{"id":817,"date":"2008-03-07T01:38:34","date_gmt":"2008-03-07T06:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=817"},"modified":"2018-08-14T17:12:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T21:12:32","slug":"15752-%c2%a0-2-roy-w-meyer-the-village-indians-of-the-upper-missouri-the-mandans-hidatsas-and-arikaras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=817","title":{"rendered":"15752. [2] (Roy W. Meyer) The Village Indians of the Upper Missouri: The Mandans, Hidatsas and Arikaras"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cur\u00adrent inter\u00adests led me a sec\u00adond read\u00ading of this excel\u00adlent his\u00adtory (it\u2019s approach is his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal, not eth\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal) of the Man\u00addans, Hidat\u00adsa and Arikaras of North and South Dakota.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Schol\u00adars try\u00ading to recon\u00adstruct the Neolith\u00adic soci\u00adeties of Europe, espe\u00adcially regard\u00ading trade, ear\u00adly agri\u00adcul\u00adtural set\u00adtle\u00adment, and the move\u00adment of peo\u00adple, would prof\u00adit by study\u00ading the val\u00adley of the Mis\u00adsouri Riv\u00ader. Here we have a mix\u00adture of first-per\u00adson eye-wit\u00adness sources and archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal data that shows us much about the inter\u00adac\u00adtion of nomadic and agri\u00adcul\u00adtural peo\u00adples, which Old-World his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans could learn a lot from, if they both\u00adered to look. The rel\u00ade\u00advance to under\u00adstand\u00ading the Euro\u00adpean Neolith\u00adic seems to me obvi\u00adous, but the par\u00adal\u00adlels and exam\u00adples have not been explored or exploit\u00aded. Exact\u00adly why this is, so, I\u2019m not sure. But of par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar rel\u00ade\u00advance is the detailed knowl\u00adedge we have of Man\u00addan and Hidat\u00adsa trade: the prod\u00aducts involved, how they moved, how far, how many peo\u00adple where involved, and with what eco\u00adnomic con\u00adcepts and process\u00ades. They do not at all resem\u00adble the pic\u00adture con\u00adjured up by his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans in the Old World of How Things Must Have Been Done. One can\u00adnot prove, of course, that the Euro\u00adpean Neolith\u00adic farm\u00aders, hunter-gath\u00ader\u00aders, and nomads had the same kind of econ\u00adomy as exist\u00aded in the cen\u00adter of North Amer\u00adica in a lat\u00ader peri\u00adod, but the data cer\u00adtainly is rel\u00ade\u00advant to guess\u00ading what was like\u00adly or probable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Man\u00addan and Hidat\u00adsa presided over a net\u00adwork of trade that extend\u00aded over a large por\u00adtion of the con\u00adti\u00adnent. It was real and explic\u00adit trade<\/em>, not cer\u00ade\u00admo\u00adnial gift exchange or the acci\u00adden\u00adtal drift\u00ading of objects from loca\u00adtion to loca\u00adtion. It was based on mov\u00ading large quan\u00adti\u00adties of food prod\u00aducts and oth\u00ader util\u00adi\u00adtar\u00adian goods, aimed at a broad mar\u00adket, not mere\u00adly at elites. Pres\u00adtige objects and trin\u00adkets rode on top of this more mun\u00addane eco\u00adnomic activ\u00adity. They were not its raison\u2011d\u2019\u00eatre<\/em>. Trad\u00ading took place through trade fairs draw\u00ading vis\u00adi\u00adtors and cus\u00adtomers over hun\u00addreds of kilo\u00adme\u00adters, and prod\u00aducts trav\u00adeled over thou\u00adsands of kilo\u00adme\u00adters by small num\u00adbers of large-scale exchange jumps, not by large num\u00adbers of small ones. Man\u00addan and Hidat\u00adsa traders man\u00adu\u00adfac\u00adtured and sold goods specif\u00adi\u00adcally for this type of trade, and were well-informed in geog\u00adra\u00adphy, trade routes, and eco\u00adnomic con\u00addi\u00adtions over a huge area. Entre\u00adpre\u00adneur\u00adial activ\u00adity, indi\u00advid\u00adual pri\u00advate prop\u00aderty, invest\u00adment, import replace\u00adment, con\u00adtract law, and many oth\u00ader con\u00adcepts that are sup\u00adposed to be \u201cmod\u00adern\u201d or (even more ridicu\u00adlously) \u201cWest\u00adern\u201d, were all con\u00adcepts well under\u00adstood and prac\u00adticed in Native Amer\u00adica, long before any con\u00adtact with Euro\u00adpeans. None of these activ\u00adi\u00adties required the pres\u00adence of kings or nobil\u00adity, or of a rigid, hier\u00adar\u00adchi\u00adcal soci\u00adety. The Man\u00addan and Hidat\u00adsa had none of these, though their Upper Mis\u00adsouri farm lands was dot\u00adted with large, well-built towns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure\u00adly, these facts should give us some\u00adthing to think about when we spec\u00adu\u00adlate on how trade and the intro\u00adduc\u00adtion of farm\u00ading took place in ancient Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cur\u00adrent inter\u00adests led me a sec\u00adond read\u00ading of this excel\u00adlent his\u00adtory (it\u2019s approach is his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal, not eth\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal) of the Man\u00addans, Hidat\u00adsa and Arikaras of North and South Dako\u00adta. Schol\u00adars try\u00ading to recon\u00adstruct the Neolith\u00adic soci\u00adeties of Europe, espe\u00adcially regard\u00ading trade, \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bs-reading-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8639,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions\/8639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}