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I don't know but maybe it should have been Paleoamerica...
"The settlement of the New World is better explained by considering a continuous influx of people from Asia."
Luzia did not look like American Indians. Instead, her facial features matched most closely with the native Aborigines in Australia. These people date back to about 60,000 years and were themselves descended from the first humans who probably originated in Africa.
"The Aztec and Maya didn't have the same name for it as the Kuna, different languages and language families. For Aztec people like to say Anahuac, Cemanahuac and Ixachilan were all names for the continent, it's kinda sketchy on that though, they could mean different things instead. "
An interesting thing about Columbus is that when he sailed from Spain he did not sail directly west but kind of south south west where he landed in San Salvador. If he sailed 'west' he'd probably hit Virginia or North Carolina and people of today who live there could have traced their background to the Spanish.
As it worked out Columbus' sailing to the south when in the 'new world' fit in with his idea that the 'torrid zone' he was in harbored gold and rich precious stones formed by the hot sun in that climate. It also set in motion ramifications in how the temperate zone (more northern latitudes in the Americas) developed in relation to the more southern 'torrid zone'. Columbus 'discovery' arguably set in motion great change and upheaval in the 'Indies' and particularly
its inhabitants who would see their way of life changed irrevocably.
There wasn't anybody who knew that America was an entire discrete large continent, so there wasn't anybody who knew that it needed a name that unified the entire body of land.. So, each group of people who had a concern with any part of the continent called that part whatever they pleased. Which might have been Vinland, or El Dorado, or Estotiland, or The Indies, or Florida, or Terra Incognita, or "Land of the Brazilwood Tree". The Mayans, of course, had no idea that they were situated on a landmass that was also occupied by Micmacs and Kiickitats and Hopis and Guaranis and Inuits and Patagonians, and a thousand other cultures, all of whom had different names for the land they inhabited, which later turned out to be the same land.. .
In short, if people don't know that there is anyplace else behond their experience, they have no need to name the place where they are to distinguish it. Aboriginal American languages simply used descriptive terms to name places where there were known to be other tribes or useful resources, and later on, through war or commerce, used a similar way of describing where they came from, such as "swift river" (Saskatchewan) or "place of many trees" (Guatemala). Or, sometimes, simply, "where we rest" (Alabama).
There wasn't anybody who knew that America was an entire discrete large continent, so there wasn't anybody who knew that it needed a name that unified the entire body of land.. So, each group of people who had a concern with any part of the continent called that part whatever they pleased. Which might have been Vinland, or El Dorado, or Estotiland, or The Indies, or Florida, or Terra Incognita, or "Land of the Brazilwood Tree". The Mayans, of course, had no idea that they were situated on a landmass that was also occupied by Micmacs and Kiickitats and Hopis and Guaranis and Inuits and Patagonians, and a thousand other cultures, all of whom had different names for the land they inhabited, which later turned out to be the same land.. .
In short, if people don't know that there is anyplace else behond their experience, they have no need to name the place where they are to distinguish it. Aboriginal American languages simply used descriptive terms to name places where there were known to be other tribes or useful resources, and later on, through war or commerce, used a similar way of describing where they came from, such as "swift river" (Saskatchewan) or "place of many trees" (Guatemala). Or, sometimes, simply, "where we rest" (Alabama).
That's actually not quite true. There was extensive trade happening in the Americas and the people were well aware of each other and other places.
In my state of Illinois a site called Cahokia mounds has shown significant evidence that they were trading with people from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast.
Of course there was extensive trade and people were aware of distant places and people. That has nothing to do with people having the concept of North America (and/or South America) as a land with discrete boundaries.
The first Europeans that stepped foot in North America called it Vineland. As far as the Indians??? Im sure their names for the land are as varied as the language.
Of course there was extensive trade and people were aware of distant places and people. That has nothing to do with people having the concept of North America (and/or South America) as a land with discrete boundaries.
So, what you're trying to say is that groups of people that were on the continent of North America for tens of thousands of years, with extensive trade networks, migratory groups, adventurers, sailors, translators, and extensive oral histories and legends based on their movements and experiences had no idea that there giant bodies of water to the east, west, and south? Mountains in the west and east? Cold in the north and desert in the southwest? Do you really believe that no one had any clue about the landmass they were on?
That's extremely typical ethnocentrism to think that there's no way those "primitive people" could have any idea about where they were living beyond their own backyard.
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