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Native American religions were prevalent in the pre-Columbian era, including state religions.Common concept is the supernatural world of deities, spirits and wonders, such as the Algonquian manitou or the LakotaŹ¼s wakan, [19] [20] [9] as well as Great Spirit, [21] Fifth World, world tree, and the red road among many Indians.
The Adena culture was a Native American culture that existed from 1000 BCE to 200 BCE, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what was probably a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system.
Map of early human migrations based on the Out of Africa theory; figures are in thousands of years ago (kya). [2]The peopling of the Americas began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers (Paleo-Indians) entered North America from the North Asian Mammoth steppe via the Beringia land bridge, which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering of sea level during the ...
Only a few documents were hidden and thus remain today, leaving modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge. From both indigenous American and European accounts and documents, American civilizations at the time of European encounter possessed many impressive attributes, having populous cities, and having developed theories ...
A number of Native American tribes took captives in war, but usually these captives were able to later become full members of the community via adoption or marriage. [34] While this has been called "slavery" by some anthropologists, none of the named tribes exploited slave labor on a large scale. [34]
Native Americans are very closely related to the Paleosiberian tribes of Siberia, and to the ancient samples of the Mal'ta–Buret' culture (Ancient North Eurasians) as well as to the Ancient Beringians. Native Americans also share a relatively higher genetic affinity with East Asian peoples. Native American genetic ancestry is occasionally ...
A diffusion by human agents has been put forward to explain the pre-Columbian presence in Oceania of several cultivated plant species native to South America, such as the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) or sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Direct archaeological evidence for such pre-Columbian contacts and transport has not emerged.
The American Indian archaic culture eventually evolved into three major prehistoric archaeological culture areas in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. These cultures, sometimes referred to as Oasisamerica , are characterized by dependence on agriculture, formal social stratification, population clusters and major architecture.