Question

Discuss ancient peoples' strategies for surviving in the varied climates of NA. How did their different approaches to survival contribute to the diversity of Native American cultures? What else might have contributed to the diversity?

Answer 1

1. The ancient people of North America had different survival strategies. The reason for this is that there are numerous different types of climates and landscapes, thus numerous different types of living conditions. Some of the ancient people of this part of the world were primarily orientated towards gathering plants and their products, some were almost exclusively hunters on the open plains, some hunted in the forests. Others were actually fishing and gathering marine life along the shores, and the ones living in the coldest regions tended to either make holes in the ice and fish, or go in the open sea and hunt for large animals.

2. All of the different survival strategies practiced by the ancient people of North America contributed to the development of different cultures, thus there was big diversity. The culture, the way of living of the people, was determined by their surroundings, and the manner in which they were dealing it. This lead to regional differences where the cultures became very different, the daily lives were much different, the occupations of the people specified, the roles of the people became different.

3. Apart from the living conditions which heavily influenced the cultural diversity in North America, there were other things that left their mark, and one of them is the origin of the people. While the majority of the ancient people in North America came from Siberia, the migration occurred in several waves few thousand years apart, thus every new migrate wave brought in something new. By the newest findings it turned out that there were also white settlers in ancient times along the eastern coast, as well as Polinesian settlers in the sub-region of Central America, thus spicing up the cultural landscape even more.