Is native american a culture

Essential Understandings | Native Knowledge 360°

1. American Indian Cultures

Culture is a result of human socialization. People acquire knowledge and values by interacting with other people through common language, place, and community. In the Americas, there is vast cultural diversity among more than 2,000 tribal groups. Tribes have unique cultures and ways of life that span history from time immemorial to the present day.

Key Concepts:

There is no single American Indian culture or language.
American Indians are both individuals and members of a tribal group.
For millennia, American Indians have shaped and been shaped by their culture and environment. Elders in each generation teach the next generation their values, traditions, and beliefs through their own tribal languages, social practices, arts, music, ceremonies, and customs.
Kinship and extended family relationships have always been and continue to be essential in the shaping of American Indian cultures.
American Indian cultures have always been dynamic and changing.
Interactions with Europeans and Americans brought accelerated and often devastating changes to American Indian cultures.
Native people continue to fight to maintain the integrity and viability of indigenous societies. American Indian history is one of cultural persistence, creative adaptation, renewal, and resilience.
American Indians share many similarities with other indigenous people of the world, along with many differences.

2. Time, Continuity, and Change

Indigenous people of the Americas shaped life in the Western Hemisphere for millennia. After contact, American Indians and the events involving them greatly influenced the histories of the European colonies and the modern nations of North, Central, and South America. Today, this influence continues to play significant roles in many aspects of political, legal, cultural, environmental, and economic issues. To understand the history and cultures of the Americas requires understanding American Indian history from Indian perspectives.

Key Concepts:

Many American Indian communities have creation stories that specify their origins in the Western Hemisphere.
American Indians have lived in the Western Hemisphere for at least 15,000â€“20,000 years.
The Western Hemisphere was laced with diverse, well-developed, and complex societies that interacted with one another over millennia.
American Indian history is not singular or timeless. American Indian cultures have always adapted and changed in response to environmental, economic, social, and other factors. American Indian cultures and people are fully engaged in the modern world.
American Indians employed a variety of methods to record and preserve their histories.

European contact resulted in devastating loss of life, disruption of tradition, and enormous loss of lands for American Indians.
Hearing and understanding American Indian history from Indian perspectives provides an important point of view to the discussion of history and cultures in the Americas. Indian perspectives expand the social, political, and economic dialogue.
Indigenous people played a significant role in the history of the Americas. Many of these historically important events and developments in the Americas shaped the modern world.
Providing an American Indian context to history makes for a greater understanding of world history.

3. People, Places, and Environments

For thousands of years, indigenous people have studied, managed, honored, and thrived in their homelands. These foundations continue to influence American Indian relationships and interactions with the land today.

Key Concepts:

The story of American Indians in the Western Hemisphere is intricately intertwined with places and environments. Native knowledge systems resulted from long-term occupation of tribal homelands, and observation and interaction with places. American Indians understood and valued the relationship between local environments and cultural traditions, and recognized that human beings are part of the environment.
Long before their contact with Europeans, indigenous people populated the Americas and were successful stewards and managers of the land, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. European contact resulted in exposure to Old World diseases, displacement, and wars, devastating the underlying foundations of American Indian societies.
Throughout their histories, Native groups have relocated and successfully adapted to new places and environments.
Well-developed systems of trails, including some hard-surfaced roads, interlaced the Western Hemisphere prior to European contact. These trading routes made possible the exchange of foods and other goods. Many of the trails were later used by Euro-Americans as roads and highways.

The imposition of international, state, reservation, and other borders on Native lands changed relationships between people and their environments, affected how people lived, and sometimes isolated tribal citizens and family members from one another.

4. Individual Development and Identity

American Indian individual development and identity is tied to culture and the forces that have influenced and changed culture over time. Unique social structures, such as clan systems, rites of passage, and protocols for nurturing and developing individual roles in tribal society, characterize each American Indian culture. American Indian cultures have always been dynamic and adaptive in response to interactions with others.

Key Concepts:

For American Indians, identity development takes place in a cultural context, and the process differs from one American Indian culture to another. American Indian identity is shaped by the family, peers, social norms, and institutions inside and outside a community or culture.
Historically, well-established conventions and practices nurtured and promoted the development of individual identity. These included careful observation and nurturing of individual talents and interests by elders and family members; rites of passage; social and gender roles; and family specializations, such as healers, religious leaders, artists, and whalers.
Contact with Europeans and Americans disrupted and transformed traditional norms for identity development.
Today, Native identity is shaped by many complex social, political, historical, and cultural factors.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, many American Indian communities have sought to revitalize and reclaim their languages and cultures.

