What was the diet, culture, dress, architecture, religion of the American Indians? Thank you, everyone! Hurry up, I'm waiting!

Diet

Maize is one of the world's three major food crops, including rice and wheat, and was cultivated by the Indians and then spread throughout the world. According to archaeological data, it is confirmed that as early as 5,000 years ago the Indians have bred wild corn into a cultivated crop. The corn cultivated by the Indians has more than 20 varieties, the growing period is long and short, short as long as about 3 months to mature. Since the early 16th century Europeans brought corn from the Amerindians, because of its adaptability, high yield, sowing and harvesting season early, it will soon be planted in all parts of the world. Especially in highland, arid and sunny areas, corn is the main crop.

In the world's total production of all kinds of food, the production of corn occupies a large proportion. The cultivation of corn by the Indians was a remarkable agricultural experiment. Botanists believe that the cultivation of the wild corn plant into a crop was the most difficult experiment in the history of agriculture, and the Indians did indeed make a great contribution to the development of human society by breeding it successfully 5,000 years ago.

As we all know, corn is a high-grain plant, and beans are low-grain and trailing plants, the Indians will corn and beans sets of seeds, the first plant intercropping technology, the full and rational use of land, which is a remarkable achievement.

Corn rich in nutrition, high yield and a variety of environmental adaptability to make it become the material basis of Indian civilization. Therefore, the Amerindian civilization is called "corn civilization".

Potatoes, sweet potatoes (also known as sweet potatoes, yams) are very important food, also cultivated by the Indians.

The Indians also cultivated cassava and yams.

European researchers believe that, in addition to Chinese soybeans, European broad beans, such as green beans, peas, cowpeas, cloud beans, adzuki beans, kidney beans, beans, lentils, beans, beans, and so on all edible legumes are cultivated by the Indians. This is because the Europeans got these pulses from the Americas after they discovered them, and spread them throughout Eurasia. But Chinese soybeans and adzuki beans were already recorded in the Shennong Ben Cao, which was written during the Han Dynasty or earlier. The Tang dynasty's "Gleanings from the Materia Medica" (本草拾遗) and "Thousand Golden Fang" (千金方) include black beans, peas, white beans, and mung beans. But in any case, the Indians grew and ate these beans.

In addition, peanuts, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, chili peppers, pineapples, avocados, strawberries, cacao (which can be made into chocolate candies) are all cultivated from the Indians.

European scholars believe that more than 50 percent of the world's plant foods are from Indian hands.

The Indians also cultivated a variety of cash crops such as rubber and tobacco.

A long time ago, Indians would apply rubber to their cloaks to protect them from rain. The contribution of rubber cultivated by the Indians to mankind can be said to be immeasurable, and the word rubber comes from the Indian word cauuchu, which means "tree of tears".

The development of modern industry and the rubber of the Americas is inextricably linked. Rubber is the basic raw material for industry, widely used in the manufacture of tires, hoses, tapes, cables and other rubber products, almost all industrial sectors are inseparable from rubber. The rubber cultivated by the Indians had a major impact on the development of world industry.

If the iron and steel industry is the pride of the Old West, the contribution of rubber is comparable.

In addition, Indians contributed most of the world's varieties of cotton.

The Indians cultivated many varieties of medicinal and fuel plants, such as the cinchona tree for the extraction of quinine, the gorgonzola (coca) for the extraction of narcotics, and more than a dozen varieties of dye plants.

Culture

Chief Indian weddings have a strong national color.

Wedding venue more choice in the Indian settlement public **** building held, usually a larger wooden house. When the wedding was held, friends and relatives, neighbors, village residents have come to the wooden house, people sitting on the ground, greet each other. Men, women and children dressed in national costumes, new styles, colorful. Although the Indians are cheerful, but the wedding occasion is very quiet, even if the speech is also softly spoken. [4]

Marriage among the Indians is simple, and when a union is desired, only the consent of the parents is required.

The wealth of the Indians was not measured by possessions; the richest men were the most capable hunters, and the dowry of the women was good health and willingness to assist their husbands in the housekeeping. When they were no longer willing to live together, they could part ways with a ceremony as simple as a wedding, and there was no question of property division.

There is no clear line between unmarried and married couples among the Indians, and chastity is not considered a basic moral standard. In addition, wives were exchanged for overnight stays between very friendly friends, which was seen as a most solid friendship.

After the death of the man or woman who was the head of some families, their children sometimes recognized as parents the close friends of their parents during their lifetime, just as Christians recognize their godfathers or godmothers.

