Classification of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas explained

The classification of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas is based upon cultural regions, geography, and linguistics. Anthropologists have named various cultural regions, with fluid boundaries, that are generally agreed upon with some variation. These cultural regions are broadly based upon the locations of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from early European and African contact beginning in the late 15th century. When Indigenous peoples have been forcibly removed by nation-states, they retain their original geographic classification. Some groups span multiple cultural regions.

Canada, Greenland, United States, and northern Mexico

In the United States and Canada, ethnographers commonly classify Indigenous peoples into ten geographical regions with shared cultural traits, called cultural areas.[1] Greenland is part of the Arctic region. Some scholars combine the Plateau and Great Basin regions into the Intermontane West, some separate Prairie peoples from Great Plains peoples, while some separate Great Lakes tribes from the Northeastern Woodlands.

Arctic

Subarctic

See main article: article and Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic.

Pacific Northwest coast

See main article: article and Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

Northwest Plateau

See main article: article and Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau.

Chinook peoples

Interior Salish

Sahaptin people

Other or both

Great Plains

See main article: article and Plains Indians. Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains are often separated into Northern and Southern Plains tribes.

Eastern Woodlands

See main article: article and Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands.

Northeastern Woodlands

See main article: article and Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands.

Southeastern Woodlands

Most of these no longer exist as tribes.

Great Basin

See main article: article and Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin.

California

See main article: article and Indigenous peoples of California. Nota bene: The California cultural area does not exactly conform to the state of California's boundaries, and many tribes on the eastern border with Nevada are classified as Great Basin tribes and some tribes on the Oregon border are classified as Plateau tribes.[56]

Southwest

See main article: Indigenous peoples of the North American Southwest and Oasisamerica. This region is also called "Oasisamerica" and includes parts of what is now Arizona, Southern Colorado, New Mexico, Western Texas, Southern Utah, Chihuahua, and Sonora

Mexico and Mesoamerica

The regions of Oasisamerica, Aridoamerica, and Mesoamerica span multiple countries and overlap.

Aridoamerica

See main article: article and Aridoamerica.

Mesoamerica

Circum-Caribbean

See also: Isthmo-Colombian Area. Partially organized per Handbook of South American Indians.[65]

Caribbean

Anthropologist Julian Steward defined the Antilles cultural area, which includes all of the Antilles and Bahamas, except for Trinidad and Tobago.[65]

Central America

The Central American culture area includes part of El Salvador, most of Honduras, all of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, and some peoples on or near the Pacific coasts of Colombia and Ecuador.[65]

Colombia and Venezuela

The Colombia and Venezuela culture area includes most of Colombia and Venezuela. Southern Colombia is in the Andean culture area, as are some peoples of central and northeastern Colombia, who are surrounded by peoples of the Colombia and Venezuela culture. Eastern Venezuela is in the Guianas culture area, and southeastern Colombia and southwestern Venezuela are in the Amazonia culture area.[65]

Guianas

This region includes northern parts Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, and parts of the Amazonas, Amapá, Pará, and Roraima States in Brazil.

Eastern Brazil

This region includes parts of the Ceará, Goiás, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, and Santa Catarina states of Brazil

Andes

See main article: article.

Pacific lowlands

Amazon

See main article: article and Amazon basin.

Northwestern Amazon

This region includes Amazonas in Brazil; the Amazonas and Putumayo Departments in Colombia; Cotopaxi, Los Rios, Morona-Santiago, Napo, and Pastaza Provinces and the Oriente Region in Ecuador; and the Loreto Region in Peru.

Eastern Amazon

This region includes Amazonas, Maranhão, and parts of Pará States in Brazil.

Southern Amazon

This region includes southern Brazil (Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, parts of Pará, and Rondônia) and Eastern Bolivia (Beni Department).

Southwestern Amazon

This region includes the Cuzco, Huánuco Junín, Loreto, Madre de Dios, and Ucayali Regions of eastern Peru, parts of Acre, Amazonas, and Rondônia, Brazil, and parts of the La Paz and Beni Departments of Bolivia.

