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Nomadic
societies
Non-sedentary or nomadic peoples relied on hunting and gathering,
dwelling in deserts, hard-dirt plains, rugged mountains, and tropical
jungles that frustrated all efforts to cultivate crops. These bands
consisted of small family groups with no permanent social differentiation.
Highly mobile, they typically migrated with the seasons, which permitted
only low population density. Political alliances among nomadic peoples
rarely endured, and the formation of empires was impossible. These
societies dominated much of North America west of the Mississippi
River, the small islands in the Caribbean, and the least fertile parts
of South America, most notably the pampas of Argentina. Like the Great
Plains in North America, the pampas did not become productive agricultural
land until cultivation by heavy plows was introduced.
Successful
societies, easy conquests
The
very success of the sedentary peoples of Mesoamerica and the Andes
in developing densely populated, complex societies made them more
vulnerable to Spanish expeditions and helps to explain the speed
of the conquests. Spanish administration of these sedentary societies,
the conversion of the natives to Christianity, and the collection
of tribute and labor service all relied on the retention and use
of traditional indigenous political structures and practices. Colonial
governors simply replaced their Aztec and Inca predecessors; otherwise,
they counted on established native institutions to govern effectively.
Continuing
human contact between Europe and the Americas made inevitable the
spread of Old World diseases, such as smallpox, typhus, measles,
and influenza. Lacking contact with the Old World for many thousands
of years, the Native Americans had not developed any natural resistance
to its epidemic diseases. Thus, when these ailments erupted among
the densely populated sedentary societies, great numbers of people
became gravely ill and died at the same time. Over the first century-and-a-half
of contact, disease reduced the native population to only 5 to 10
percent of its pre-contact size. Although their numbers then slowly
began to recover, this enormous die-off caused a simplification
of the indigenous cultures, as various crafts and other specialized
activities could no longer be supported. Also, these enormous civilizations
lost much of the cultural vibrancy and unity that had characterized
them for many hundreds of years before contact, and the native societies
became more limited in their reach and vision.
The
continual, widespread dissemination of goods and ideas that had
characterized Mesoamerica and the Andes for well over a thousand
years became greatly curtailed after the conquest. This did not
result from any intentional Spanish policy, but simply from rule
by an external power. Cultural exchanges over long distances and
involving many people now transpired largely among the colonists,
as they gradually increased in number across these zones. At the
same time, indigenous cultural life became increasingly local and
circumscribed. The native peoples now lacked any larger cultural
and political entities with which to identify.
Most
Indians had only periodic exposure to Spaniards, whether colonial
officials, churchmen, or private individuals. The colonists lived
primarily in cities. Their movement into the rural areas dominated
by native villages was very gradual.
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Literacy
was widespread in pre-contact Mesoamerica, and not surprisingly
the indigenous peoples learned to write their own languages
in the Spanish alphabet. Within a generation or two after
the conquest, many communities had their own scribes to record
local council meetings, land transactions, private wills,
and similar documents. They also wrote down their community
histories. The native societies thus produced a vast amount
of documentation for their own purposes, reflecting their
own values, practices, and institutions, without the intervention
or translation of any Spaniards.
Since
the 1970s, some historians of Latin America, particularly
a group centered at UCLA, have learned some of these languages
and immersed themselves in this documentation. They have published
path-breaking studies on various native societies in colonial
Mesoamerica that contribute an intimacy and depth of analysis
that is unrivaled by the scholarship on indigenous peoples
anywhere else in the Americas.
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