In Indian tribes, men always used marriage to strengthen the political status and prestige of the "head of the family." The Xingu tribe, for example, allowed polygamy because one more wife was one more "union representative" and one more laborer. A man could marry two or more sisters in a family, as well as women from other tribes, and the wives of polygamous families took pride in their efforts to expand their husbands' authority and status.

Sometimes, for the sake of family harmony, a wife may suggest to her husband that he marry a certain woman, acting as a "bridegroom" to her "husband.

Festivals

Indian festivals are especially numerous, and this is related to the fact that ancient Indian religious ceremonies were particularly complex. Indy

Indians

And people worship the spirit of totem beliefs, the tribes every year to hold a variety of totem worship religious ceremonies, some of the rituals passed down to evolve into the charm of the still exists in a very unique and bizarre festivals. Indian festivals and religious festivals together, such as Mexico's Day of the Dead, Peruvian Indians Sun Festival, etc., while the Indians also retained some of their own unique festivals, such as the Brazilian Indians piercing the ears of the festival, the Bolivian Indians of the festival of the Devil and so on. Many of the Indian festivals are still only their own festivals, but some of them have become local people's **** with the festival.

Funeral can not only reflect the degree of human awareness of their own, but also reflect the different concepts of life, life and soul. Indian funeral customs have a direct relationship with their religious beliefs, reflecting the Indians in the different worldviews under the domination of the attitude towards the reality of social life and the vision of the future.

Native American Day

Native American Day is a traditional American Indian holiday. It is held on the second Saturday in May and the fourth Friday in September. During the holiday, celebrations rich in Indian national traditions and cultural characteristics are held throughout the United States.

Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead is a holiday for Indians in Mexico to honor their dead. The Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1 and 2 every year, with the "young spirits" honored on November 1 and the "adult spirits" honored on November 2. During the festival, offices across the country are closed in the morning. People set up altars at their homes and offer sacrifices to the dead using various skull-shaped toys, candies, and cakes that they bought from stores and liked to play with and eat during their lifetime. In some cases, the beds where the deceased slept are packed so that the spirits can return home. In addition to this, people have to go to the cemetery to sweep the graves, they come to the cemetery to hold ceremonial activities, wearing a variety of masks and dance carnival, in order to wake up the spirits of the long sleep underground and its **** dance. The most distinctive is the town of Mexico City, southeast of Miskiskiq "night of remembrance of the dead". When night falls, the town everywhere fire. In front of every house, a pile of firewood is lit to lead the way for the dead to go home for New Year's Eve. In the old cemetery, several candles are lit in front of each tombstone, and flowers of various colors are placed in front of each tombstone, where the family members of the deceased hold a vigil. When November 1 comes, the church bell rings 12 times, and then set off firecrackers, announcing the return of the child's spirit, and on November 2 comes, the church bell rings 12 times, announcing that the child's spirit of the dead, ushered in the adult spirit of the dead. Today, the Day of the Dead has become a holiday celebrated by the entire Mexican nation***.

Claxa

Claxa is one of the more important Mexican traditions, every year on the last Monday of July, the city of Oaxaca, people gather at the foot of the Ferti hill singing and dancing to celebrate the "Claxa" festival. This is a non-religious folk festival. It is said that in ancient Mexico, the Astecs held ceremonies on this day to offer their small products to the earth and to wish for a good harvest in the coming year. Later, this sacrificial ceremony has evolved into the "Clarissa" festival. Early in the morning on the day of the festival, the bells of the altar rang out. Then a small folk band takes to the streets and lanes, playing the prelude to the festival with a six-stringed guitar. Men, women and children dressed in festive costumes gather from all directions at the foot of Mount Vrti and dance to the joyful music. People sing and dance, and frequently throw small homemade gifts to the surrounding audience. The celebrations reach their climax in the evening, when people dress up in fancy clothes and dance to their hearts' content.

