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Why, though, is the name so popular and so utilized to mean change, evolution, choice, and really as an icon of a perilous journey to a new life? And what is the real story of the First Thanksgiving? In brief, the name has remained a popular icon because of the inherent nature of the story -- lively persecuted group befriends new population and thrives. Now, let us simply revise the point-of-view by one cog; instead of viewing the story as a European colonist, imagine if you will, a land that supported numerous bands of hunter-gatherers who took only from the land what they needed, had deep traditions about their interaction with nature, and, just like other societies, had passive and aggressive cultures. New people arrive who do not know how to dress, to hunt, to fish, or even how to build the proper house to stay warm. So, you help them, and they give you the chance to become their slave and return to their far off country, take more corn than is appropriate, and also decide to fence in the land into these unusual squares that prevent the wildlife from roaming. In addition, every village these colonists visit seems to acquire a strange sickness -- in fact, some villages completely die off, leaving the areas "ready" for new towns to be set up by these new colonists (East Texas Review, 2004).
Conclusions -- When dealing with revisionism and post-revisionism of sacred topics in history, one can always run the risk of cynicism on a heightened level. Was there really a Noah's Ark or Great Flood? Did Washington really chop down a cherry tree? Are the dimensions of Plymouth Rock important? Did the colonists actually arrive near Plymouth and come ashore near the rock?
Actually, the veracity of many events becomes immaterial when viewed in broader brush strokes -- in terms of the 1620 colonials, it probably does not matter how much of their story is fact and how much embellishment for symbols serve culture, and Plymouth Rock as a symbol signifies the transformation of culture from Europe to the Americas -- of changing the colonists as they passed over the rock, a rite of passage for the long dead that becomes important to the modern world when viewed through the needs of patriotism and national worth. Icon meanings serve to bind individuals together, to let them see something far larger, broader, and clearly more long lasting. If we combine this...
Thus, if we are mindful that historical accuracy remains important, but that popular culture serves its purpose, too, then we have taken a rather large step in synergizing the Mayflower story and its original intent with what the Mayflower now represents (Seeyle, 634-41).
REFERENCES CONSLUTED
Adkins, R. (2005). "Mayflower: The Voyage That Changed the World." Geographical.
77(9): 78.
Arenstam, P., et.al. (2007). Mayflower 1620: A New Look at a Pilgrim Voyage. National Geographic Books.
Bush, S. (2000). "America's Origin Myth: Remembering Plymouth Rock." American Library
History. 12(4): 745.
East Texas Review. (2004). "The True History of Thanksgiving." AANativeArts.Com. Cited in:
http://www.aaanativearts.com/article937.html
Nickerson, W. Sears. (1997). Land Ho! A Seaman's Story of the Mayflower. Michigan Philbrick, N. (2007). Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Penguin.
____., ed. (2007). The Mayflower Papers: Selected Writings of Colonial New
England. Penguin.
Seeyle, J. (1998). Memory's Nation: The Place of Plymouth Rock. University of North
Carolina Press.
"Who Were the Pilgrims?" (2008). Plimouth Plantation. Cited in:
http://www.plimoth.org/kids/homeworkHelp/pilgrims.php
Willison, G. (1953). The Pilgrim Reader: The Story of the Pilgrims as Told by Themselves
and Their Contemporaries Friendly and Unfriendly. Doubleday.
See for example: Carew, M. And J. Garratt. (2004). Flight of the Mayflower. Mark Carew and Associations. "Background -- Plymouth Argyle Football Club." Cited in: http://www.pafc.co.uk?
www.pafc.co.uk?.
It is not the purpose of this essay to complete revise the story of the Mayflower and its consequences, simply to posit another viewpoint. For more information on how disease, especially smallpox, "conquered" the New World, see: Crosby, a. (1972), the Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492; and McNeil,…
REFERENCES CONSLUTED
Adkins, R. (2005). "Mayflower: The Voyage That Changed the World." Geographical.
77(9): 78.
Arenstam, P., et.al. (2007). Mayflower 1620: A New Look at a Pilgrim Voyage. National Geographic Books.
Bush, S. (2000). "America's Origin Myth: Remembering Plymouth Rock." American Library
http://www.aaanativearts.com/article937.html
http://www.plimoth.org/kids/homeworkHelp/pilgrims.php
See for example: Carew, M. And J. Garratt. (2004). Flight of the Mayflower. Mark Carew and Associations. "Background -- Plymouth Argyle Football Club." Cited in: http://www.pafc.co.uk?
history slavery North Atlantic British colonies United States Observations Regarding Slavery One of the primary methods of resistance for people of African descent who existed in servitude in the North Atlantic British colonies and in the United States was rebellion. Although far from occurring frequently, armed, violent revolt from chattel slaves helped to shape the history of their descendants in these locations. One of the most notorious of these uprisings was
It is not right, but it is the truth. That is the hardest part of learning about black history, I think. Final Journal think that taking this class has given me a much broader idea of African-American history and what the black people have had to do to get along in America. Their ancestors did not ask to come here, and they did not ask to become enslaved. Blacks did
Human identity and human reflection today: A philosophical and personal overview Human 'identity' is not a given. In other words, human beings are seldom born with a clear sense of who they are and what is their individual and collective purpose in a larger society. Instead, it is up every human animal of the species to invest meaning in his or her life -- or so implies the popular post-modern conception
" Hence, the history of the rock has been distorted, Bush continues; the rock has been used to raise the public consciousness about great American ideas, "social movements, and political and religious trends; Plymouth Rock has been made to serve them all." Plymouth Rock seems "less a monument to the Pilgrims' First Landing than to America's relentless pursuit of a usable past..." Bush quotes again from Sahlins. Then the author
It seems funny that free slaves would organize troops to fight against the North, but I also understand that they were defending the only way of life they had ever known, and that life was in the South, not the North. The Civil War was a horrible conflict, and I know that thousands, even millions of men - black and white - died, and reading about the strength of
" (Sage, 1) This is a matter of its emergent identity, which echoed so many of the trespasses of the British Crown. Indeed, we can see that in its vying for independence, the United States would still demonstrate in some ways its immediate cultural relationship to Europe while explicitly seeking an evolution in the terms surrounding this culture. Most certainly, the manner of treatment to which Native American inhabitants were subjected