Religious And Social Contrast In Colonial America

A comparison that I can make with this reading is from Richard Godbeer, The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England, which illustrates magical beliefs and practices that the colonists brought with them from England. Puritan preachers condemned magic as ungodly and diabolical. Magic and occultism was rejected by the preachers of New England and so they were shocked to learn that colonists used magic themselves. New Englanders used magic to manipulate time and space, clairvoyance, and travel

While Kingsolver recognizes religion as a difference among America, her emphasis along with Dr. King is the issue regarding race in our nation. Kingsolver writes about how patriotism is love for his or her own country, and recognizes that not everyone has the same way of expressing their love. Kingsolver alludes to a white man screaming in the streets that he was an American and then “killed a Sikh man wearing a turban” because he was not a native born American (549). It is clear that this incident is a distortion of patriotism. This man interpreted the word patriotism as being the white race.

Native Americans who emigrated from Europe perceived the Indians as a friendly society with whom they dwelt with in harmony. While Native Americans were largely intensive agriculturalists and entrepreneurial in nature, the Indians were hunters and gatherers who earned a livelihood predominantly as nomads. By the 19th century, irrefutable territories i.e. the areas around River Mississippi were under exclusive occupation by the Indians. At the time, different Indian tribes such as the Chickasaws, Creeks, and Cherokees had adapted a sedentary lifestyle and practiced small-scale agriculture. According to the proponents of removal, the Indians were to move westwards into forested lands in order to generate additional space for development through agricultural production (Memorial of the Cherokee Indians).

Over the years, Quakers became more accepted, and were actually admired for their honesty and simple living. That changed during the American Revolution, when Quakers refused to pay military taxes or fight in the war. Some Quakers were exiled because of that position. In the early 19th century, Quakers rallied against the social abuses of the day: slavery, poverty, horrible prison conditions, and mistreatment of Native Americans.

When the settlers of Europe first came to the new world, they were introduced to the Native Americans. The settlers wanted the Natives to follow their culture and its benefits such as education, religion, and the usage of the environment. The Native Americans refused the request, stating they have their own type of culture, believing it to be the most superior; as a result, the Natives’ statement angered the ethnocentric settlers. Consequently, this caused a conflict between the two groups because of their culture differences. Firstly, the main culture difference consists of religion, tradition, and way of living.

Religion is important for a society to function. Sociologist focus on religion as an institution or system followed by a group, based on what they interpret is sacred to this group. Furthermore, depicts the reasoning on how southerners in America have established their conservative values. These values will determine the foundation of southern culture past from generations to their roles in society. Conservatism in the south, has revolved around the significance of religion, leading to the resistance to innovation in society but can be solved through changing societal norms.

The development of agriculture and the rise of industrialization generated new cultures and innovations in the new world. Native people in early America developed cultural distinct , men were in charge of the fishing, hunting, jobs that were more exposed to violence, and the women stayed closed to the village, farming, and child bearing. The way of life possessed by natives Americans did not compel them to conquer and transform new land. As opposed to European colonizers, Native Americans subscribed to a more “animistic” understanding of nature. In which they believed that plants and animals are not commodities, they are something to be respected rather than used.

Despite different historical context and cultural codes- the Lakota’s, Seneca’s, and Hebrew’s emergence stories are comparable. The significance of their comparability demonstrates the capacity of human nature. Firstly, the majority of the Europeans thought of Native Americans as one people, but that was an incorrect assumption. Within the different Native American nations followed different practices, rituals, and beliefs.

Each tribe or empire of the Americas had their own unique technique or style that made them different. Regardless of their differences, they all were superior in their own ways and they each made a customized mark on history. The following paper will be summarizing things from each tribe or empire. For example, government or religion. There were four tribes/empires that made up the tribes of the Americas.

When comparing the Southwest indians to the Eastern Woodlands indians I found there were some differences, in their homes, the indians in the Southwest had hut like homes made of stone or adobe while indians in the Eastern Woodlands had lodge like homes made from wood. Farming and hunting seemed to be big for the Eastern Woodlands, but most of the Southwest people were just gatherers and hunters when they could be, although there were some successful farmers. Both areas had hostile groups of people, but the two groups in the Southwest later became more settled and peaceful. The Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains had a few differences, again their homes being one of them.

The New World was home to Native Americans before it was ever home to Europeans. Europeans, mostly the English were who began to shape it to their needs and personal identities. New England, for example was considered to be tight knit and as a result of having families developed schools, and churches to fit their lifestyle. New England and Chesapeake were distinct societies during the colonization era of North America with different settlement patterns, motivations, and economies. Patterns of settlement for New England and Chesapeake differed greatly.

In addition, Native Americans endured a lot of social changes. This might be one explanation for their distorted world

subjection. Although the Quakers also propagated ideas of social equality, Ranterism truly became an imagined community for the socially dissatisfied ‘lower sort.’ Although the Quakers and Ranters promoted greater social equality (and did take much action), the greatest and most dynamic promoters of socioeconomic equality were the Diggers. Similar to the Ranters being a ‘counter-cultural movement,’ the Diggers were a community founded primarily in reaction to the increasing privatization of the English countryside.

A dominant motif in British literature studies of the late 18th and early 19th century is that of the crisis of doubt, or faith, during the Victorian era. A sense of crisis permeated every facet of Victorian society as Charles Darwin’s text The Origin of Species, based on empirical study, called into question the Christian beliefs and values of the Victorian public. Much of Europe’s middle classes began to doubt the book of Genesis was a reliable source in accordance of how the universe was made, and struggled to reconcile past ideas and beliefs with progress and modernity, giving way to new intellectuals and free thinkers. The Victorian Era was known as an age of invention, prosperity and economic growth; branching to industrial expansion, invigorated reform in politics and social class status which all informed and influenced literature of the time.

Throughout the greater part of the twenty first century, the term Victorian seemed to imply that which is old fashioned, puritan, or repressed. And although there may be some basis for these associations in fact, the do not sufficiently convey the true complexity of this paradoxical age, which witnessed a great growth of wealth, power, and culture. For example, concerning science and technology, The Victorians were the first to develop the modern idea of invention –creating solutions to man’s problems in order to better his state of living and that of the society in which he lives. Concerning religion, the Victorians began to doubt and question the classic idea of institutional Christianity on a very large scale. Movements such as