Compare and contrast the societies of Mesoamerica and the Eastern Assignment

Compare and contrast the societies of Mesoamerica and the Eastern Woodlands in 1491 - Assignment Example Women did not participate in building homes but assisted in working in the fields. The Eastern Woodland Indians were mainly hunters and gatherers2. The natives mostly spoke Algonquin or Iroquois. The Mesoamerican Indians were inhabitants of Mexico and Northern Central America. The main tribes were Mayans, Olmec, Amazonians, and Peruvians. They lived in caves and other structures curved out of stone. Mesoamerican Indians were the first to cultivate corn, potatoes, varieties of beans, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, chocolate, rubber, cotton and tobacco. The Indians in Mexico developed corn by a breeding process so sophisticated that the journal of science described it as â€Å"mans first and perhaps the greatest feat at genetic engineering†. The natives made different discoveries based on different experiences and ways of life. The Mesoamerican and Eastern Woodland Indians had occupied different parts of America with the eastern Indians occupying the rain forest. Due to this woodland Indians discovered different uses for wood. They made hunting tools, houses, canoes and cooking utensils. The natives who lived near water bodies used the canoes for transport. The Mesoamericans mainly used tools curved out of stone for example, farming tools that were curved out of stone. Both inhabitants practiced farming for food, but they practiced it differently. The Eastern Woodland Indians cleared the forest in order to create more space for farming or when the land got exhausted while the Mesoamericans specifically the Amazonian Indians learned how to farm in the rain forest without destroying it, a process scientists are studying today in the hope of regaining this lost knowledge. The Mesoamericans were very advanced in agriculture. The Native Indians are said to have been the ‘mother of civilization.’ The Mesoamerican Indians having secured their food supply, turned to intellectual pursuits. They invented their own writing, astronomy