Folklore Festival

The Folklore Festival is a festival celebrated by the Puno Indians of Peru, and it is the one that best describes the folklore of the Indians. Folklore Festival is a celebration of the local people of Puno to reproduce the ancient Inca style, in honor of the founder of the Inca Manco Capac built the city of Puno. Puno City is located in the northwest corner of Lake Titicaca, legend has it that Manco Capac, the founder of the Inca Kingdom, was born on the shores of Lake Titicaca and built Puno City as the starting point of his later expeditions. Puno has traditionally been a place of Indian settlement. The architectural style of the city and the way of life of its inhabitants have a strong Indian color, so it is known as the "Indian Folklore Capital". In honor of Manco Capac's work in laying the foundation of the nation, the Puno people celebrate the Folklore Festival in the first week of November every year. During the festival, the Puno people dress up in ancient Inca clothing, greet each other, treat each other and deal with all matters in strict accordance with ancient Inca customs. Naturally, Manco Capac is remembered and celebrated, and the elders of each family tell the other members of the family about the heroic deeds of this founder. At the same time, all kinds of literary and artistic programs performed in the theaters and on the streets express the legend of this outstanding man.

Festival of the Sun

Festival of the Sun is also a traditional folk festival of the Peruvian Indians. In Sacsayhuaman, near Cusco, the capital of the ancient Inca Empire in southeastern Peru, a unique Sun Festival is held on June 24 every year, lasting nine days. The festival originated from the ancient Inca's worship of the sun god. In the southern hemisphere, June 24 is the day when the sun begins to move south after its northern declination. As the Indians Figure 2-10 Performers dressed as "Inca Kings" at the Festival of the Sun

Yavar Festival

The Yavar Festival is also a traditional folk festival of the Peruvian Indians, which is held in late July each year. Yavar means "festival of blood" or "carnival of blood". In the 14th century AD, under the cruel oppression and enslavement of the Spanish colonizers, the Peruvian Indians constantly rose up against, but were bloody suppression and failed. Unyielding Indians thought of the vulture, the desire for revenge and the vulture's bravery associated with the rise of the vulture bullfighting "Yawar Festival". Vulture is the Andean foothills in the king of birds, wingspan up to 3 meters, weighing 10 to 12 kilograms, sex fierce good fighting. The Indians use the vulture to represent the heroic and unyielding Indian people, while the cow is the embodiment of colonialism. Every vulture and cattle duel always end with the vulture's victory, showing the indomitable will of the Indians and the confidence of victory. During the festival, the bullring is surrounded by crowds of people. People to the vulture and strong cattle filled with white wine, and then the vulture with a rope tied to the strong cattle, they drove them to the bullring. Vulture riding on the back of the bull, the bull will be bitten by jumping wildly roar, running non-stop. Finally, the bull could not support it anymore and fell to the ground with a scream. At this point, the eagle catcher into the arena, in the people's cheers to untie the eagle's rope. The vulture rose into the air and flew away in a triumphant manner. The people cheered and danced a group dance. After twilight, people also hold a banquet to celebrate the victory. According to local custom, this festival is a new beginning in life, so it is often used by young men and women as the best date for weddings.

Arasitas Festival

Arasitas Festival is a traditional festival of the Aymara Indians of Bolivia, which is held from January 24th to 30th every year. In the Aymara language, "Alacitas" means "please buy my things". As a result, the streets of Bolivia are filled with vendors selling their wares during the festival. People buy all kinds of gifts and dedicate them to Ekko, the god of happiness, in the hope that the god will bless them with a stable life in the coming year, a good harvest, good fortune and prosperity, and happiness. During the festival, a big folk celebration is held, ending with a dance, which is always a circle dance with women wearing wide skirts, and men wearing masks and masquerade costumes doing various dances. Nowadays, Alacitas is not just a festival of the Aymara Indians, but has gradually become a traditional festival for all Bolivians.

Devil Sacrifice Festival

Devil Sacrifice Festival is an annual festival organized by the Indians of the Oruro Department of Bolivia, and it is a festival that miners from many surrounding areas are willing to go to participate in. Because this is a major festival for Indian miners to pray for peace. Indians believe that people looking for mineral resources, digging mines, offending the underground A U Ali demon king, so the demon king to use the "ghost cough" (that is, silicosis), explosions, collapse and other cruel disasters to punish the miners, this superstition and instinctive self-defense mentality has gradually evolved into a fixed festival. Before the festival, all kinds of masks and costumes were sold in the stores in the mining towns. Miners in order to participate in this day of masquerade festivities, often spared no expense, spending a year's savings to buy a set of their ideal masks and costumes. At the festival, they unite as various characters to fight against the "demon king" and finally subdue him.

Piercing Ears Festival

Piercing Ears Festival is a traditional folk festival of the Brazilian Indians. It is held once every seven years and lasts for half a month each time, depending on the training of the "Wapiti". Ear-piercing festival, also known as the "sacrifice festival", originated from a peculiar custom of the Brazilian Shavantes.

