Asia, and

the Middle East. As time went on, some groups diffused to different parts of the globe and began

to mutate due to differences in climate. People evolved and had variations in features like skin

color, hair color, and eye color. Diversity in the human race occurred due to climate; the

environment changed human physiology.

This theory also states that a mass migration of people from Africa to America occurred

40,000 years ago. The Bering Strait was a landmass that connected present-day Siberia to

Alaska. During the Ice Age, Mongols traveled the landmass and entered the Americas in

present-day Alaska. Once the climate stabilized near the end of the Ice Age, sea levels rose ,

causing the Bering Strait to become totally submerged underwater. The indegenous groups in the

Americas became completely isolated from the rest of the world. It essentially disconnected them

from the rest of the world because there had been no significant contact between the natives and
 3
the outside world until Columbus’ arrival. Originally, they had stayed in northern America, but

they gradually spread out into different parts of North and South America.

Another prominent theory is the Pre-Columbian Navigation Theory. It does not deny that

there was a massive migration after Columbus’ discovery of the Americas, but it proposes that

there was another migration of people 3,000 to 4,000 years before his discovery. It states that

Christopher Columbus was not the first one to discover the new world as there were others

before him that did so. During trade between India and Southeast Asia, one of the small ships

accidentally journeyed into the Pacific Ocean. The ship used small islands in the Pacific as

stepping stones to America. They arrived in America to find it already populated. The merchants

returned to Asia and spread word of their discovery. It is unknown whether their respective

kingdoms explored the Americas further.

The Pre-Columbian Navigation Theory is backed by a colossal amount of archeological

evidence. For example, Buddhism was founded in Asia, yet, Buddhist figures were uncovered in

a tomb in Mexico City. Also, using sculptures depicting Mayan leaders, we can deduce that the

natives looked very similar to Chinese emperors. The style of the sculptures was also similar.

Native American and Chinese medicine and treatments were the same as each other. The

pyramids found in North American civilizations held a close resemblance to the pyramids in

Egypt. It is absolutely astonishing how pyramids were considered sacred and used for religious

purposes in both, Native American and Egyptian cultures though they were millions of miles

away from each other. The evidence proves that knowledge from the old world was seeded in the

new world before the discovery made by Christopher Columbus.

groups have gone through (hunter-gather, horticulture, agriculture), explaining the major

cultural and religious features that emerged during each one of these phases.

The first stage of development in Native American groups was the Stone Age which

occurred from 40,000 BC to 8,000 BC. All of humanity was experiencing the Stone Age at the

same time regardless of geographical location. It was a global era. The name of an era is related

to the technology utilized during that time period. Humans crafted tools like flintstone, spears,

and knives out of stone and rocks during the Stone Age. They used technology made out of stone

to aid survival and make tasks like hunting more efficient.

Humans during the Stone Age were nomadic. They followed their food sources to hunt

and they gathered vegetables, as well. Societies at this time were simple with small bands of

twenty to fifty people moving and traveling together. The members of the band were related to

each other, but they viewed the band as their main family unit. There were no leaders yet, but

everyone worked together to hunt and cooperate. They rarely ever stayed in one place, but if

there was ever a home, it was temporary and often in a cave. This is another example of how

stone was used during this era. Gradually, they began communicating through gestures and

developing languages.

During this time, we see the beginning of gender division of labor. The men did the

hunting while the women, elderly, and children stayed home to do gathering. This made way for

each gender to develop different skills and senses. This time period paved the way for the

advances during the Horticultural Age. Women connected with the plants and men connected

with the animal world. Neither gender’s work was considered more important than the other,

rather, both genders worked together to survive.

future religions, but it was not an organized religion. Animism is the belief that everything in the

world has a spirit or mana. Mana was the life force behind nature. Humans during the Stone Age

were curious about the workings of the world, so they began asking themselves questions about

the ways of nature. They believed that every spirit had a force, but some spirits were more

powerful than others. For example, they believed that gemstones had more mana than other rocks

and bears had more mana than bunnies. Through their religion, they came to an understanding

that the world is inhabited by spirits and the spirits cause everything to occur. It helped them

come to terms with the world.

People began to try to access the mana of the animals. They began to perform rituals to

do so. Shamans originated at this time to lead and assist in the rituals. Shamans were the spiritual

guides or specialists of the religion, similar to priests. The people in the bands began to listen to

the shamans and what the spirits had to say. Shamans were mostly women because they knew

medicine and plants. The first rituals in history were hunting rituals. The first gods people prayed

to were animal gods. Religious beliefs and practices were centered around animals because

animals provided them with food and aided their survival. Throughout history, it can be seen that

anything that keeps people alive becomes God. The animals are an example of this principle.

