The Beginning of a New Culture

A detailed Summary of The Beginning of a New Culture

There is a moment in Stanley Kubrick's film "2001" that is unforgettable. A being, half-man and half-ape, discovers a mysterious black monolith. After touching the structure, something has changed in that being. He/it, after struggling to hunt for so long, has discovered the idea of "tools." Picking up the weathered bone of a decayed animal, the beast begins to see the bone in a whole new light. It is now an instrument of survival, a mechanism of destruction, which will help continue the survival of the many beasts. The final shots of the "dawn of man" sequence show the beast throwing the bone into the air, the vision of the bone being replaced with that of a spaceship.

The intent of the writer is only to use the film as an example of a much larger theme. How is man to learn and evolve? How does he expand his boundaries? The process of learning through contact is vital to the discovery process. How is a group of people able to progress, to explore without making contact with other races, cultures, and environments? "2001" may be a fictitious film, but the ideas it conveys are quite valuable to the study of human progression. Contact is a broad term, but here, it is used as a term that represents interaction and learn

One must wonder what the Indians could have learned from the white man and vice-versa. The natives, at first, did think of the Spanish as gods. They couldn't be blamed for this, as the Spanish carried many items Indians had never seen before. The Spanish carried guns, played trumpets, and wore gilded armor with plumed helmets atop their heads. This was not all, as one such Spaniard told the Indians, "I came from the sun...I am its son."

Is the Indian nation better off than they were before the appearance of the Europeans? The question is whether or not they would be able to survive in today's world. On one hand, they were a primitive culture, not quite as advanced as their European visitors. On the other hand, they were dehumanized and forgotten. The belief of the author is that contact was inevitable. Sooner or later, someone would have landed there, as it was just a matter of time. However, as the Indians and Europeans met, they each learned something new about themselves. They were exposed to new ideas, new ways of living and working. This contact between these two groups was actually a collaboration of ideas, forming a new culture. An American culture.

In 1539, the Zuni Indians prepared for the coming of a god, known as the black katsina. They hoped that this god would bring rain, making the land fertile again. What they received was not really a god at all, but a group of tyrannical conquistadors. Spawned by the discovery of the New World and the search for the Seven Golden Cities of Antilla, the conquistadors began to make good on their will to spread Catholicism and build their empire.

Man has always theorized about his beginnings. There never has been a 100% definitive answer as to the beginnings of

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Approximate Word count = 1179
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies