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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
 Posted - 09/06/2003 : 06:32:22 [Permalink]
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These journals seems fairly typical of the wild speculation of the times for anything that could not be explained. "Races of giants" is probably traced back to Biblical sources.
In, general most of these entries were written in the 1850 - 1900 time frame and there was a lot of predjudice against native americans. The US goverment was completing the take over of their lands by killing them or sending them to reservations. The general picture of native americans at that time was that they were "savages". It seems it is always neccessary to reduce the enemy or a group being taken advantage of, to less than human status.
With this in mind, the Adena and Hopwell (mound builder) cultures were thought to be too advanced for 'savages' to have built. Therefore there were lots of outrages claims made to have the evidence mesh with the prejudice of the time. The civilization was though to have been built by the "lost tribe of Israel" or by the survivors of Atlantis.
The truth of the Mound builder culture is much more interesting than the absurd speculations. In grew up in the Ohio area and my father and I use to go out on weekends and look for arrow heads and pottery shards in the area near Fort Ancient, which is a late period of the mound builders (1000 - 1300 ad). We would find some amazingly beautiful stone work.
In burial sites in near Cincinnati Ohio, copper jewlery (smelted from ore near lake Superior), seashells (conchs from Florida), obsidian arrowheads (from Wyoming(?)) and Mica artwork (from North Carolina(?)) have been found. This does indeed paint a picture that is at odds with what is generally thought of as the american Indian culture.
When the Iroquois society was destroyed by us at the time of the of the American revolution, they were termed savages. Based on the accounts of journals from Sullivans army, the typical iroquios village, had log cabins with cattle and horse enclosures. The village was surrounded by orchards of fruit trees and hundreds of acres of corn, squash and other vegetables. The typical iroquois was conversant in english, french and several native dialects. The iroqouis confederacy is thought to have influenced the founding fathers on how to set-up our United States goverment.
In short it is not necessary to invent a race that could build a society like the mound builders. It is nothing more than our predjudice that makes it necessary. |
If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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