Gran Chaco

See main article: article and Gran Chaco.

Southern Cone

See main article: article.

Fjords and channels of Patagonia

Languages

See main article: article and Indigenous languages of the Americas. Indigenous languages of the Americas (or Amerindian Languages) are spoken by Indigenous peoples from the southern tip of South America to Alaska and Greenland, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These Indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families as well as many language isolates and unclassified languages. Many proposals to group these into higher-level families have been made. According to UNESCO, most of the Indigenous American languages in North America are critically endangered and many of them are already extinct.[74]

Genetic classification

See main article: article and Genetic history of Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The haplogroup most commonly associated with Indigenous Americans is Haplogroup Q1a3a (Y-DNA).[75] Y-DNA, like (mtDNA), differs from other nuclear chromosomes in that the majority of the Y chromosome is unique and does not recombine during meiosis. This has the effect that the historical pattern of mutations can more easily be studied.[76] The pattern indicates Indigenous peoples of the Americas experienced two very distinctive genetic episodes; first with the initial-peopling of the Americas, and secondly with European colonization of the Americas.[77] [78] The former is the determinant factor for the number of gene lineages and founding haplotypes present in today's Indigenous American populations.[77]

Human settlement of the Americas occurred in stages from the Bering sea coast line, with an initial 20,000-year layover on Beringia for the founding population.[79] [80] The micro-satellite diversity and distributions of the Y lineage specific to South America indicates that certain Amerindian populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.[81] The Na-Dené, Inuit and Indigenous Alaskan populations exhibit haplogroup Q (Y-DNA) mutations, however are distinct from other Indigenous Americans with various mtDNA mutations.[82] [83] [84] This suggests that the earliest migrants into the northern extremes of North America and Greenland derived from later populations.[85]

