Friday, September 16, 2011

Is There a Shared Culture Between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in Florida?

I don’t see a shared culture between the three. There are similarities between them such as a belief in a higher being: for the Indians the taker and giver of breath, for Europeans there is one God, and some African tribes belief in entities in all living creatures. There is also the idea of oppression, like what drove original settlers to America and then in turn oppression of Africans as slaves and fighting over land with Native Americans. You can take all these into account but culture to me is a basis of societal practices, beliefs, and customs in relations to life which all these three have differences such as the way of life of Native Americans is this shared land and communal life where as we discussed the clans decide the fate of the member who has done wrong which is unlike in European society where everything is based off of what you own and the ability to own property and connections to other people. Africans seem to just keep to their tight nit family units. With all these similarities and differences I can see a likeness to each other in aspects but not a full culture. The fact that later the ideas of the Europeans begin to spread through the Native Americans and Africans shows a more blended and similar culture where practices of owning land, cattle, and beliefs transition does make a new blended culture but to begin with they are very different.

1 comment:

J Chambliss said...

Does the process of living in close contact with peoples of differing background help to create a shared culture? What about the effect of small changes to survive? The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the words we use reflect a shared experience don't they?