Abstract:

This paper will talk about how the Europeans went into conflict with the Native Americans because of conflicting myths that each one has. I will support this thesis with James Wilson's book The Earth Shall Weep and Joseph Campbell's discussion over myth functions. It is important to know what caused the Europeans into conflict with Native Americans because it gives us an idea of their different lifestyles and a sense of what happened between the Europeans and the Native Americans.

Myth narratives give us an idea of lifestyle and culture. Every society has a different myth narrative. Some societies more similar than others, but others being very different. Myths are made up of four basic functions. The metaphysical function which is seeing the world and universe as a wonderful place. The cosmological function which is uncovering and discovering the mysteries of the universe which then lead to more questions that need to be answered. The sociological function which explains a cultures social order, and how they live by it. The last function is the pedagogical function. This is how the society lives their human life, and how they react to any given situation in their lives. The Europeans and the Native Americans had very different myth narratives that determined how they lived their lives and how they react to certain situations. Due to different myth narratives this is why the Europeans became in conflict with the Native Americans.

The first function of myth is the metaphysical or mystical function. It's seeing the world as a wonderful place. The Indians cherished ever single aspect of the world. They created stories about the mysteries of the universe. They saw every little thing and thought it was beautiful. The Europeans saw the world as a wonderful place as well. They wanted to discover it and uncover it's mysteries. Both Europeans and Native Americans have creation stories. Each one cherishing the world and bringing there own kind into the world. The creation stories are very similar. A man arriving to earth, and using parts of his body to create another person. There is no conflict between the Europeans and Native Americans in this function of myth because they both saw the world for what it was; a beautiful place.

The second function of myth is the cosmological dimension. This function simply means according to Campbell "the dimension with which science is concerned-showing you what the shape of the universe is, but showing it in such a way that the mystery again comes through." It means discovering every aspect of the world. Seeing every rock every flower and every frog and uncovering it's meaning. The Indians and the Europeans both thought the world was a wonderful place but the way they interacted with the world was completely different. The Europeans were in the age of the scientific revolution. They wanted to discover; to dissect every frog to examine every flower and every rock to see what its made of and what it can do. The Indians saw everything as apart of their lives. They had stories about the rocks and the flowers, they didn't want to disturb them or hurt them or any part of their environment. When the Europeans found them this would of course arise conflict. The Europeans have been discovering new ways to live, new technologies and discoveries. The Indians were happy with the way they were living. They didn't want to progress and further. They lived on necessities and worked for their families. The Indians looked to the Europeans six thousand years behind them. This made the Europeans angry because the Indians were not living their way of life.

The third function of myth is the sociological function. It means having a social order and living by it. Having a social order means having a hierarchy, having rules to follow, people having their place in their society and not being able to change it. The Indians had a chief. However the role of a chief is to be a leader, be the medicine man, and assist to those who need them. The chiefs were chosen because of their strength and bravery. Their goal was not to have power, it was to just keep peace. However the role of a chief is to just be a leader and keep peace. He is equal to everyone else around him. They had a type of true democracy. In Indian tribes men and women were equal, everyone was considered equal. They farmed for their families. The tribes didn't work together to make money like the Europeans. They didn't make money at all. They were all separate, interacting with each other and their environment. Their jobs were to feed and take care of their families. The men hunted and the women farmed and took care of the children. Europeans had a hierarchy. They had a king, queen, nobles, merchants and peasants. Everyone knew their place and followed the rules of their place in society. Women were below the men. Nobles had dominion over the merchants and peasants, even though the merchants supplied the necessary needs to live, they were considered low in the feudalism way of life. The European world was about power. They had a working economy, and they had people to run the economy. Europeans had a working trade and bartering system. They could import and export goods. They had a whole economical way of life. When they found the Indians they saw them as disorganized and inefficient. What they saw was no progress and no growth. They didn't know how to accept a world unlike their own. They lived in discovery and improvements. They lived in a world where people had power over others. That's all they could accept. Both the European and Indian way of life worked. They each ran their societies different, but each one was successful. However that didn't matter. What Europeans saw was no money, no rules that everyone in there society followed, and no progress. All they saw was a world unlike their own that they didn't accept. The Indians were happy and comfortable with their way of life, so in the end this lead to conflict.