5. Individuals, Groups, and Institutions

American Indians have always operated and interacted within self-defined social structures that include institutions, societies, and organizations, each with specific functions. These social structures have shaped the lives and histories of American Indians through the present day.

Key Concepts:

There is no single American Indian culture or language.
American Indian institutions, societies, and organizations defined people's relationships and roles, and managed responsibilities in every aspect of lifeâ€”religion, health, government, diplomacy, war, agriculture, hunting and fishing, trade, and so on.
Native kinship systems were influential in shaping people's roles and interactions among other individuals, groups, and institutions.
External educational, governmental, and religious institutions have exerted major influences on American Indian individuals, groups, and institutions. Native people have fought to counter these pressures and have adapted to them when necessary. Many Native institutions today are mixtures of Native and Western constructs, reflecting external influence and Native adaptation.
A variety of specialized agencies have been formed to interact with and serve American Indian individuals, groups, and institutions.
Today, because of treaties, court decisions, and statutes, tribal governments maintain a unique relationship with federal and state governments.
Today, American Indian governments uphold tribal sovereignty and promote tribal culture and well-being.

6. Power, Authority, and Governance

American Indians devised and have always lived under a variety of complex systems of government. Tribal governments faced rapid and devastating change as a result of European colonization and the development of the United States. Tribes today still govern their own affairs and maintain a government-to-government relationship with the United States and other governments.

Key Concepts:

Today, tribal governments operate under self-chosen traditional or constitution-based governmental structures. Based on treaties, laws, and court decisions, they operate as sovereign nations within the United States, enacting and enforcing laws and managing judicial systems, social well-being, natural resources, and economic, educational, and other programs for their members. Tribal governments are also responsible for interactions with American federal, state, and municipal governments.
Long before European colonization, American Indians had developed a variety of complex systems of government that embodied important principles for effective rule. American Indian governments and leaders interacted, recognized each other's sovereignty, practiced diplomacy, built strategic alliances, waged wars, and negotiated peace accords.
After 1492, American Indians suffered diseases and genocidal events that resulted in death on a catastrophic scale and the rapid decimation of Native populations. These episodes greatly compromised the continuity of existing tribal government structures.
A variety of political, economic, legal, military, and social policies were used by Europeans and Americans to remove and relocate American Indians and to destroy their cultures. U.S. policies regarding American Indians were the result of major national debate. Many of these policies had a devastating effect on established American Indian governing principles and systems. Other policies sought to strengthen and restore tribal self-government.

A variety of historical policy periods have had a major impact on American Indian people's abilities to self-govern. These include:
- Colonization Period, since 1492
- Treaty Period, 1789–1871
- Removal Period, 1834–1871
- Allotment/Assimilation Period, 1887–1934
- Tribal Reorganization, 1934–1958
- Termination, 1953–1988
- Self-Determination, 1975–present

7. Production, Distribution and Consumption

American Indians developed a variety of economic systems that reflected their cultures and managed their relationships with others. Prior to European arrival in the Americas, American Indians produced and traded goods and technologies using well-developed systems of trails and widespread transcontinental, intertribal trade routes. Today, American Indian tribes and individuals are active in economic enterprises that involve production and distribution.

Key Concepts:

For thousands of years American Indians developed and operated vast trade networks throughout the Western Hemisphere.
American Indians traded, exchanged, gifted, and negotiated the purchase of goods, foods, technologies, domestic animals, ideas, and cultural practices with one another.
American Indians played influential and powerful roles in trade and exchange economies with partners in Europe during the colonial period. These activities also supported the development and growth of the United States.
Today, American Indians are involved in a variety of economic enterprises, set economic policies for their nations, and own and manage natural resources that affect the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services throughout much of the United States.

8. Science, Technology, and Society

American Indian knowledge resides in languages, cultural practices, and teaching that spans many generations. This knowledge is based on long-term observation, experimentation, and experience with the living earth. Indigenous knowledge has sustained American Indian cultures for thousands of years. When applied to contemporary global challenges, Native knowledge contributes to dynamic and innovative solutions.