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Culture Areas Index . the Canadian Museum of Civilization . 2009-08-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131104204827/http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etb0170e.shtml . 2013-11-04 . live .
  2. https://www.uaf.edu/anlc/languages/ta/ "Dena'ina."
  3. Web site: Slavey. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 10 December 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170113112715/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/slavey-slave/. 13 January 2017. live.
  4. Book: Indian Claims Commission . Indian Claims Commission Decisions, Volume 11, Part 1 . 332–33. 1978 . Native American Rights Fund . Washington, DC .
  5. "Preamble." Constitution of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma . Retrieved 5 Dec 2012.
  6. Sturtevant and Trigger ix
  7. http://www.americanindian.si.edu/searchcollections/help/references/cultural.aspx "Cultural Thesaurus"
  8. Sturtevant and Trigger 241
  9. Sturtevant and Trigger 198
  10. Goddard 72
  11. Goddard 72 and 237
  12. Goddard 237
  13. Goddard 72, 237–38
  14. Goddard 238
  15. Goddard 72 and 238
  16. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 290
  17. Sturtevant and Trigger 161
  18. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 293
  19. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 291
  20. Web site: Brooks . Rebecca Beatrice . Native American Tribes in Massachusetts . History of Massachusetts . 15 November 2021.
  21. Sturtevant and Trigger 255
  22. Vest . Jay Hansford C. . An Odyssey among the Iroquois: A History of Tutelo Relations in New York . American Indian Quarterly . Winter–Spring 2005 . 29 . 1/2 . 124–55 . 10.1353/aiq.2005.0072 . 4138803 .
  23. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 69
  24. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 205
  25. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 214
  26. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 673
  27. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 81–82
  28. Sturtevant, 617
  29. Folgelson, ed. (2004), p. 315
  30. Web site: Frank . Andrew K. . Indian Removal . The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture . 28 April 2024.
  31. Book: Hann, John H. . The Native American World Beyond Apalachee . University Press of Florida . 2006 . 978-0-8130-2982-5 . 53–56.
  32. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 188
  33. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 598–99
  34. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 374
  35. Sturtevant and Fogelson, ix
  36. Book: Hann, John H. . The Native American World Beyond Apalachee . University Press of Florida . 2006 . 978-0-8130-2982-5 . 87.
  37. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 302
  38. Hann 1993
  39. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 78, 668
  40. Hann 1996, 5–13
  41. Milanich 1999, p. 49.
  42. Milanich 1996, p. 46.
  43. Hann 2003:11
  44. Sturtevant and Fogelson, 190
  45. D'Azevedo, ix
  46. Pritzker, 230
  47. D'Azevedo, 161–62
  48. Loether, Christopher. "Shoshones" . Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. Retrieved 20 Oct 2013.
  49. Shimkin 335
  50. Murphy and Murphy 306
  51. Murphy and Murphy 287
  52. Thomas, Pendleton, and Cappannari 280–83
  53. D'Azevedo, 339
  54. D'Azevedo, 340
  55. Web site: Nicholas . Walter S . A Short History of Johnsondale . RRanch.org . 2010-06-04 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101031113235/http://www.rranch.org/history/ . 2010-10-31 .
  56. Pritzker 112
  57. Heizer ix
  58. Heizer 205–07
  59. Heizer 190
  60. Heizer 593
  61. Heizer 769
  62. Heizer 249
  63. Web site: Mexico: Map. Ethnologue. 16 November 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150925055420/http://www.ethnologue.com/map/MX___. 25 September 2015. live.
  64. http://www.native-languages.org/paipai.htm "Paipai Language (Akwa'ala)"
  65. Steward, Julian H. (1948) Editor. Handbook of South American Indians. Volume 4 The Circum-Caribbean Tribes. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143.
  66. http://sonentero.blogspot.com/2009/06/aboriginal-roots-of-cuban-culture.html "Aboriginal Roots of Cuban Culture"
  67. http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/caribpre.htm "Prehistory of the Caribbean Culture Area"
  68. https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/211/ "Cacaopera"
  69. http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/apiaka "Apiaká: Introduction"
  70. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hug "Huachipaeri"
  71. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=BO "Languages of Bolivia"
  72. http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/help/references/cultural.aspx "Cultural Thesaurus"
  73. Web site: Puelche. Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 December 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161201144257/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Puelche. 1 December 2016. live.
  74. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. . (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
  75. Web site: 2003 . Y-Chromosome Evidence for Differing Ancient Demographic Histories in the Americas . Department of Biology, University College, London; Departamento de Gene´tica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas, Caracas, Venezuela; Departamento de Gene´tica, Universidade Federal do Parana´, Curitiba, Brazil; 5Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; 6Laboratorio de Gene´tica Humana, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota´; Victoria Hospital, Prince Albert, Canada; Subassembly of Medical Sciences, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Laboratorio de Gene´tica Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellı´n, Colombia; Université de Montréal . University College London 73:524–539 . 2010-01-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190430203846/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/tcga/tcgapdf/Bortolini-AJHG-03-YAmer.pdf . 2019-04-30 . dead .
