Cultural Differences Between Europeans And Native Americans

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Europeans and Native North Americans had different beliefs, values, and assumptions from each other on their first encounter during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Reading stories and letters from The Norton Anthology of American Literature book shows there are many examples of the differences between the Europeans and Native North Americans. The Native North Americans way of life lacked in advancement compared to Europeans. According to Nina Baym, Indians did not record anything on paper during the first encounter; so most of their values, beliefs, and assumption will be obtained from European literature. The Native North Americans didn’t write they spoke instead (7). This shows that they lived life in the moment they didn’t need anything to be written down. …show more content…
The Europeans also influence the Native North Americans to fight against their own people causing them to betray their own kind. In “First Encounters: Early European Accounts of Native America” Baym states, “In short, the presence of Europeans deepened the sharpened Native-on-Native violence” (53). This shows that the Europeans manipulated the Native North Americans to perform what they wanted them to do. Which shows that the Native North Americans were belittled because soon the Europeans turn on them when it came to food. Europeans were very ungrateful and greedy when it came to food. In “From the very Relation of the Devastation from the Indies” Bartolome De Las Casas ." The Spaniards did not content themselves with what the Indians gave them of their own free will, … for Christian to eat in one day and amount of food that would be enough to feed three houses inhabited by ten Indians for one month” (40). While the Native North Americans appreciated and tried to make sure their food last to feed more than just their