The Early Native Americans



The Early Native Americans

Introduction

The term Native Americans refers specifically to the descendants of people living in what is now the contiguous United States prior to the mass arrival of settlers from other continents. The United States Census combines Native Americans and Alaskan Natives for statistical purposes, although each tribal nation is culturally, linguistically, and politically distinct. Native Americans are also used to refer to indigenous peoples from Central and South America. Other terms to refer to Native Americans include American Indian, Indian, Amerindian, Native, and Indigenous. Generally speaking, Native Americans prefer their individual tribal affiliation over the more general term of Native Americans.

Discussion

The migration to the Americas

The experts initially thought that the arrival of the first men in America dates back to 12,000 years ago, but recent archaeological discoveries would back the first migrations to more than 40,000 years. From Siberia, they have crossed the Bering Strait, while above the shoreline marine glacial period. After a period of residence in Beringia, and after the disappearance of glacial masses of North America, they could have continued colonization of the New World. Other theories talk about peoples Pacific has crossed the Pacific Ocean (the theory expressed by Paul Rivet), or peoples Europe (assuming the archaeologist Dennis Stanford confirmed today by DNA analysis). It is estimated that a tribe would have come from Europe between 12,000 and 36,000 years, and today correspond to a very small group of natives that are the Ojibwa, the Nuu-chah-nulth, the Sioux, and the Yakama. Native Americans, drawing on oral tradition, claim that their ancestors have always lived there. Nevertheless, the diversity of the continent's natural environment has led to very different cultures.

The culture

The culture of American Indians varies widely. The language, dress and customs vary greatly from one culture to another. This is due to the wide distribution of the Americans and the adjustments to the different regions of America. For example, due to the semi-desert region, the Chichimec as Aridoamérica never came to form a civilization like those of Mesoamerica, its southern neighbors. As a result, Chichimec's formed a culture based on the practice of nomadic. Although, the Aztec and Inca civilizations formed extensive and rich, the garment of both was very dependent on the climate of their land. In Mesoamerica, where the climate is hotter, they would use less clothing the inhabitants of the Andes. Still, there are some cultural features that most Native Americans practiced.

Native American Languages

Amerindian languages ??are indigenous languages ??of America, spoken by various Native American peoples from Alaska and Greenland to the Land of Fire. Linguists who are specialists are called Americans.

Amerindian languages ??do not form a single language family, but include many families of variable sizes, as well as isolated languages. Various hypotheses bringing these groups into a smaller number of super families were made with a level of acceptance varies widely among Americans. The Plains Indians had developed a sign language auxiliary communicate across the variety of their native languages. Many Amerindian languages ??are threatened with ...