The Mound Builders are a group of people, who pseudoarchaeologists claim, are another species or life form from the Native Americans. For years, Europeans that came to the New World claimed that they were some other life form because they didn’t believe that the Native Americans were capable of that kind of culture and mental capacity. These pseudoarchaeological claims stem from the racism of the Europeans.
The Mound Builders were Native Americans who, during time periods between 2,200 and 1,600 years ago, would construct mounds across what is now modern-day Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and other locations along the Mississippi River and Ohio River. The term “Mound Builders” stemmed from when nobody knew how these …show more content…
They used pottery, beginning agriculture practices, and the emergence of sedentary villages. The mounds they constructed were conical, structured in groups, and their purpose was for burial reasons. The Adena culture also had a certain style of beads and pipes (pipes were shaped like men, holes on the top and bottom), copper, and they used a board to flatten the heads of babies. Towards the end of the Adena culture, burial mounds were more log shaped compared to conical and the conical mounds were now constructed in “sacred circles”. The burial mounds that were constructed near the conical circles were thought to have been where elites were buried. The men were found to be almost 7 feet tall, and the women approximately 6 feet tall. The Hopewell culture arose around 400 B.C., they were considered a different culture due to certain traits found in a site in Ross County, Ohio that differed from Adena traits. A big difference found in the archaeological record between the two cultures was that Adena people had round, broad skulls and the Hopewell people were found to have had long, narrow skulls. The Hopewell culture was said to have transformed and expanded late Adena culture. They used some of the same mound building characteristics as the Adena; their mounds being used for burial purposes, but …show more content…
They compared the complex culture of the Mound Builders to the simple culture of nomadic Native Americans. Once more research was done, they found similarities between the two cultures, for example pottery and art styles. This isn’t much of a serious problem anymore unlike, for example, people believing that aliens built the pyramids. Most people don’t know about the Mound Builders, so it’s not a major problem in society today. Also, the myth isn’t as abstract as the pyramid myths, so it doesn’t catch on as easily. But, for the people that still do believe that the Mound Builders are a lost race, a solution for that would be incorporating education on this topic in history or all anthropology classes across different levels of
The Mound Builders were Native Americans who, during time periods between 2,200 and 1,600 years ago, would construct mounds across what is now modern-day Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and other locations along the Mississippi River and Ohio River. The term “Mound Builders” stemmed from when nobody knew how these …show more content…
They used pottery, beginning agriculture practices, and the emergence of sedentary villages. The mounds they constructed were conical, structured in groups, and their purpose was for burial reasons. The Adena culture also had a certain style of beads and pipes (pipes were shaped like men, holes on the top and bottom), copper, and they used a board to flatten the heads of babies. Towards the end of the Adena culture, burial mounds were more log shaped compared to conical and the conical mounds were now constructed in “sacred circles”. The burial mounds that were constructed near the conical circles were thought to have been where elites were buried. The men were found to be almost 7 feet tall, and the women approximately 6 feet tall. The Hopewell culture arose around 400 B.C., they were considered a different culture due to certain traits found in a site in Ross County, Ohio that differed from Adena traits. A big difference found in the archaeological record between the two cultures was that Adena people had round, broad skulls and the Hopewell people were found to have had long, narrow skulls. The Hopewell culture was said to have transformed and expanded late Adena culture. They used some of the same mound building characteristics as the Adena; their mounds being used for burial purposes, but …show more content…
They compared the complex culture of the Mound Builders to the simple culture of nomadic Native Americans. Once more research was done, they found similarities between the two cultures, for example pottery and art styles. This isn’t much of a serious problem anymore unlike, for example, people believing that aliens built the pyramids. Most people don’t know about the Mound Builders, so it’s not a major problem in society today. Also, the myth isn’t as abstract as the pyramid myths, so it doesn’t catch on as easily. But, for the people that still do believe that the Mound Builders are a lost race, a solution for that would be incorporating education on this topic in history or all anthropology classes across different levels of