The fourth function of myth is the pedagogical function. The pedagogical function according to Campbell means "how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances." People live their human lives under any circumstances in different ways. They come into the situation different, they react different, they deal with the aftermath different. Human lifetime is differs from society to society, however, people who live in the same societies are similar. Everyone lives a human lifetime in a pattern. From birth, to being raised and maturing, then to raising your own in the same ways you were raised, to old age and then to eventually to our deaths. This cycle in every society starts a culture. Having a certain culture means that you are going to react to situations in a different way than another society. The Europeans have grown up in wealth, and power. They are schooled and educated in things so when they grow up they can contribute to their type of world. As they go through the stages of their lives the way they will react to different things will compliment the type of culture they live in. Indians grew up respecting their environment. Living in peace and as equals. As they grew up and lived their human lifetime they were taught the basic needs of life. How to plant, cook, harvest. They were taught of their ancestors, stories of how they got to where they are now. Then those were taught by there parents and tribe, will grow up to teach their children and others children. The structure of the two societies is the same, however what the structure of their life consists of, is what causes conflict. How their cultures effect how they act and respond to certain circumstances in life is what drove the Europeans into conflict with the Native Americans and what drove the Native Americans to respond to the situation they were put into the way they did.

Out of these four functions the two that lead the Europeans into conflict with the Indians are the sociological function and the cosmological function. The function of myth that lead them into conflict the most was the sociological function. The two worlds were set up and run completely different. Europeans were all about making money. They saw the Native American culture as unproductive and behind them. This in itself leads to the conflict the Europeans had with the Indians. They saw the fertile soil that the Native Americans had and saw economical success. Europeans wanted them to adopt their way of life. The Europeans thought that the Native Americans needed someone in charge, someone to uphold the luxury jobs like banking and taking care of the economy. They thought there should be people farming, selling goods, loading ships with goods like the merchants did in their society. The wanted people to have the dirty jobs, the jobs that peasants had in their culture. They thought they needed more of an economical based society. However how do these things happen without invocation. The European culture feeds on wealth, inventions, high buildings, furnished country styled homes. They wanted to put the picture of their culture in the Native American world. This is the second function of myth. While the Europeans were in the scientific revolution, inventing new ways to power machines and inventing new ways to farm and make money, the Indians lived in cyclical time. They didn't progress industrially, they would live the same way and never change. The men had their jobs, hunting and fishing. While the women had theirs, they took care of the children and worked outside taking care of the crops. The Europeans didn't want that. They at first though it was unfair for the men to hunt and fish. They saw it as a luxury not a job. They saw the women as slaves. However the women were not forced to do those jobs, they liked them. When they found America, they saw money and they wanted the Native Americans to change the way they have always lived and to use these high tech machines to plow their fields. Native Americas were leaving huge amounts of fertile soil untouched. So the Europeans didn't consider them doing anything, and they wanted it changed. This is why the Europeans and the Native Americans were in conflict. They had different social orders and different ways of living. This is why America is the way it is today; a progressing economical success.

In the 16th 17th and 18th century every society had a different myth narrative. Like the Europeans and the Native Americans each myth narrative would be different. These myths reflected how each societies culture was lived, and how every human within that culture lived thier everyday lives and how they reacted to different situations. It was okay for each society to have a different narrative. The world was in seperate pieces. However the world is coming together. Technology and globalization is bringing the world together. We are evolving into one unit. We share economies, jobs, and we all interact with each other. Ever country is envolved with another. So if the world starts to work together, and isn't divided like the world was when the Europeans came into conflict with the Native Americans, should we create one myth narrative? The answer is yes, because if every society keeps thier own myths, and stays within their own culture, then we will never truly unite. We all live together, we have mixed cultures in every country. We need to create one myth that would fit everyone. That will lead to us falling under one economy. It would create a type of world peace. We wouldn't conflict in the ways we do because of myth narratives. The world would become an easier place if we created one myth narrative, and we all lived by it.