The New World: How it is perceived

Colin Calloway’s approach to the concept of the new world is one which differs from traditional views. This is mainly because, instead of focusing mainly on the European context, he creates a balanced focus on the manner through which Native Americans and European settlers were able to interact and create a vibrant new culture. For the most part, traditional conceptions of the new world tend to attribute the establishment of history as well as organized society to European settlers and often disregards the Native Americans as being individuals who lacked history because none of their histories was written, but instead transmitted orally. As a result, the history of the new world has come to be recorded from the time of European settlement and the contribution of the Native Americans to the development of the new society have been totally forgotten because of the Eurocentric view of them as being savages. However, Calloway is able to bring together the histories of both European settlers and Native Americans in such a way that promotes the idea of their having interacted and each having affected the lives of the other. The American culture, according to Calloway, did not just come up as a result of European settlement, and instead, it came about because both Europeans and Native Americans made their contributions to it; bringing about a unique culture that has become dominant in the whole country. Thus, Calloway considers Native Americans to have been advanced enough both socially and culturally to have an influence on the Europeans who ended up settling amongst them; in contrast to the traditional meaning of the new world.

One of the most significant aspects of the interactions between European settlers and Native Americans, covered by Calloway, is that it led to the spread of diseases that were prevalent in Europe into Native American populations. The spread of these diseases was not done intentionally, but instead, it came about as a result of the interaction between a small number of Native Americans and settlers, mainly through trade (Calloway, 2013, p.50). These diseases were most prevalent in trade routes and this is the main reason why the first people to get infected were often the Native Americans who lived close to these routes or in whose settlements Europeans travelled through. These individuals would in turn, as a result of other Native Americans further into the interior, end up infecting the latter; thus resulting in massive deaths from diseases which traditional Native medicine could not cure. The large number of Native Americans throughout the Americas who ended up dying did not do so because of direct interactions with European settlers, because a majority of them had not set eyes on a European before (Calloway, 2013, p.50). Instead, the diseases spread because of interactions between those Native Americans who had interacted with Europeans, and those who had not. The depopulation of some areas which came about as a result can be considered to be based, not on malice on the part of European settlers, but on the ignorance between the latter and the Native Americans concerning the dangers of European diseases. In this way, Calloway seems to blame disease, rather than the violent interactions between Europeans and Native Americans in the form of wars that would come up in later years, as the case of the loss of large populations of Native Americans.

According to Calloway, the peaceful interactions that took place between the Native Americans and European settlers tended to be based on the self-interest of the latter. This is because in their settlement of a new land, of which they were unfamiliar, they needed the Native Americans more than the Native Americans needed them (Calloway, 2013, p.53). Europeans considered Native Americans to be potential trade partners, and they actively sought to establish trade links aimed at bringing the latter into the economic system that had been established by the Europeans. Furthermore, European missionaries were eager to convert Native Americans to Christianity and these often sought to ensure that this objective was accomplished by going directly to their villages and ministering to them (Calloway, 2013, p.53). The result was that there was a significant growth of contact between these populations to such an extent that they were able to achieve a high level of cultural exchange. Thus, while some Europeans went to settle among the Native Americans, and even adopted some of their customs, some of the latter also chose to discard their own lifestyles and settle among Europeans. In this way, such scenarios as Europeans having tattooed their faces like Native Americans and Native Americans drinking tea became quite common. The creation of a hybrid society which involved the adoption of elements of both European and Native American cultures took place. Through the analysis that he makes concerning the interactions between Native Americans and Europeans, Calloway ensures that he disputes the prevalent narrative about the often hostile interactions between the settlers and the natives, and instead brings out a more positive outlook of these interactions.

Jill Lapore explores the concept of literacy and the means of transmitting history in the context of the new world. She states that the history of Native Americans has been for the most part disregarded because they did not maintain written records (Lapore, 1994). This disregard began to take place during the early European settlement of the Americas and has continued to the twenty first century where written records are considered to be the means through which history can be recorded. However, the disregard of Native American history does not take into account the fact that unlike European history, which was written down, Native American history, was kept through oral tradition. These oral traditions have instead come to be regarded as myths because there are no contemporary written records to verify their authenticity. Lapore points out that in the seventeenth century, there were a significant number of literate Native Americans who lived in European settlements and who could have written the oral histories of their people (Lapore, 1994). However, not record is made of any attempt having been made to put down these histories. Lapore suggests that the main reason behind this lack of written history of the Native Americans is that in order to achieve literacy, Native Americans were required to completely discard the traditions of their own people and instead adopt the Europeans lifestyle. This meant having to adopt Christianity, speak English, and live in European settlements. The result was that many of these individuals ended up losing touch with their own people; instead living at the periphery of Native Americans and Europeans since they were no longer fully accepted by either (Lapore, 1994). These individuals could therefore not write down the oral histories of their people for fear of being rejected by the Europeans whose culture they had adopted.

