choose one of the three prompts
- Use Worster’s framework to explain how Native Americans in the northeastern woodlands managed
agricultural lands sustainably over many generations. Be specific in identifying at least one element that
fits into each of Worster’s three categories (e.g., specific ideas or beliefs at the cultural level;
environmental conditions or processes at the ‘natural’ level; and social relations or practices at the social
level), and explain how each element interacted with the others dialectically to allow for reproduction of
agroecosystems.
*Please do not respond to this prompt if you write your RR3 essay on the application of Worster’s framework to New Orleans. - In his essay “A world of fields and fences,” William Cronon describes how New England colonists
used fences to bound their property. He argues that these fences highlight differences between Native
American and settler colonist ideas about and practices of land use and resource management. He states
that “fences marked off, not only the map of a settlement’s property rights, but its economic activities
and ecological relationships as well.” Explain why this was so, giving at least one example of how
fences symbolized different ideas about the nature of property and one example of how they reflected
different uses of the land by Native Americans and colonists. - Anthropologist Branislaw Malinowski saw myths as “charters for social action” that describe and
rationalize the structure and norms of social life, and make sense of the world for those who view the
world through myth. Carolyn Merchant describes the Corn Mother myth, which was shared by many
Northeastern Woodlands tribes. Thomas Jefferson, in his “Notes on the State of Virginia,” summarized
the “Agrarian Myth.” Briefly explain how each of these served as “charters for social action” that
rationalized the forms of social organization and resource management associated with Native American
and colonist agriculture.