Key Concepts:

American Indian knowledge can inform the ongoing search for new solutions to contemporary issues.
American Indian knowledge reflects a relationship developed over millennia with the living earth based on keen observation, experimentation, and practice.
American Indian knowledge is closely tied to languages, cultural values, and practices. It is founded on the recognition of the relationships between humans and the world around them.
American Indian knowledge allowed American Indians to live productive, innovative, and sustainable lives in the diverse environments of the Western Hemisphere.
American Indian knowledge and related innovations, goods, and technologies (e.g., agriculture) have had enormous global impact.
Major social, cultural, and economic changes took place in American Indian cultures as a result of the acquisition of goods and technologies from Europeans and others.
Much American Indian knowledge was destroyed in the years after contact with Europeans. Nevertheless, the intergenerational transfer of traditional knowledge, the recovery of cultural practices, and the creation of new knowledge continue in American Indian communities today.

9. Global Connections

Much American Indian knowledge was destroyed in the years after contact with Europeans. Nevertheless, the intergenerational transfer of traditional knowledge, the recovery of cultural practices, and the creation of new knowledge continue in American Indian communities today.

Key Concepts:

Interactions among American Indian communities across the Americas contributed to the change, growth, and vitality of Native nations.
Global interactions with Europeans and others had both positive and negative consequences for American Indians.
The knowledge and perspectives of American Indians and other indigenous people around the world have the potential to inform solutions as global interdependence intensifies and change accelerates.
As sovereign independent nations, American Indian tribes and their citizens are participants in global politics, economies, and other facets of contemporary life.

10. Civic Ideals and Practices

Ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship have always been part of American Indian societies. The rights and responsibilities of American Indian individuals have been defined by the values, morals, and beliefs common to their cultures. American Indians today may be citizens of their tribal nations, the states they live in, and the United States.

Key Concepts:

As citizens of their tribal nations, American Indians have always had certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities that are tied to cultural values and beliefs and thus vary from culture to culture.
Not all American Indians today are citizens of their tribes.
American Indians have acquired U.S. citizenship through a variety of means, including certain treaties and military service. Citizenship for all American Indians did not occur until the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
Some American Indian people have neither desired nor accepted U.S. citizenship.
American Indians today may be citizens of their tribes, the United States, and the states in which they live.
As U.S. citizens, American Indians have often been denied the same rights and privileges as other U.S. citizens. They have formed movements to gain equitable rights and privileges.
More than 560 tribal governments are recognized by the United States as having rights of sovereign self-government. Dozens of other tribes are recognized by various state governments, whose authorities and responsibilities differ according to the laws of the states.

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Native American, also called American Indian, Amerindian, Amerind, Indian, aboriginal American, or First Nation person, member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, although the term often connotes only those groups whose original territories were in present-day Canada and the United States.

Pre-Columbian Americans used technology and material culture that included fire and the fire drill; the domesticated dog; stone implements of many kinds; the spear-thrower (atlatl), harpoon, and bow and arrow; and cordage, netting, basketry, and, in some places, pottery. Many indigenous American groups were hunting-and-gathering cultures, while others were agricultural peoples. American Indians domesticated a variety of plants and animals, including corn (maize), beans, squash, potatoes and other tubers, turkeys, llamas, and alpacas, as well as a variety of semidomesticated species of nut- and seed-bearing plants. These and other resources were used to support communities ranging from small hamlets to cities such as Cahokia, with an estimated population of 10,000 to 20,000 individuals, and Teotihuacán, with some 125,000 to 200,000 residents.

At the dawn of the 16th century ce, as the European conquest of the Americas began, indigenous peoples resided throughout the Western Hemisphere. They were soon decimated by the effects of epidemic disease, military conquest, and enslavement, and, as with other colonized peoples, they were subject to discriminatory political and legal policies well into the 20th, and even the 21st, century. Nonetheless, they have been among the most active and successful native peoples in effecting political change and regaining their autonomy in areas such as education, land ownership, religious freedom, the law, and the revitalization of traditional culture.

Learn about the efforts of the National Museum of the American Indian to preserve Native American culture, traditions, and beliefs

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Culturally, the indigenous peoples of the Americas are usually recognized as constituting two broad groupings, American Indians and Arctic peoples. American Indians are often further grouped by area of residence: Northern America (present-day United States and Canada), Middle America (present-day Mexico and Central America; sometimes called Mesoamerica), and South America. This article is a survey of the culture areas, prehistories, histories, and recent developments of the indigenous peoples and cultures of the United States and Canada. Some of the terminology used in reference to indigenous Americans is explained in Sidebar: Tribal Nomenclature: American Indian, Native American, and First Nation; Sidebar: The Difference Between a Tribe and a Band; and Sidebar: Native American Self-Names. An overview of all the indigenous peoples of the Americas is presented in American Indian; discussions of various aspects of indigenous American cultures may also be found in the articles pre-Columbian civilizations; Middle American Indian; South American Indian; Arctic: The people; American Indian languages; Native American religions; and Native American arts.