The natives acknowledged that killing an animal was no longer just killing an animal,

now, it was the same thing as killing God. The natives began to think than animals were the

creators of the world, so hunting became a religious activity and people needed to sacrifice or

perform a hunting ritual before they hunted, to attain mana. The natives performed hunting

rituals like the Thanksgiving Ritual to apologize to the gods, in advance, for killing the animals.

The Thanksgiving Ritual was when the natives would form a circle led by the shaman and thank
 6
God or an animal for sacrificing themselves during hunting. Then, they would eat the meat and

injest the mana of the animal they hunted. The idea of the sacrifice of God made its way into

later religions.

They believed everyone was born with an animal guardian spirit. An animal guardian

spirit was supposed to help them fulfill their destiny or their purpose in life. For example,

warriors would have the spirit of the hawk and chiefs would have the spirit of the jaguar.

Shamans claimed to have the power and ability to merge their physical body with their animal

guardian spirit, so they can “shapeshift.” Indegenous societies still believe in this today.

Near the end of the Stone Age, the population grew and people went from living in bands

to living in clans. People started believing that animals were their ancestors. Animal totems

became symbols of group identities. For example, if a native was from the clan of the bear, the

native had the powers of a bear, but the native was not allowed to kill a bear. The natives thought

that people who died were reincarnated as their clan’s totem animal. Animals were considered

the founders of lineages of high ranking members in a clan. For example, chiefs are the leaders

of the clan and jaguars are the leaders of the jungle, so chiefs took Jaguars as their ancestor.

These ideas are present in today’s world as well. Countries have national animals, for example,

and schools have mascots.

Native Americans believed one way to claim land was to have the clan’s animal spirits

guard their land. If they sacrificed an animal after a ritual, spilled the animal’s blood on the land,

and buried the animal in their land, it meant that the animal was guarding their land. After a clan

performed a ritual, the other clans didn’t dare to hunt there because they believed that they would

get lost in the land forever. This belief stopped other clans from stealing land that a clan had

already claimed. If a clan claimed land, they were the only ones allowed to hunt there.
 7
Since they could place a spirit in a certain location, they believed they could also place a

spirit in a figurine and carry it around with them. This led to the very first stone gods. The stone

gods weren’t considered representations of gods, they were considered gods themselves. They

used the stone gods for protection, warfare, and healing.

A significant change that occurred during this time was the beginning of hierarchies.

Society became more vertical as leadership was inherited. Leadership was given to someone

because they were close to god and had the mana of their spirit animal. Leadership was passed

on to their heir because their power or mana would also be passed on.

The Horticulture Age came after the Stone Age. Climatic change killed off the larger

animals, so humans began to pay more attention to the plant kingdom. Women learned how to

grow plants from scratch because they were the gatherers during the Stone Age. Women noticed

that new plants grew in the path that they walked everyday to get to their village from the

gathering area. They realized that something was falling from the plants that caused new plants

to grow. Then, they learned which season to plant the seed in. Villages were ruled by women at

this time, and they were the leaders of the family and the community. It was a female dominated

world because women were the leaders of knowledge. They had the knowledge of plants,

medicine, and gardening. Women were the ones who fed society.

Corn, beans, and squash became domesticated. Guatemala was the first place to grow

plants from scratch, and it was exported from there. Those plants spread across the globe.

Once people learned how to grow plants, they learned to live around them which led to

sedentary lifestyles.

Since women were the ones leading society, they thought that the creator of everything

was the goddess or Mother Earth. The animals were still sacred, but they believe everything
 8
came from the ground, so they had more focus on Mother Earth. They still saw animals as their

brothers and sisters. They prayed for the Earth Mother to be fertile with nutrients for plants to

grow. The people performing the rituals were also females. The shamans were incharge of

medicine, childbirth, and fertility as well. History repeats itself in cycles. Sometimes the females

take the lead and other times the males do.

Native Americans believed the trees were sacred. They thought that just like the tree has

three layers, so does reality. The roots were the underworld or the womb. They believed they

were in the underworld before they were born, and they returned there after they passed, so they

buried people who passed away. The also believed that the sky above is the third level of reality

which is the heavens. They thought humans become gods if they were good people. They also

believed in reincarnation because everything that dies in nature is born again, so are humans and

their souls. The earth dies in winter and is born again in spring, so they believed humans were

also born again.

