Changes In The Land William Cronon Summary By Chapter. Cronon examines both the Native American and European land usage during the pre-colonial. Cronons narrative addresses the evolution of New Englands ecosystems highlighting the effects on these systems by colonial beliefs in capitalism and property ownership that dated back to the early settlements such as Plymouth in 1620. The Native Americans also participated in the commodification of the environment in their attempts to gain material advantage particularly as they hunted beaver to extinction in exchange for European goods. In these three sections Cronon addresses the numerous regions of European pioneers consequences for the land and its assets.
Commodities of the Hunt Summary The fur trade with Europeans for brass silk cloth and guns transformed the Native Americans economies and their social and economic structures. There has been no timeless wilderness in a state of perfect changelessness no climax forest in permanent stasis. He believes that Cronons work achieves an original unique perspective into the relationship between peopleboth Native Americans and European colonistsand the land during the early settlement period in New England. The book focuses on the economic changes that occurred as a result of cultural interactions between English colonists and Indians. Changes in the Land Chapter 1 Summary. The books author William Cronon argues that the New England landscape was drastically transformed during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Cronon grounds his ideas in the contemporaneous writings of.
William Cronon wrote a scholarly assessment of the ecological changes in the land wrought by the arrival of New Englands European settlers from about 1620 to 1800 called Changes in the Land. One of the major misperceptions that colonizers held about indigenous ways of life lay in their assertion that Native people did not know how to properly cultivate their land which meant that they lived an unnecessarily frugal life in a land of plenty. He went onto become a highly important historian credited with helping inaugurate the field of environmental history. Cronons narrative addresses the evolution of New Englands ecosystems highlighting the effects on these systems by colonial beliefs in capitalism and property ownership that dated back to the early settlements such as Plymouth in 1620. In section 5 Cronon depicts the principal huge industry to emerge from European appearance. The whole doc is available only for registered users OPEN DOC.