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Native American culture areas

Comparative studies are an essential component of all scholarly analyses, whether the topic under study is human society, fine art, paleontology, or chemistry; the similarities and differences found in the entities under consideration help to organize and direct research programs and exegeses. The comparative study of cultures falls largely in the domain of anthropology, which often uses a typology known as the culture area approach to organize comparisons across cultures.

The culture area approach was delineated at the turn of the 20th century and continued to frame discussions of peoples and cultures into the 21st century. A culture area is a geographic region where certain cultural traits have generally co-occurred; for instance, in North America between the 16th and 19th centuries, the Northwest Coast culture area was characterized by traits such as salmon fishing, woodworking, large villages or towns, and hierarchical social organization.

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The specific number of culture areas delineated for Native America has been somewhat variable because regions are sometimes subdivided or conjoined. The 10 culture areas discussed below are among the most commonly used—the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great Basin, California, the Northwest Coast, and the Plateau. Notably, some scholars prefer to combine the Northeast and Southeast into one Eastern Woodlands culture area or the Plateau and Great Basin into a single Intermontane culture area. Each section below considers the location, climate, environment, languages, tribes, and common cultural characteristics of the area before it was heavily colonized. Prehistoric and post-Columbian Native American cultures are discussed in subsequent sections of this article. A discussion of the indigenous peoples of the Americas as a whole is found in American Indian.

Indian culture: traditions and customs of India - News of Tajikistan

Avesta.Tj | 06/30/2020 | The culture of India is one of the oldest in the world; Civilization in India began about 4500 years ago. Many sources describe it as "Sa Pratama Sanskrati Vishvavara" - the first and highest culture in the world. India has been the target of many invasions and thus this has only added to the diversity that exists today. India today is a powerful and multicultural society as it has absorbed many cultures and moved on. People here followed different religions, traditions and customs. Although people today are becoming modern, they still adhere to moral values and celebrate holidays in accordance with customs. So, we are still living and learning epic lessons from Ramayana and Mahabharata. In addition, people still crowd into Gurudwaras, temples, churches and mosques. Culture in India is everything from people's lives, rituals, values, beliefs, habits, concerns, knowledge, etc. In addition, culture is the way we behave with other people, how gently we react to different things , our understanding of ethics, values and beliefs. People from the old generation pass on their beliefs and culture to the next generation. Thus, every child who behaves well with others has already learned about their culture from grandparents and parents. In addition, here we can see culture in everything, for example, in fashion, music, dance, social norms, food, etc. Thus, India is one big melting pot of behaviors and beliefs that gave birth to different cultures.

Indians have also made significant progress in architecture (Taj Mahal), mathematics (invention of zero) and medicine (Ayurveda). Today, India is a very diverse country with over 1.2 billion people, making it the second most populous country after China. Different regions have their own special cultures. Language, religion, food and art are just some of the facets of Indian culture.

Briefly about how diverse and beautiful Indian culture is.

Language

India has 28 states and seven territories. In accordance with the Gujarat High Court ruling in 2010, there is no official language in India, although Hindi is the official language of the government. The Constitution of India officially recognizes 23 official languages.

Many people living in India write in the Devanagari script. In fact, it is a misconception that most people in India speak Hindi. Although many people speak Hindi in India, 59 percent of Indians speak non-Hindi. Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu are some of the other languages spoken in the country.

Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-European language commonly used in action movies, comes from northern India. How the language began has been a point of contention among linguists. It has much in common with English, French, Farsi and Russian. A new DNA study in 2017 found that an Aryan invasion may have been the origin of Sanskrit. People have been discussing the emergence of Indo-European languages in India for hundreds of years. There has been a very lengthy debate about whether the Indo-European languages were derived from migrations from outside, this is something most linguists would accept, or if they evolved radically.

Religion

India is identified as the birthplace of Hinduism and Buddhism, the third and fourth largest religions. About 80 percent of the population identifies themselves as Hindu. There are many varieties of Hinduism and the four predominant sects are Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakteya and Smarta.

About 14 percent of Indians are Muslims, making it one of the largest Islamic nations in the world. Christians and Sikhs make up a small percentage of the population (2.3 percent and 1.7 percent respectively), and even fewer Buddhists and Jains.

