Hopewell Culture

Examples of Hopewell Culture in the following topics:

• Conclusion: Pre-Colonial Development of North America

  • Due to the similarity of earthworks and burial goods, researchers assume a common body of religious practice and cultural interaction existed throughout the entire region, referred to as the “Hopewell Interaction Sphere."
  • Most peoples of the Great Basin shared certain common cultural elements that distinguished them from other surrounding cultures, and except for the Washoe, most of the groups spoke Numic languages.
  • Three of the major cultural traditions that impacted the Southwest region include the Paleo-Indian tradition, the Southwestern Archaic tradition, and the Post-Archaic cultures tradition.
  • As various cultures developed over time and environmental changes allowed for many cultural traditions to flourish, similar social structures and religious beliefs developed.
  • A map showing the Hopewell Interaction Sphere and various local expressions of the Hopewell cultures, including the Laurel Complex, Saugeen Complex, Point Peninsula Complex, Marksville Culture, Copena Culture, Kansas City Hopewell, Swift Creek Culture, Goodall Focus, Crab Orchard Culture, and Havana Hopewell Culture.

• Eastern Woodland Culture

  • Most of these were evident in the southeastern United States by 1,000 BCE with the Adena culture, which is the best-known example of an early Woodland culture.
  • These have come to be known as the Hopewell tradition.
  • Examples include the Armstrong culture, Copena culture, Crab Orchard culture, Fourche Maline culture, the Goodall Focus, the Havana Hopewell culture, the Kansas City Hopewell, the Marksville culture, and the Swift Creek culture.
  • These sites were constructed within the Hopewell tradition of Eastern Woodland cultures.
  • The Eastern Woodland cultures built burial mounds for important people such as these of the Hopewell tradition in Ohio.

• Woodland Burial Mounds and Chiefdoms

  • Some anthropological examples of this period include the Hopewell tradition, the Adena culture of Ohio and nearby states, and the Baytown culture .
  • The Hopewell built monuments from present-day Illinois to Ohio and are renowned for their geometric earthworks.
  • But the Adena and Hopewell, both prolific in the modern-day Midwest, were not the only mound-building peoples during this time period; such cultures lived throughout the eastern United States.
  • The Adena culture was a pre-Columbian Native-American culture that existed from 1000 to 200 BCE, in a time known as the early Woodland Period.
  • Lasting traces of Adena culture can be seen in their surviving earthworks.

• Women and the War

  • She would learn secrets from at least one of them that she then passed along to Confederate officers via her slave, Eliza Hopewell.

• Slave Culture

  • Slave culture in colonial North America was largely a combination of tribal African culture, Christian worship, and resistance.
  • In many respects, American slave culture was a culture of survival and defiance against the American slave system.
  • African-based oral traditions became the primary means of preserving slave history, mores, and cultural information, and this was consistent with the practices of oral history in African cultures.
  • Slaves also drew on other aspects of tribal African culture, such as herbal medicine and prayer.
  • Describe how slave culture often paralleled forms of resistance to slavery in the United States

• Southwestern Culture

  • Three of the major cultural traditions that impacted the region include the Paleo-Indian tradition, the Southwestern Archaic tradition, and the Post-Archaic cultures tradition.
  • A period of relatively wet conditions saw many cultures in the American Southwest flourish.
  • The American Indian Archaic culture eventually evolved into two major prehistoric archaeological culture areas in the American Southwest and northern Mexico.
  • As cultural traditions began to evolve throughout the Southwest between 7,500 BCE to 1,550 CE, many cultures developed similar social and religious traditions.
  • Many of the tribes that made up the Southwest Culture practiced animism and shamanism.

• Globalization and the U.S.

  • Globalization refers to the process of international integration with regards to both culture and trade.
  • The direction of cultural flows has often been one-sided, and worldwide export of Western culture to non-Western nations has proliferated through new forms of mass media: film, radio, television, recorded music, and most recently the internet.
  • This process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been diffused by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel.
  • While cultural globalization has increased cross-cultural contacts, it has also been accompanied by a decrease in the uniqueness of once-isolated communities.
  • Many argue it is a process of homogenization, and more specifically a process marked by the global domination of American culture at the expense and erasure of other cultures.

• Honor and Violence

  • The prevailing culture of the Southern United States is said to be a "culture of honor," where people avoid unintentional offense to others and maintain a reputation for not accepting improper conduct by others.
  • These social scientists compare the culture of honor found in the Southern United States to similar cultural values found in other subsistence economies dependent upon herding and places with weak governments.
  • The Southern culture of honor also includes a notion that ladies should not be insulted by gentlemen.
  • Randolf Roth, in his American Homicide (2009), states that the idea of a culture of honor is oversimplified.
  • Dueling was one example of the South's "culture of honor

• African-American Culture

  • Influenced by restrictive laws and brutal treatment, slaves combined African and Christian customs to form a relatively homogeneous culture.
  • Slave culture in the United States drew heavily on a variety of African tribal sources mixed with American Christianity to create a relatively homogeneous American slave culture that contributed to the shape of Southern plantation life.
  • African-based oral traditions became the primary means of preserving slave history, mores, and cultural information: This was consistent with the griot practices of oral history in African cultures.
  • Slaves also drew on other aspects of tribal African culture: such as herbal medicine and prayer.
  • Many of these cultural styles and patterns still characterize worship in African American churches today

• The Internationalization of the United States

  • A 2005 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) showed that, while cultural exchange is becoming more frequent from Eastern Asia in recent years, Western countries are still the main exporters of cultural goods.
  • Through the process of globalization, American culture has expanded around the globe by spreading pop culture, particularly via the Internet and satellite television.
  • Some critics of globalization argue that it harms the diversity of cultures.
  • As a dominating country’s culture (such as that of the United States) is introduced into a receiving country through globalization, it can become a threat to the diversity of local culture.
  • Some argue that globalization may ultimately lead to Westernization or Americanization of culture, where the dominating cultural concepts of economically and politically powerful Western countries spread and cause harm on local cultures.