Powhatans Conflicts Europeans and Problems Essay

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Bruce Trigger writes about Native American experiences with Europeans during the early formation of the colonies. He also offers the perspective that Native Americans underwent a "cognitive reorganization" after such contact with Europeans. This can be seen through the fur trade example he provides in his article but can also be seen in Fausz's work about the Powhatan Confederacy. From the initial interaction with Europeans, the Powhatans began a bloody and long conflict with the European colonists in an attempt to preserve their culture and traditions.

Trigger felt considerable uncertainty over the types of evidence that provide support for a relativist or a rationalist position. His best illustration of this was the example from writings on the fur trade. Historians widely assumed the historical demonstration that Native American people continued to recognize among trade relations with Europeans was on par with how they understood sharing of resources or exchanges of goods before European contact and how that supports a not rationalist position, but a relativist. He goes on by stating Europeans were puzzled by how the Natives would sell fewer furs when they received more money for them. However, if one examines their culture and way of living, the natives set out to minimize effort instead of maximizing profits.

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To them, it was more important they satisfy their need versus how much they could gain.

This kind of economic rationality was different from the Europeans, but can also be seen in a universal light. The fur trade and the recent findings and understandings provides enough context to suggest both rational and relativistic factors are at play within human behavior and the need to determine how and what roles such factors fit within the larger sum of behavior.

Trigger suggests, in meeting Europeans after 1492, Native Americans underwent new tests of both a cognitive and a practical sort. They evidently had well-established customs of intertribal diplomacy that directed their dealings with nearby groups. Such customs combined rationalistic intentions with culturally influenced aims. All the while, each culture possessed views about the nature and creation of the universe that were far more individualistically determined by cultural behaviors than were characteristics of culture that were exposed to practical application on an ongoing basis.

Fausz's work about the First Anglo-Powhatan War shows the "cognitive reorganization" that took place when Europeans began interacting with native populations. From the initial interactions came Virginia frontier conflicts that….....

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