Food

When the Mughal Empire invaded in the sixteenth century, they left a significant mark on Indian cuisine. Indian cuisine is also influenced by many other countries. It is known for its wide range of dishes and the free use of herbs and spices. Cooking styles vary from region to region.

Wheat, basmati rice and beans with chana (bengali gram) are important foods in Indian cuisine. The food is rich in curries and spices, including ginger, coriander, cardamom, turmeric, dried hot peppers and cinnamon, among others. Chutneys are thick seasonings and spreads made from various fruits and vegetables such as tamarind, tomatoes and mint, cilantro and other herbs, and are used generously in Indian cuisine.

Many Hindus are vegetarians, but lamb and chicken are staples for non-vegetarians. Between 20 and 40 percent of the Indian population are vegetarians.

Most Indian food is eaten with fingers or bread used as utensils. A wide range of breads are served during meals, including naan, an oven-baked flatbread; and bhatoora, fried, fluffy flatbread common in North India and eaten with chickpea curries.

Architecture and art

The most famous example of Indian architecture is the Taj Mahal, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in honor of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It combines elements from Islamic, Persian, Turkish and Indian architectural styles. In India, there are also many ancient temples.

India is known for its film industry, often referred to as Bollywood. The history of the country's cinema began in 1896, when the Lumiere brothers demonstrated the art of cinema in Mumbai. Today, films are known for their elaborate singing and dancing.

Indian dance, music and theater traditions span over 2000 years. The main traditions of classical dance - Bharata Natyam, Kathak, Odissi, Manipuri, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam and Kathakali - are based on themes from mythology and literature and have strict rules of performance.

A study published in April 2016 in the Journal of Indian Ocean Archeology found that some Indian horns have much in common with horns made in Ireland. This study may suggest that the two countries may have exchanged ideas and techniques for making musical instruments during the Bronze Age. Some of the antlers are frankly shockingly similar, to the point where it's like you're seeing time travel.

Clothing

Indian clothing is closely related to the colorful silk saris worn by many women in the country. The traditional garment for men is the dhoti, an unsewn piece of cloth tied around the waist and legs. Men also wear a kurta, a loose shirt that is worn to the knees. For special occasions, men wear shervani or ahkan, a long coat with a collar without lapels. It fastens up to the collar and down to the knees. A shortened version of the shervani is called the Nehru jacket. It is named after Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India from 1947 to 1964, but Nehru never wore Nehru's jacket. The Nehru jacket is mainly sold in the West.

Customs and holidays

Diwali is the largest and most important festival in India. It is a five-day holiday known as the Festival of Lights because of the lights lit during the celebration to symbolize the inner light that protects them from spiritual darkness. Holi, the festival of colors, also called the festival of love, is popular in the spring. The country also celebrates Republic Day (January 26), Independence Day (August 15), and Mahatma Gandhi's birthday (October 2).

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What Indians believe • Arzamas

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CourseMyths of South AmericaLecturesMaterials

Historian Dmitry Belyaev about what the mythology of South and Central America as a whole was like before Europeans came there

Recorded by Tatyana Zarubina

One can speak about the mythology of the Indians as a single complex of beliefs with a certain degree of approximation. The Indians are descended from several groups of migrants who came to the New World at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, about
14-16 thousand years ago. The people who came to America already had some ideas about the supernatural and adapted the myths and stories that existed among them to local conditions. As a result, these groups had common mythological plots and motifs. But as for ideas about how the world was created and how deities look like, there is no unity here, moreover, there are mythologies where there are no deities at all, but only spirits. 15,000 years ago, people did not yet have a developed religion, it appears later. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, something resembling a pantheon, a certain divine hierarchy managed to take shape only in the so-called high civilizations: in Mesoamerica (this is present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and a few other countries of Central America) and in the Central Andes (mainly in Peru and Bolivia ). Perhaps the richest record comes from Mesoamerica, as there is an extensive tradition associated with written cultures and developed "priestly mythologies."

Sacred Knowledge

One of the most important features that unites all American Indians is the close connection of mythology with sacred and ritual knowledge, the control of which (and, accordingly, myths) in the New World plays a very important role. There can be many sources of power: control over the economy, resources or population, and military functions, but among the Indians, one of the main sources of power was control over the supernatural sphere.