The Agricultural Age was the Horticultural Age on a larger scale. They realized that

plants needed water, so they moved near water and created irrigation systems so they can have

water constantly. They went from clans to living in cities. Human populations increased greatly.

At this time, Native American civilizations were equal to the ones of the rest of the world. Native

americans used slash and burn agriculture because they realized plants and cattle contained

fertilizer. The population is increasing because there is a surplus of food to feed the population.

They built underground chambers to store food. Tens of thousands of people were living together

in cities. They built massive public works temples. A city’s purpose was to have a main place to

worship gods. People moved to the cities for religious purposes. They built temples by imitating

mountains. Mountains were considered sacred because they thought mountains were stairways to
 9
heaven. Caves were also considered sacred. This is why they had pyramids that were hollow on

the inside.

They realized that what happens in the sky is affecting them in a day to day basis. They

followed the cycles of the eclipses. As they started counting the days between eclipses, the

natives created mathematics. They formed calendars to predict what was going to happen in the

future. They had to plant the seeds on a proper day. Marriage, traveling, trade, and war all had to

be timed according to the moon cycle. They worked together to build roads, canals, and

administrative buildings in cities.

Leaders needed to be good at predicting the moon cycle. The priests were astronomers.

They were the people of knowledge. The rulers of the cities attained the rights of diviness. There

were no ordinary rulers because they were considered to be gods. Governments were run by

priests. The rulers were priests. They claimed to be the reincarnation of gods and planets.

There was more food around than ever before, so they were not constantly thinking about

survival. They were able to think about the future now. They could think about a month ahead

instead of just what is there is eat tomorrow.

Earth mother was still considered sacred, but they realized it cannot run without the sun

and moon. They believed that the Earth is the daughter of the Sun and the Moon. They

worshiped the rain god because of its significance in agriculture. This was the only civilization

that turned a food product into a god. They preyed to the corn god.

They believed that agricultural fire, earth, water, and wind are the elements of life. All

four elements are one spirit. The four elements exist in the four corners of creation.
 10
Third, discuss the rise of the highly advanced Native American civilizations that

emerged with the Agricultural Age, and outline their major social and cultural features

and characteristics.

There was a rise in many advanced Native American civilizations during the Agricultural

Age. Once such civilization was the Olmec civilization. It thrived from 1800 BC to 250 BC. It

was the mother culture of Mesoamerica or Central America. They made sculptures of their

leaders out of stone. When these sculptures were found, they reinforced the Pre-Columbian

Navigation Theory because the leaders resembled Asian and African people. Around 250 BC,

the Olmecs suddenly disappeared.

One theory is that the Olmecs just moved and created new civilizations. It is said that one

branch of the Olmecs moved to the Yucatan Peninsula and became the Mayans. The Mayans also

thrived from 250 BC to 900 AD. The Mayans are considered the Greeks of the Americas. Out of

all the civilizations that flourished, they were the most advanced. Mayans invented the concept

of zero before other civilizations.

The Toltecs were another major civilization from 250 BC to 650 AD. They built massive

pyramids devoted to the sun god. They built the largest pyramid in the world devoted to the sun

god. Pyramids were built for religious reasons. The pyramids would have calendars and

prophecies inscribed on them. Also, the natives believed pyramids could reach the gods. The

Teotihuacan civilization was known for being “the birthplace of the gods.”

The Mississippians or the Mound Builders were located in North America unlike most

other Native American civilizations. They built hundreds of densely populated cities. They

shaped hundreds of natural mountains or hills into pyramids. The Mound Builders built earth

mounds called earthworks. Mounds were made by thousands of people carrying baskets of dirt
 11
and dumping them to make the earthworks. Some mounds were used as graves while others were

used as religious symbols or platforms for temples and palaces.

Fourth, why did these advanced civilizations collapse in the year 900 AD and how did

societies change afterwards?

In the year 900 A.D, many of the Native American civilizations collapsed and were

abandoned. Multiple factors played into their downfall. One main reason was the climate.

Climate change worldwide caused droughts which led to a decrease in agricultural production

which eventually led to famine. Humans no longer had a surplus amount of food, so they had to

go back to thinking about basic survival. People started to go back to living in villages and

chiefdoms. Many of the major cities were completely abandoned due to climate change.

