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Benjamin Smith Barton in his Observations on Some Parts of Natural History (1787) proposed the theory that the Mound Builders were associated with "Danes", i.e. with the Norse colonization of North America. In 1797, Barton reconsidered his position and correctly identified the mounds as part of indigenous prehistory.
Although he did not do field work he mapped out a plan of action for the mound excavations, and presented ten years of work in the 12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1890–91. By the end of his research into the origin of the mound builders Thomas dismissed each argument advanced in favor of the vanished race theory. [3]
The various versions of the myth held that the massive earthworks of the Mississippi Valley, like Grave Creek Mound and the Great Serpent Mound, were not built by the ancestors of Native Americans, as is now widely believed. According to the myth, the Indians had exterminated a prehistoric, white race of mound builders.
The mound builders were a variety of pre-Columbian cultures who inhabited the areas of the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Valley, and the Mississippi River valley. Rather than the wigwam of much of the plains peoples, or the pueblo culture of the American southwest, the mound builders created giant earthwork communities. Thousands of mounds have ...
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His choosing a book devoted to the mound builders was risky, as their origin, history and identity were the subject of much debate and literature, but little scientific investigation. In addition, the subject touched on issues of race, religion, and the still raw tensions between Native Americans and ethnic European settlers.
The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy legs and feet typical of these terrestrial birds.
Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social evolution, and his ethnography of the Iroquois.