In high civilizations, the intellectual elite, associated with the storage of sacred knowledge, influenced the formation and dissemination of mythological plots. In Mesoamerica, writing is also emerging - a new way of fixing mythology and controlling it. In somewhat less developed societies, where there was a hierarchy, hereditary leaders and centralized decision-making, the ideology of supreme power also had its influence on mythology. But there were a lot of societies that remained at the level of independent communities: early farmers, hunters and gatherers. They did not create any complex mythologies.

Deities

The Indians have different categories of supernatural beings. It is customary to call the most powerful of them deities, but these are not at all the deities to which we are accustomed in the Old World, because the concept of the supernatural among the Indians is organized differently. Native American deities may be anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, or ornithomorphic.

It is impossible to make a common pantheon for Indian societies: in different cultural and political situations, the same creature can be considered more or less strong, somewhere there are local patron deities; in some city, two deities can merge into one character.

God Tlaloc. Drawing from the Codex Lauda. 16th century © Bodleian Library, Oxford

One of the most important deities in all Indian mythology is the deity responsible for rain and thunderstorms. For example, in Teotihuacan in the 6th century AD, such a deity was Tlaloc, the deity of rain (in fact, we do not know his name, but that was the name of a deity similar to him in the 16th century). This is not exactly the supreme deity - it is more accurate to speak of him as a deity associated with supreme power, because it is most often represented in art related to the presentation of power: the Teotihuacan ruler was depicted with the attributes of Tlaloc, sometimes he put on his mask and robes.

The Aztecs in the 15th-16th centuries, just before the conquest, had the god Huitzilopochtli, the “left-handed hummingbird.” It was believed that it was he who brought these people from the legendary ancestral home. They had two temples at the top of the pyramid: one - Huitzilopochtli, and the second - Tlaloc. And it is very difficult to say with which deity they primarily associated supreme power. And among the Maya, a deity played a very important role, which the Spaniards recorded under the name Itzamna, with two incarnations - bird and human. It was considered the patron saint of royal power, was associated with writing, calendar and wisdom. At the same time, the Mayan god was considered the first king, and therefore the kings, when they ascended the throne, likened themselves to the god of corn.

First people

In American mythology, there are many different versions of the origin of the first people. One of the most interesting is that the first people were not created on earth, but came from a hole in the earth or from a cave. This motif is presented in the US Southwest: the Pueblo Indians and others tell of the successive penetration of people from the lowest dark world through several colored worlds into the one where we now live. Another version of this plot contains texts recorded in the Amazon (among the Nambikwara group of peoples). There, people are initially concentrated in a tiny container inside a stone or rock, from where they hardly get out into the light. This plot, apparently, is very ancient, perhaps it existed among people when they were just settling around the planet and came to America along with the first settlers.

God Huitzilopochtli in human form. Drawing from the Telleriano-Remensis codex. 16th century © Bibliothèque nationale de France

In the northwest of North America and in South American Guiana, on the contrary, it is believed that the first people descended from heaven to earth. Another option is when the first people are created from wax, honey, or some other unreliable materials. This early humanity turns out to be fragile, and the next people are made from something more suitable.

The ancient Maya, who lived in the 1st millennium AD, believed that people were made of clay. There are many images of supernatural mythical scribes and craftsmen who help the god mold the faces and heads of people from clay, paint them and give them individual features with special sticks. Later, the Quiche Maya realized that clay is a bad material because it is not strong, but corn is a good material. The book "Popol Vuh" says that there were several generations of people and the first were made of clay, the next ones were made of wood, and the present-day humanity is made of flesh, which consists of corn. Modern Quiche say about this that you are what you eat. People eat corn because the human body is made from corn. The related motif of making a wife out of fragile materials (clay, wax, sand, or excrement) is known throughout the Americas, from the Eskimos to the southern Amazon.

Perfume

In addition to deities and ancestors, there are other supernatural beings: spirits, demons, spirit companions. These are parts of human souls that live separately from people - in another world or, for example, in a forest. Here again, things are different. When you sleep and dream that you are somewhere in the forest, this means that your spirit companion is awake. The Maya's spirit companions were often animals. They were called "wai" or "waikhel" - these words are associated with the verb "sleep". Spirits give a person magical power, so a strong sorcerer can have up to 13 additional spirit companions, and these are usually dangerous predatory animals. And a simple person usually has one or two such souls, often a hen or a rooster.

How the world works

In Mesoamerica, the ideal living space is a rectangular area or patio flanked by buildings. The world is the same rectangle or square and four buildings located on different sides of the world, in which some deities live. The Maya have a version that the world trees grow on the four cardinal points (each of its own color) and the vault of heaven lies on them. In the 5th century AD, they had the idea that there were four mountains on the four cardinal points - each of its own color.