Another factor was loss of political legitimacy. In Native American religions, they prayed

to Gods of nature, for example, the god of rain, the corn god, and Mother Earth. Leaders in their

civilizations were thought to be divine and thought to have a divine authority to rule. To the

Native Americans, their rulers were no ordinary rulers because they were considered to be gods.

Since the rulers could not help with the rain or the droughts, they lost their power and authority.

Native Americans lost trust in their leadership and government, so they abandoned their cities.

After the collapse in 900 AD, a new era, The Post-Classical Era, began. It lasted from

900 AD to 1492 AD. Warfare arose between Native American tribes because of famine. They

fought for natural resources. The Aztecs began to take over through cannibalism and brute force.

When the Europeans discovered the Americas, they found the Native Americans in their worst

state and assumed that the natives were all barbaric. Europeans brought diseases like Smallpox

with them which, in turn, worsened the state of the natives’ populations even more. The
 12
Europeans, unfortunately, never got to witness Native American civilizations thrive during their

golden age.

Part II: Choose two terms and identify, describe, and explain the significance for US

history.

Roger Williams

Roger Williams was originally a Puritan minister. He was also a very close friend of John

Winthrop, the Puritan leader. He was appointed to lead a colony in Boston. As he was leading

Boston, he began spending time with the native population there.

Williams learned about all the rituals of the natives during his stay with them. He noticed

many Native American practices, but the ones that really caught his attention were their strict

rules against polluting water. The natives only ever took what they had to from nature because of

their religious beliefs. They never took more than what they needed because they believed that

god was present in nature through the spirits of all living beings. In their religion, they

worshiped: animals, the moon, the sun, and the earth, so they protected nature and thought of it

as sacred.

Roger Williams began preaching Native American teachings and principles in addition to

Puritan beliefs. His preachings did not sit well with Puritans who were very strict when it came

to following their religion. They also believed natives were barbaric and inferior. Williams was

imprisoned and given an opportunity to repent. He was given another chance as a result of his

friendship with Winthrop, fortunately.

As a result of his actions, he was exiled out of Massachusetts. He purchased land from

Narragansetts and founded Rhode Island in 1636. Williams and his followers, who were also

exiled from Plymouth, created a new colony without religious persecution in Rhode Island.
 13
Roger Williams saw firsthand how religion divided people, so he decided the new colony would

have complete religious freedom. The religion of the leader was not forced onto the subjects. The

church and state were completely separated. Native Americans were also welcomed in the

colony, and Puritans and native lived side by side. It was a social experiment of some sort

because it was the first time religious freedom was implemented in the world.

The creation of Rhode Island was significant to America’s history because it established

ideas of religious freedom, separation of church and state, and diversity. This idea of religious

freedom was important enough to be included in the first amendment of the Bill of Rights. It is

now a Constitutional right in today’s world. Another idea that is present in our day to day lives is

secularism. Our government is separate from a specific religion which promotes inclusivity and

diversity. Our government is able to think in the best interests of all its citizens rather than just a

certain group of individuals. Robert Williams laid the foundations for many principles that shape

our country today.

Anne Hutchinson

Anne Hutchinson was a member of a Puritan colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She

was very spiritual and wanted to be closer to God by participating in the church. Unfortunately,

at that time period in history women were excluded from being priests, bishops, or ministers

throughout the globe. All of the churches at the time excluded women. Only males could be

ministers or participate in the church. Women were extremely persecuted by the church, for

example, 9 out of 10 people burned at the stake were women.

Women were excluded from religion due to people’s belief in the Curse of Eve. In the

Bible, it states that Eve tempted Adam to eat the “forbidden fruit” but it expelled Man from

paradise. From then onwards, women were considered the cause of the “original sin,” so they
 14
were not allowed to participate in religious institutions or activities. Women were told to obey

the men in their lives. Anne Hutchinsod denied the Curse of Eve. She believed women had a

right to be equivalent to men and were equally entitled to spiritual equality.

She began teaching Bible classes to children. In the evening, many children would go to

her house to learn about the Bible. Members of the community took notice and assumed she was

performing witchcraft. She was put on trial and excommunicated. Hutchinson left Plymouth and

found Connecticut. Connecticut was a Puritan colony with gender equality.

Anne Hutchinson challenged male authority and gender roles for spiritual equality

between men and women. She was the first feminist in American history. The creation of

Connecticut was significant to American history because it established the idea of gender

equality. It all leads to today’s world in which women have the right to vote, own property, and

have equal rights as to those of men.