Another aspect of Native American and European interaction is discussed by William Cronon who considers this interaction from the European standpoint. For most Europeans who settled in the new world, the vastness of the land and its wilderness was incomprehensible because in Europe most of the land had been utilized and the wilderness that remained was in private hands (Cronon, 2003, p.33). When they considered the Native Americans and the simple life that they led surrounded by such abundance, they came to believe that the Native Americans were lazy. Furthermore, this concept of laziness was further enhanced because it was the women, rather than the men in Native American communities who farmed while the men hunted. In Europe, it was the men’s task to farm the land; enforcing the belief that Native American men were lazy. Cronon points out that these perceptions by Europeans were wrong because Native American societies were organized differently. Native Americans often sought to use the land according to their own needs rather than using it abundantly in order to create a surplus, the way the Europeans did (Cronon, 2003, p.122). Additionally, they often sought to make sure that they utilized what they had effectively, especially in winter months when, in situations where there was impending scarcity, these people tended to choose to go hungry in order to utilize the remaining food for as long as possible. These were customs that Europeans failed to understand and would make them enforce their dominance in society in a bid to promote their own way of life, which they thought was superior.

The common perceptions concerning American history, especially its origins, should be changed. This is because despite eventual European dominance over America, American history was not made up only by the European settlers. Instead, Native Americans also made significant contributions while they too were influenced by European culture. American history can be considered as an amalgamation of these two distinct cultures, which brought about a new culture that was adapted to a new environment as a result of interactions between Native Americans and Europeans. A full understanding of American history cannot be achieved without the inclusion of the peaceful interactions that took place between Native Americans and Europeans, because the contributions of the former is one of the main factors that brought about the success of settlements, which in turn brought about American history.

References

Calloway, C.G. (2013). New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America. Boston: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Cronon, W. (2003). Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 2003.

Lapore, J. (1994). Dead Men Tell No Tales: John Sassamon and the Fatal Consequences of Literacy. American Quarterly, 46(4): 497 – 512.

Eddie Mabo

Eddie Mabo was an Australian man who played a crucial role in the recognition of the right of the indigenous people to own the land in the country. He was born in the Torres Strait Islands in 1936 and it was one of his fundamental beliefs that the land upon which he was born belonged to him and his people. An indigenous Australian, he displayed an astute knowledge of the fact that the land upon which he was born was rightfully indigenous, and that the laws that had been instituted by the colonial settlers and their government did the indigenous people a great injustice. For almost a decade, this man fought for the rights of his people by taking a case to court with the intention of having it overturn the terra nullius land system in Australia which alienated the indigenous people from their land. The sheer determination of this man, against all odds, ensured that he had one of the greatest wins in Australian history for an indigenous person, because the ruling made, overturning the terra nullius system, ensured that over three hundred years of injustice had almost come to an end. The overturning of this system further granted the indigenous people the confidence of identifying themselves with the land of their ancestors and ensured that their right to it was recognized beyond doubt. Eddie Mabo was a man who rose from humble origins as a gardener to becoming one of the national icons of Australia because of the fact that he was deeply involved in fighting for the rights of his people.

While he was born in the Torres Strait Islands, Mabo spent most of his life in Queensland, and was in fact not a well known figure in his home island until after he took his case on indigenous land rights to court. It was only after his death from cancer as well as the court victory over the land issue five months later that his fellow indigenous people on the island welcomed his as one of their own. His victory did not only affect the people of his home island but also all the indigenous people of Australia and this is the reason why Mabo has become one of the most respected men among them. The idea that an indigenous person could almost singlehandedly challenge the Australian status quo and gain a great victory from it was one of those instances which were unheard of in the history of this country. The indigenous people had long been suppressed by the colonial government, and later by the white settlers who dominated and continue to dominate almost every aspect of life in Australia. Mabo’s posthumous court victory ensured that the indigenous people were recognized as a legitimate part of the Australian population with the same rights as those who dominated the society. Furthermore, it may have played a role in the recognition of indigenous people as reasoning human beings who had, throughout the history of the colonization of Australia had been treated unfairly; the court case was therefore the first step in correcting the injustice done to them.

