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Institutional Change Among the Powhatans

This research paper will compare and analyze the cultural and institutional change among the Powhatans and the Southeastern Nation Indians during the 19th century. In this paper, the pre-colonial cultural and institutional structures will be explored to determine their potential change. Then a brief description of the changes of the two groups of Indians will be examined and compared.

The Powhatans were a farming people who lived a stable lifestyle, governed by an orderly government. Women were responsible for the cultivation of the fields, while the men hunted and fished (Rountree 5). They prided themselves on their possessions by wearing deer hides that were decorated with different ornaments (Rountree 7). External clothing and decorations were also used to delineate the social hierarchy on special occasions. The different rulers were also expected to be addressed with specific special behavior (Rountree 9).

The southeastern nations considered the existing world as a gift from the benevolent Creator, which should be treated with great reverence. In their conception, the order of the world must be preserved to prevent the wrath of the Creator. By living in harmony with the other sacred beings and the will of the Creators, the Cherokee and the Choctaw Indians believed that they would be rewarded and not be harmed. Thus, they only used animals and plants for subsistence. By the same token, they also upheld the traditional social order and the relationships between the social groups and institutions (Champagne, Cultural 29-30). The institutions of society were often considered blessed by the Creator. For example, for the Cherokees, when a calamity occurred, they attributed it to the violation of rituals or social order. Thus, they would punish the people responsible in order to restore the natural order (Champagne, Social 17).

With the stable lifestyle of the Powhatans and the structured patterns of behavior and hierarchy, ...

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Institutional Change Among the Powhatans. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 18:37, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1687762.html