Chapter 1: A Continent of Villages, to 1500 Objectives

This chapter covers the first settlement of the Western Hemisphere by immigrants from Asia. Over the centuries these immigrants developed a variety of technologies, and communities adapted to their physical environments. Europeans coming to the Americas would find a populated continent of many villages, not an empty land. Native Americans had a great deal of diversity in community organization, language and technology. European colonists would profit from these technologies and regional adaptations.

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• Illustrate how Cohokia is representative of the definition of the word community. (See the preface of the textbook for the author's definition.)

• List the scientific, archaeological, and oral tradition evidence that supports the migration hypothesis and outline the basic details of the hypothesis.

• Describe the first American technology, the Clovis tradition, and indicate how it affected the development of the community.

• List the regional geographic areas of North America and illustrate how each one affected the development of the hunting, desert, and forest cultures.
  

• Describe what Europeans would find in North America in terms of the chapter title, "A Continent of Villages," and explain how this would affect European colonization.

• Compare and summarize from reading the entire chapter various North American Indian attitudes in regard to community.

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