The color symbolism of the cardinal points is found not only in Mesoamerica, but also in other Indian societies and, perhaps, is another legacy of the ancient mythology of the first settlers, but in specific mythological traditions it plays a completely different role. In addition to Mesoamerica, a square multi-colored world is described in great detail among the Indians of the Southwestern United States, in particular among the Pueblos. The texts containing this motif were also recorded among the Ojibwe in Canada and the Camayur in Brazil, but they have it rather passing: in the Ojibwe each of the four faces of the medicine pole is painted in a certain color, and in the Camayur on the first tree of the peki Peki is a fruit tree originating from Brazil. Grows in Central and South America. fruits on different sides have a different color.

In a vertical section, the Mesoamerican world is multi-layered. The most common idea is that there are 13 heavens and 9 underworlds. 13 and 9 are very important numbers that both the Aztecs and the Mayans had, this is a specific Mesoamerican numerical symbolism. At the same time, each culture has its own idea of how this multi-layered sky is arranged from the inside. From the Aztec point of view, deities live on one level, ancestors on another, dead warriors on the third, women who died in childbirth go to the fourth, and so on. In the case of the Maya, we do not know who goes to what level after death, but we know that each level is controlled (or lives on it) by a certain supernatural being. Perhaps the same situation was with the underground worlds.

Creation and World Ages

There is also no common idea about the beginning of the world. Somewhere it was believed that the world was created from a giant crocodile (the Maya have images that show that the world is a crocodile or the firmament is the body of a crocodile). The earth can be created by two rival creators, one of whom then becomes the master of the lower world. Such motifs are found among the Indians of the Northeast and Southwest of the United States, on the Great Plains, in California, and then in South America, especially in Southeast and South Brazil. Another popular myth is the famous diver myth. A diver (tortoise, frog, beaver or some kind of bird) dives into the ocean to get land. But in parallel with this, there was the idea that the world has always existed: whether it was once created or not, no one knows.

God Itzamna. Drawing on Mayan pottery. 6th–9th centuries © University of Virginia Art Museum

In Mesoamerica, it was believed that time is divided into world epochs ending in various catastrophes, as a result of which the world is destroyed and then recreated, and each time it can be created in different ways. The nature of these catastrophes gives the name to the days in which epochs end. For example, if an era ended on a day called "jaguar", then people were torn to pieces by jaguars. The current era should end on the day of Ollin - "earthquakes", and it will obviously end with giant earthquakes, which is not surprising, given that Central America is an earthquake zone. In the Northern Yucatan, where earthquakes never happen, they also do not exist in Mayan mythology, but there is the idea of a flood, because there are very heavy rains.

Calendar

The calendar of the Indians of Mesoamerica is associated not only with ritual life, but also with the prediction of a person's fate, which depends on what day of the calendar he was born (in other cultures where the calendar system was not so developed, there was no such close connection). Here a special priest-fortuneteller plays an important role. He looks at the calendar and says: this man was born on the day of Ahau, which means "lord", so he will be a glorious person. And this man was born on a day that means "jaguar" - and, therefore, he will be cruel, like a jaguar. At the same time, fate could be faked by calling the priest not on the day when the child was born, but, for example, two days later.

Myths about twins

There are several very widespread motifs in New World mythology that can be found from Alaska to the southern border of Brazil. One of the most popular is a set of twin myths. The myth of twins in the New World is best known in a fairly late version. It was recorded among the Maya Quiche in mountainous Guatemala in the middle or second half of the 16th century, and was discovered already in the 19th century in the book Popol Vuh. There, in the center of the mythological part, there is a story about the adventures of the twin brothers - Hunahpu and Xbalanka, who fight monsters, win and even play ball with the rulers of the underworld, which symbolizes victory over death. After the twins ascend to the sky, they turn into the sun and moon.

Twins with similar functions play an important role in both North American and Central American mythology, although the specific plots there may be completely different. The theme of the transformation of twins into heavenly bodies is very popular. In South America, they do not fight the lord of the underworld, but rather play the role of cultural heroes, monster fighters. Thus, among the Tupi-speaking peoples living in eastern, central and southern Brazil and in Paraguay, the basis of the complex of twin myths is the revenge of sons for the death of their mother. Like the Maya, in some myths, after their exploits, the twins ascend to heaven.