Costumes

When it comes to Indian costumes, the most impressive thing is the unique headdress, the eagle feather crown, which is indeed a major feature of Indian costumes. Indian clothing and decoration is very simple, and even do not wear clothes, but many Indians costumes of different colors, styles, decorations of a variety of materials, styles, full of national characteristics, but also called the splendid and colorful.

Eagle Feather Crown With the development of society, the Indian standard of living is also improving, some of the more socio-economically developed and the number of Indian tribes partially preserved their customs and traditional culture. Some Indian tribes living in remote forested mountainous areas still retain their unique customs and traditional culture. In many areas, the Indians still retain the ancient Indian clothing customs, they still like to wear traditional clothing rich in their own characteristics, wearing traditional ornaments rich in their own characteristics.

Indians take the feather as a symbol of bravery, a sign of honor, but also often inserted in the hat to show off to people. Possession of bird feathers symbolizes bravery, beauty and wealth.

In addition, according to the color and wear, bird feathers also symbolize different social status and emotional state. For example, in the Kahinawa tribe, a man would wear a bird-feather ornament in front of a woman he was attracted to in order to express his ardent feelings, effectively preventing hostility from the other side. The black plumage of the sacred eagle evokes power and death, while the red plumage of the great South American parrot expresses goodwill, competence, and abundance. If all local residents are entitled to wear the red feather, the black feather will emphasize their honor.

To this day, they wear traditional clothing that is characteristic of their people. The Mayan women of the Yucatan Peninsula, young and old, wear loose white embroidered dresses and brightly colored flowers on their heads, while the men wear loose white dresses and pants, straw hats and straw sandals on their feet. The central plateau Indian women love to wear embroidered smock and vertical stripes of the wide skirt, upper body wearing a kind of multi-purpose shawl called "Reboso", this shawl can be sunshade, cold, but also can carry children, package things. Extremely rich in national characteristics of the dress has become a clear symbol of the Indians.

Architecture

The Maya were good at architecture and art, and they used stone to build many very magnificent temples, mausoleums and majestic monuments. On these buildings, the Maya left us pictures of various colors and beautiful, vivid carvings. This is the case of the Bonampak murals, which include scenes of nobleman's ceremonial processions, battles and triumphs, the presentation of prisoners, celebratory processions and the presentation of tributes. The figures in the paintings are in a variety of forms and lifelike. Frescoes colorful, clear lines, portrait of exquisite, rigorous composition, become one of the world's famous treasures of fresco art.

Vaultless Houses

The form of human habitation changed along with man's ability to transform nature. Initially, people lacked the ability to transform the natural world and could only live by natural barriers. With the evolution and reproduction of human beings, natural caves and other forms of residence can no longer meet the needs of human habitation. Thus, some natural materials were utilized to build houses. However, human beings built houses, especially in ancient times, and can not be separated from the influence of the natural environment and the use of natural conditions. For this reason, various forms of habitation were created. This point in the American Indians have a particularly obvious reflection of the middle: living in the plains of North and South America, the Indians will use grass and mud to build thatched huts; while living in the mountainous areas of the Indians are the use of stone and adobe to build a variety of houses; hunting for a living in the Indians more is the use of animal skins to cover the roof; while engaged in agriculture, the Indians are the use of crop residue to cover the roof; agricultural people to build a permanent dwellings, while the hunting people built tents that were easy to dismantle and easy to carry. In this way, the Indians created a hayloft, thatched-anchor, thatched huts, tents and adobe houses and other forms of habitation, the most important feature of these forms of habitation is that there are no vaults, because the Indians do not know the knowledge of the vaults.

For historical reasons (mainly persecution by colonizers), the Indians still live in isolated rural areas. Like the Mayans, most of the other Indian nations have retained their traditional living practices. Many Indians still live in primitive houses. In the Yucatan Peninsula, the clever Indians carved out a flat piece of land in the woods, fastened thick branches to the ground one by one, formed a large circle, put large leaves of palm trees on top, and the house was roughly built.

Religion

The Indians believe in "animism," and they revere nature, and have a reverential attitude toward its plants, trees, mountains and rocks. Indians have been assimilated to a considerable extent by the European Christian faith, in today's United States, most Indians believe in Christ, but the Indian primitive faith still exists, it is mixed with Christianity, becoming a strange religious beliefs. Religious beliefs occupy a high place in Indian life, Cayet said, and the most important tribal chief is the religious leader, who has authority over the tribal head in internal matters.

I hope this helps!