12 Jul 2022

173

Theories of Native Americans Origin

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Academic level: College

Paper type: Coursework

Words: 364

Pages: 1

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Introduction 

In the beginning, when the Europeans were migrating to the American continent in the north, they found the native inhabitants and tried to speculate the origins of these people. This speculation led to the development of several theories. Some of these theories were bizarre and thought that the Indians originated from the lost tribe of Israel, who survived the destruction of the Atlantis ( Curtis, 2013) . Also, some speculated that they were descendants of the Phoenicians who wandered across the Atlantic. The theories that were developed later tried to explain the origins and demystify the speculations. 

Ancient Migration Theory 

In the sixteenth century, a European by the name Jose de Acosta coined the theory that the Native Americans were of Asian descent. The insightful Jesuit priest suggested that the Indians crossed from Siberia into Alaska on a land bridge that has been now long submerged in the ocean ( Huddleston, 2015) . He noted that there was a connection between the Asia and America Continents. The theory gain credence in the society and people believed it. In the past, up to Twentieth Century, anthropologists thought that the Indians had only existed for nearly 5,000 years on the American continent. However, the discovery of a stone spear which is fluted in 1932 near New Mexico town hinted that people hunted Ice Age animals about 11,500 years ago ( Reich et al., 2012) . Later, sites in Chile produced human habitation remains dating back to 12,500 years back. 

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Three Waves Theory 

The early arrival theory of the Paleoamericans held that they crossed the land bridge into the area that is now Alaska. Further theories try to develop the theory. The ancient migration theory suggests that they migrated in a single line while there was a later development that they migrated in a three-wave form. This adaptation gradually faded the idea of single form migration. What remains is that the three waves were as a result of the people who crossed the Siberian land bridge, which is called Beringia, and this was 15,000 years ago. The three waves are the representations of the groupings that occurred on the languages ( Reich et al., 2012)

In conclusion, the native inhabitants of America would be possibly of Asian descent who moved through the Siberian Bridge into Alaska, but the migration patterns form the basis of the developments of the theories. 

References 

Curtis, E. S. (2013).  The North American Indian, Vol. 1 . Quality Classics. 

Huddleston, L. E. (2015).  Origins of the American Indians: European Concepts, 1492-1729  (Vol. 11). University of Texas Press. 

Reich, D., Patterson, N., Campbell, D., Tandon, A., Mazieres, S., Ray, N., & García, L. F. (2012). Reconstructing Native American population history.  Nature 488 (7411), 370-374. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 14). Theories of Native Americans Origin.
https://studybounty.com/theories-of-native-americans-origin-coursework

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