Diverging World Views (College Board AP® US History)

Differences in religion & culture between Europeans & Native Americans

• Europeans and the Indigenous people in the Americas differed in many aspects of life

  • These differences often led to conflicts between the two groups when Europeans invaded Indigenous lands

Religion

Both Europeans and Indigenous peoples felt strongly about their religious beliefs and practices

• Europeans mostly believed in monotheism

• Their main religions were:

  • Protestantism 

  • Catholicism 

• Many Indigenous peoples believed in polytheism

• Different Indigenous groups used different names for their gods, but many Indigenous peoples worshiped gods for similar reasons:

  • To give thanks for the creation of the world

  • To give thanks for the seasons, weather, and the sun, moon, and stars

  • To ask for fertility

  • To ask for successful hunting or growth of crops

Gender Roles

• At this time European men held higher social status than European women

• Indigenous societies used egalitarianism, the practice of social, economic, and political equality between men and women 

• This difference in ideas of gender roles led to misunderstandings and violence

  • Europeans believed the women in Indigenous society oppressed Indigenous men 

  • Indigenous men thought European men were doing women’s jobs when they worked the fields

    • Indigenous women often produced over half their community’s food supply for a year

Family

• The European family model was patriarchal, where the male was head of the household

• In the patriarchal society, European women:

  • had no voting rights

  • were legally seen as the property of their husband or father if unmarried

  • could not annul marriages

• Some Indigenous tribes were matrilineal, a structure where women held power and wealth in a society 

• In matrilineal communities, Indigenous women:

  • were the heads of households

  • held and owned property, including the property of a household

  • had the right to annul their marriages and divorce their husbands

  • maintained custody of children

Power 

• Many Europeans viewed Indigenous people as inferior and believed they had to be subjugated 

• Europeans began to act violently toward Indigenous women because they expanded tribal communities when they had children 

• Treaties between Europeans and Indigenous peoples were created

  • Europeans used treaties to get what they wanted, and they often broke these agreements 

  • Indigenous peoples made treaties to protect their land, way of life, and rights