  76. Orgel L . Prebiotic chemistry and the origin of the RNA world . Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol . 39 . 2 . 99–123 . 15217990 . 10.1080/10409230490460765 . 2004 . 10.1.1.537.7679 . 2010-01-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181113072933/http://www.d.umn.edu/~pschoff/documents/OrgelRNAWorld.pdf . 2018-11-13 . live .
  77. Web site: Learn about Y-DNA Haplogroup Q. Wendy Tymchuk, Senior Technical Editor. Verbal tutorial possible. Genebase Systems. 2008. 2009-11-21. Haplogroups are defined by unique mutation events such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs. These SNPs mark the branch of a haplogroup, and indicate that all descendants of that haplogroup at one time shared a common ancestor. The Y-DNA SNP mutations were passed from father to son over thousands of years. Over time, additional SNPs occur within a haplogroup, leading to new lineages. These new lineages are considered subclades of the haplogroup. Each time a new mutation occurs, there is a new branch in the haplogroup, and therefore a new subclade. Haplogroup Q, possibly the youngest of the 20 Y-chromosome haplogroups, originated with the SNP mutation M242 in a man from Haplogroup P that likely lived in Siberia approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years before present. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100622001311/http://www.genebase.com/tutorial/item.php?tuId=16. 2010-06-22.
  78. Book: Spencer. Wells. Mark. Read. The Journey of Man – A Genetic Odyssey. Digitised online by Google books. Random House. 0-8129-7146-9. 2009-11-21. 2002. https://web.archive.org/web/20160518152651/https://books.google.com/books?id=WAsKm-_zu5sC&lpg=PP1&dq=The%20Journey%20of%20Man&pg=PP1. 2016-05-18. live.
  79. Web site: First Americans Endured 20,000-Year Layover – Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News . 2009-11-18 . Archaeological evidence, in fact, recognizes that people started to leave Beringia for the New World around 40,000 years ago, but rapid expansion into North America didn't occur until about 15,000 years ago, when the ice had literally broken . https://web.archive.org/web/20121010092348/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/13/beringia-native-american.html . 2012-10-10 . live . page 2
  80. Web site: New World Settlers Took 20,000-Year Pit Stop. Ker. Than. National Geographic Society. 2008. 2010-01-23. Over time descendants developed a unique culture—one that was different from the original migrants' way of life in Asia but which contained seeds of the new cultures that would eventually appear throughout the Americas. https://web.archive.org/web/20110119120732/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080214-america-layover.html. 2011-01-19. dead.
  81. Web site: Summary of knowledge on the subclades of Haplogroup Q . Genebase Systems . 2009 . 2009-11-22 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110510204204/http://64.40.115.138/file/lu/6/52235/NTIyMzV9K3szNTc2Nzc%3D.jpg?download=1 . 2011-05-10 .
  82. 10.1073/pnas.95.23.13994 . Ruhlen M . The origin of the Na-Dene . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 95 . 23 . 13994–96 . November 1998 . 9811914 . 25007 . 1998PNAS...9513994R . free .
  83. Zegura SL, Karafet TM, Zhivotovsky LA, Hammer MF. High-resolution SNPs and microsatellite haplotypes point to a single, recent entry of Native American Y chromosomes into the Americas . Molecular Biology and Evolution . 21 . 1 . 164–75 . January 2004 . 14595095 . 10.1093/molbev/msh009. free .
  84. Web site: mtDNA Variation among Greenland Eskimos. The Edge of the Beringian Expansion. Juliette Saillard. Peter Forster. Niels Lynnerup. Hans-Jürgen Bandelt. Søren Nørby. Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, University of Hamburg, Hamburg. 2000. 2009-11-22. The relatively lower coalescence time of the entire haplogroup A2 including the shared sub-arctic branches A2b (Siberians and Inuit) and A2a (Eskimos and Na-Dené) is probably due to secondary expansions of haplogroup A2 from the Beringia area, which would have averaged the overall internal variation of haplogroup A2 in North America.. https://web.archive.org/web/20110811071142/http://www.cell.com/AJHG/abstract/S0002-9297(07)63257-1. 2011-08-11. live.
  85. Native American Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Indicates That the Amerind and the Nadene Populations Were Founded by Two Independent Migrations . A. Torroni . T. G. Schurr . C. C. Yang . EJE. Szathmary . R. C. Williams . M. S. Schanfield . G. A. Troup . W. C. Knowler . D. N. Lawrence . K. M. Weiss . D. C. Wallace . Center for Genetics and Molecular Medicine and Departments of Biochemistry and Anthropology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia . January 1992 . Genetics Society of America . 130. 1 . 153–62 . 2009-11-28 . The divergence time for the Nadene portion of the HaeIII np 663 lineage was about 6,000–10,000 years. Hence, the ancestral Nadene migrated from Asia independently and considerably more recently than the progenitors of the Amerinds . https://web.archive.org/web/20090220121941/http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/abstract/130/1/153 . 2009-02-20 . live .