Another extremely widespread motive can be called "search for a groom" or "girls are looking for a good groom, but they find a bad one." It is found from the subarctic zone (Tanaina or Denaina Indians) to Patagonia. For example, among the famous Hurons, an old woman sends her daughters to marry a Deer, but they meet Owl, who deceives them and pretends to be a Deer. When the deception is revealed, the sisters go to the Stag. A very similar story is told by the Desana Indians (Colombia). Unlike twin myths, myths with such a plot were not common in Mesoamerica.

Corn myths

In America, corn is the most important cereal and food source, and a lot of beliefs and rituals are associated with it. The explanation of how corn arose has always played a significant role in Indian mythology. In Central America, among various groups of the Maya and other Mesoamerican Indians, the motif is very common that it was hidden in a mountain and only ants could get it out of there through a small crack, until the thunder god, or the rain god, or the thunder god, split this mountain with lightning and no corn kernels came out of there.

In the Amazon, maize is replaced by cassava (also known as cassava), which has played a major role in Amazonian societies. In the myth of the Tikuna Indians, there were once no cultivated plants. One old woman noticed how leaf-cutting ants carry something white, she liked the smell. Following the trail, she came to a river channel. On the shore stood a tree on which yams and sweet potatoes grew, and their fruits fell into the water in the form of tubers of sweet cassava. The old woman baked the cassava under her arm, then dried it in the sun.

God of corn. Drawing on Mayan pottery. 6th-9th centuries © University of Virginia Art Museum

Myths that tell how cultivated or wild plants used in food grow out of the body of an old woman, young woman or girl are found among the Indians of the Northeast (Hurons and Iroquois ) and the Southeast (Cherokee, Creeks, Seminoles) of the USA and in South America (Guiana, Northwestern Amazonia, Southern Amazonia, Central Andes), and they are not very common in Mesoamerica. Among the Hurons, this is part of the so-called myth of the heavenly woman. A husband throws his pregnant wife from heaven to earth. The twins in her womb argue over how they should be born, and the good brother is born in a normal way, and the bad one comes out of the mother's side, thereby killing her. A heavenly woman is buried, a pumpkin grows from her head, corn from her breasts, beans and other cultivated plants from her arms and legs. Among the Brazilian Munduruku Indians, the plot is as follows: the insatiable Caruebo, the nephew of the old woman Kapiru, demands for food everything that grows in the garden. Kapiru teaches him how to prepare the site, and tells him to bury himself alive, with arms, legs and fingers spread out. Her body spreads throughout the site, corn and other plants grow out of it, and her fingers become cassava tubers.

Some mythological plots of this kind may eventually reduce their range. For example, we know of about 30 images on Moche pottery in which corn, cassava and beans protrude from the body of a frog or toad. In the Nazca fabric image (southern Peru), cultivated plants protrude from the body of a llama, which is led by a frog or toad. At the same time, today the version of the myth that connects the acquisition of cultivated plants with a frog or a toad is limited to the east of South America.

Supernatural power and heat

Many Indian cultures have the idea of the existence of some kind of sacred power, poured into the world, which gives objects a form and determines the essence of this or that object or being. This power can have different manifestations. One of them is all kinds of supernatural beings.

In Mesoamerica supernatural power is primarily characterized by heat, but heat is not just hot or cold, it is some inner essence of the object that expresses its intensity. Everything in the world is connected with this heat, for example, a hot object or a bright color, a strong alcoholic drink or a hot pepper can possess it. Medicinal or ritual plants have heat, while all other plants are cold. Such a division in Mayan folk medicine, Tzeltal and Tzotzili, was present as early as the 20th century. There one could come across such a description: “This is a mountain plant, but this one is cold.”

Certain limitations are also explained through the concept of heat. Why shouldn't the common man wear bright clothes or use precious feathers? Because his internal heat is low and it is dangerous for him. Noble people belonging to the priestly class, rulers and their descendants, on the contrary, have a strong fever, and they can handle it without any problems. Therefore, the administration of rituals, the consumption of certain drinks and other activities of this kind are concentrated only in the hands of the nobility. As a person advances in age and occupies more and more important positions, or as a warrior wins more and more victories, and a priest performs more rituals, his inner heat intensifies, he becomes more and more important, wise and powerful. Naturally, this heat is the strongest for the ruler, so you can’t just touch the things that belong to the ruler: they will burn.

Dmitry Belyaev — Specialist in the history and culture of Mesoamerica, Leading Researcher at the Yu. He is engaged in Mesoamerican archeology, Mayan writing and political anthropology.

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