I.
Introduction
Native
Americans, peoples who are indigenous to the Americas. They
also have been known as American Indians.
The
name Indian was first applied to them by Christopher Columbus,
who believed mistakenly that the mainland and islands of
America were part of the Indies, in Asia.
This article focuses on the peoples native to North America,
Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), and South America.
The
indigenous population at the time of European contact is
estimated, the general physical characteristics of native
American peoples are described, and a summary is given of
what is known about their arrival and early prehistory in
the Americas.
The
major culture areas of North, Central, and South America
are discussed, and a survey follows of the traditional ways
of life of Native Americans.
Social
and political organization are considered, as well as their
food, clothing, and housing, their trade, religion, and
warfare, and their crafts, visual arts, music, and dance.
Finally,
the history of Native Americans after European contact and
their condition today in North and Latin America are examined.
II. Early Population
It is estimated that at the
time of first European contact, North and South America
was inhabited by more than 90 million people: about 10 million
in America north of present-day Mexico; 30 million in Mexico;
11 million in Central America; 445,000 in the Caribbean
islands; 30 million in the South American Andean region;
and 9 million in the remainder of South America.
These population figures are
a rough estimate (some authorities cite much lower figures);
exact figures are impossible to ascertain.
When colonists began keeping
records, the Native American populations had been drastically
reduced by war, famine, forced labor, and epidemics of diseases
introduced through contact with Europeans.
III. Physical Traits
Native Americans are physically
most similar to Asian populations and appear to have descended
from Asian peoples who migrated across the Bering land bridge
during the Pleistocene Epoch, also known as the Ice Age,
beginning perhaps some 30,000 years ago.
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Like other peoples with Mongolian
characteristics, Native Americans tend to have light brown
skin, brown eyes, and dark, straight hair. They differ from
Asians, however, in their characteristic blood types.
Because many Native Americans
today have had one or more European-Americans or African
Americans among their ancestors, numerous people who are
legally and culturally Native American may look fairer or
darker than Mongolian peoples or may have markedly non-Mongolian
facial features.
Over the thousands of years
that indigenous peoples have lived in the Americas, they
have developed into a great number of local populations,
each differing somewhat from its neighbors.
Some populations (such as those
on the Great Plains of North America)
tend to be tall and often heavy in build, whereas others (for
example, many in the South American Andes and adjacent lowlands)
tend to be short and broad chested; furthermore, every population
includes persons who vary from the average.
Some physical characteristics
of Native American populations have been influenced by diet
or by the environmental conditions of their societies. For
example, the short stature of some native Guatemalans seems
to result at least in part from diets poor in protein; the
broad chests and large hearts and lungs of native Andeans
represent an adaptation to the low-oxygen atmosphere of
the high mountains they inhabit.
