The First Civilizations of North America
The first signs of development in Central America emerged in the second millennium with the emergence of Olmec culture, in swampy and hot lowlands along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, South of Veracruz. The Olmec civilization consisted of intensive cultivation besides the muddy riverbanks. The people at San Lorenzo and La Venta carved stones for monuments, tools, and ornaments.
They used rubber for manufacturing balls, footwear, and rubber bands. People at La Vanta built the largest earthen pyramid that was meant for ceremonial proposes. Olmec people structured an extensive trading network, carried on religious customs, and devised the first writing system in America (Davidson et al. 160). The Olmec were known as the first city builders who constructed unusually large plazas, and sculpted massive heads chiseled from basalt. They traded with the neighboring communities and built a relationship with them. The city had active palaces adorned with mural paintings that sheltered priests and warriors, marketplaces, schools for their siblings, and extensive suburbs for commoners (Davidson et al. 5).
Old Worlds, New Worlds (1400-1600)
In 1400, people in Europe concentrated on fish farming. The sailors from the west countries moved from the North and the West towards Iceland looking for fish. From the 1480s to the 1490s, remarkably few English people tried to move to the far West in search of fish and other resources. They were lucky to find plenty of codfish and tall trees that could be used for making smart mats in Cabot’s Iceland. By the 1550s, Cabot’s Iceland attracted 400 vessels and fishermen from England, Spain, Portugal, and France. This Iceland is presently known as St. John’s Newfoundland, and it severed as an informal Hub of the North Atlantic fisheries. In the 1450s, enormous changes occurred in Europe, which includes the use of technologies like shipbuilding, advances in the art of map reading, and the use of gunpowder.
Several things can be included in a movie if this chapter was to be put in the form of a film. However, the most intriguing thing I would include in this movie would be the migration process and the trade practiced by the ancient people. For instance, migration and trade brought about certain diseases in North America. The Eurasians were blamed by Americans to have brought diseases to society due to their involvement with animals. The Eurasians were known to adore agriculture and the domestication of animals. They adopted the idea of keeping animals, as it would help them in case a shortage of vegetables and other plants were noticed.
The domesticated animals could act as their meal. However, it reached a period when the Eurasians had to pay a high price for their idea of domestication, as they were prone to diseases like tuberculosis, however, in the end, they managed to build strong immune systems especially from childhood. However, these Native Americans had problems adapting to such lives, as they were not used to living with animals around them.
Therefore, they had to rethink and invent something that could help them save their population. Putting such a scenario in a movie would be appealing especially to show how the Eurasians managed to survive terrible diseases. Most characters will have to dress in ancient ways, use several languages that can define the Ice Age civilization. In the end, the movie should be in a position to portray the different migration movements made and the adaptations involved.
The first civilization of North America can be evidenced 15000 years ago (Davidson 40). This has been evidenced by the migration of some small groups of people who began migrating through the Bering Strait and connecting to Alaska via Siberia. This life span is critical in analyzing several incidents that happened chronologically. Several events show how the people of the Ice Age marveled around and influenced each other to adapt to different situations.
For example, the migration process suggests that the Asians were the first to move to the Northern Hemisphere. These people moved around different places searching for food and shelter, as there were no fixed homes at that time. Estimating the life span used by the author can help a reader understand how people managed to adopt fire for cooking and protection. Besides, the migration process allowed other people from different cultures to mingle and learn other values and norms that they eventually adopted. The idea of architecture can be attributed to several years of innovation and invention that finally yield the fruits of painting and art. Therefore, the life span used easily explains how one technology led to the next until the world became computerized.
This chapter is not hard to understand because the situations explained can be chronologically related. The tools used by people living in the 1896 era have been advanced by the current generation. For example, the issue of trading was done by the exchange of goods for goods. As civilization enhanced, money was invented, and people started to exchange goods with money. Also, the issue of money made things easier as one could give a reasonable estimate of money to the number of goods received. In the end, both parties gained. Understanding the history of civilization may be hard for a person who did not live in that era.
Some things cannot be traced currently as they vanished especially if they cannot be found in museums. Besides, a person who lived in that era could easily understand the history due to the involvement and participation incurred by that individual. For instance, the Mesoamericans who were found in the Northern Hemisphere are considered the first group of people to adopt civilization.
They intergraded into complex societies with different cultures, norms, and values depending on what one believed. This integration is what perpetuated the introduction of popular art and architecture that was made by the use of paint and wood respectively. Furthermore, agriculture encouraged to trade as people could plant different things and sell them to get non-food products. Such innovations can be understood well by people who lived in that era.
They have to strain understanding the activities that were going on during that time because it was necessary to learn to survive. Therefore, people would react differently to the history of civilization especially because the current civilization has been triggered by technological advancement. Initially, the people of the west managed to influence those of the south to adapt to agricultural modernization. The people in the arctic advanced with fishing, as it was the most preferred way of living to help them survive while those in the Great Plains and Great basin resulted in hunting and gathering. Therefore, considering these adaptations and relating them to the people in the current generation, it may be hard for those who have not been to the named places to understand the nature of survival those who lived in the ancient times underwent.
Works Cited
Davidson, James West, Brian DeLay, Christine Heyrman Leigh, Mark Lytle and Michael Stoff. U.S. A Narrative History, Volume 1: to 1865. NY, USA: Department of Education, McGraw-Hill Companies, 2012. Print.