The overturning of the terra nullius policy can be said to be, in reality, a policy of inclusion whose purpose is to ensure that all the Australian people have an equal chance to compete in making their dreams and aspirations come true. Previously, indigenous groups were completely excluded from the majority of economic activities in Australia except for those which were considered to be labor intensive. Moreover these groups were rarely ever accepted in the mainstream Australian life, therefore, Mabo’s court victory can be said to have been a step towards the inclusion of the indigenous people into the center of Australian society. From the very beginning of the Mabo’s case in court, there has been opposition towards it with those against it stating that it is giving an unfair advantage to minority groups over other people in Australia. Those who are opposed to the overturning of the terra nullius system further state that this action went against the proper way of Australian life because of the belief that did not treat all people equally, and instead it gives unfair privileges to those people who would otherwise not have deserved them. These arguments are not very logical considering the injustices which were committed against the indigenous Australian groups in the past. The white population in Australia has been, for a long time, dominant, and Mabo’s court victory was a direct challenge to this status. This may help to explain why Mabo’s grave was vandalized and racist terms painted all over it. This vandalism forced the exhumation of his body and its reburial in his ancestral home in the Torres Strait; a place for whose people he had fought for and won the right to own the land upon which they had lived from time immemorial.

Mabo’s court victory has over the last two decades come to have a significant impact on the people of the islands where he was born. Among the most significant aspects of this has been the recognition that the indigenous people were greatly marginalized in matters concerning health when compared to the mainstream Australian population. This has led to the improvement of the healthcare facilities which are available for them, ensuring a higher life expectancy than in previous years. The declining child death rates has led to a decline in the birth rates, because parents are now more secure because they know that there are enough resources available today to ensure that their children survive. Another reason for this is the fact that the economic conditions prevalent in the indigenous Australian society today do not allow parents to have more than a few children at a time because they cannot afford to have more even if they wanted to. This results in not only fewer children, but it also means that there are fewer ties to the extended family and this in turn means that in subsequent generations, there will be fewer uncles, aunts and cousins, on whom to rely, than in previous generations.

The life expectation of native Australians between the years 1991 and 1996 was projected to be fifty six and sixty one years for men and women in that order. This was found to be considerably lower than that of the mainstream population which was estimated to be between 75 and 91 years for men and women respectively. Furthermore, it was found that the death rate among many indigenous people was at a much higher rate than those of the mainstream Australian population. In fact, the death rate was so high that that they exceeded the general Australian population in every age group that was analyzed. Most of the people from indigenous populations died before reaching the age of fifty, and this was attributed to the lack of the proper healthcare facilities that other Australians have access to. The indigenous population has been completely marginalized in all matters concerning health and this has contributed a great deal in the high mortality rates among them, just when they are at their prime. It has been found that one of the leading causes of death among this population are cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes, and these made up 75% of all the deaths that were reported within this population. The rates of hospitalization was much higher among the indigenous people than that of the general Australian public, with these being much higher in all the age groups that were assessed.

While Mabo’s court victory may have been the first step towards the improvement of the lives of the indigenous people, there is still a lot to be done to achieve this objective. Racism is still as prevalent as it was before the ruling, as seen when Mabo’s grave was vandalized just one day after his funeral with racist terms being painted all over his headstone. In addition, the health status of indigenous people, for whom Mabo fought, while it has improved somewhat, still has a long way to go before it can reach the status that the other Australians enjoy. Life expectancy is still low, with many indigenous people not living to be more than fifty years old, an occurrence which is a great tragedy in a country which prides itself in being one of the most developed in the world. The fact that an indigenous person had to go to court in order to get basic land rights for its people shows just how ironic Australian democracy is because it favors those people of Caucasian descent more than the natives of the land. This has created a situation where the latter are dominated completely and they have little say in their own destiny. It is to either bow to the status quo or risk the continued marginalization of their society. This is something which should not be accepted, not only by the indigenous people themselves, but also by the government because the latter should be at the forefront of protecting the rights of the indigenous people. The indigenous people should also fight for their own rights because not to do so would mean that their situation will not be recognized, hence a solution will not be attained. It such a thing was to happen, then the legacy of such indigenous men as Eddie Mabo would be forever tarnished.