Society People Once Knew Summary

The Downfall of a Society People Once Knew
According to an article title, “Atrocities against Native Americans”, over 90% of the Martians and Native Americans died due to not having any immunity to diseases from different cultures (2016). The way people treated each other in the past is unacceptable. In this analogy, the Martians are portrayed as the Native Americans while the Earthlings are portrayed as the European settlers. After learning about the Martians in Earth history and comparing it to today’s society, there is one question to discuss. How should a society treat a culture they decimated during the study of their history? A society should treat a culture they destroyed in a large proportion with respect and learn from past mistakes so people do not repeat the same behavior in the future.
People learned that the Martians were patriarchal. This means that children obtained their names from their fathers. This is one example of a common characteristic shared by the early European settlers. As stated by Eric Foner, under English law, a married man controlled the family’s property and a wife had no independent legal identity (Foner, 2014). This is also shared
by today’s society. The earthlings, however; much the opposite. The earthlings were matriarchal like the Native Americans, people know today. Patriarchal society considered females weak, while matriarchal society considered them the alpha of the family. In matriarchal society, children obtain their name from their mother. In the Native American culture, the father spent a lot of time away from the village hunting and fishing for food to provide for his family. The mother would stay back and be in charge of agriculture duties. Due to the early English law, men having control in the family was passed onto present and future generations. This was a legal doctrine know as “coverture” (Foner, 2014). According to the “coverture” doctrine, once a woman becomes married, they lose a great deal of their rights such as not being allowed to own property, write their own will, and giving up their legal identity (Foner, 2014). If the Martians and the European settlers were matrilineal like the Native Americans; there will be no issue with gender inequality today.
There are some common characteristics involving the Martians and the Native Americans and how Earthlings treated them. The way a society records and transmits its knowledge can decide the survival of a culture. The Martians stored all their information on prehistoric computer systems. When earthlings first encountered the Martians, the earthlings appear to offer help by upgrading their ancient record systems. However, this was not the case. The ancient records did not appear to correlate with the Earthlings records. The Earthlings acted in the same manner as the Europeans in destroying their prehistoric computer systems. The Europeans destroyed many villages and lives with the Native Americans. Whether comparing the Martians and the Earthlings with the Native Americans and the Europeans, history shows us that no one knew the correct information back in time. When people find out there are differences and beliefs in society, a trend of conflict follows.
Most Martian families were nuclear and not extended.
There was also no idea of kinship and the Europeans shared this characteristic. The earthlings, however, were the opposite. Kinship was important to Earthlings and they are mostly considered extended family. Kinship was also important to Native Americans. These differences between Martians and Earthlings influence the relative of individualism and communitarianism. Both Europeans and the Martians had a challenging time understanding the idea of a community because of their strong beliefs with individualism. The Native Americans and Earthlings believed that communitarianism was more important than the individual was. Due to the different views of individualism and communitarianism, this would create a great deal of conflict between the two
societies.
Every culture has its own set of beliefs. Today, people need to learn how to respect other cultures. When there is a difference in a society’s belief with another society’s belief, this arouses conflict. The Martians and Europeans mostly believed that their creator or god was male and struggled with the Native American and Earthling’s beliefs of a female creator. In Native American religion, the women were considered to have higher status. The Martians and Europeans highly value private property, which scared the Native Americans and Earthlings. The European idea of a man being more important than land and animals was conflicting with Native American values. The Native Americans and Earthlings did not like the idea of physical punishment. This is another trait shared by both Martians and Europeans with the Martians being described as a violent people and killed one another for various reasons. The use of fantastic analogy does help examine the question of how a society should treat a culture they decimated during the study of history. This analogy was helpful by looking at a different perspective to answer the question of how a society should treat a culture they destroyed in the past. This analogy was a bit confusing at first, but once a person put him/herself in someone else’s shoes, he/she will not be able to understand the question. No one will truly understand how humans should treat a culture once destroyed in the past. They can only truly learn by reviewing the past and understanding both perspectives.

References:
Atrocities Against Native Americans. (2016). Retrieved January 17, 2017, from http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/native-americans/
Foner, E. (2014). Give me liberty!: an American history. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.