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US Environmental History Class at CSW
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#Post#: 350--------------------------------------------------
Re: #7: "Bisons on the Great Plains" by Andrew Isenber
g and Brian Donahue, "The Rise and Fall of M
By: nanaafiaba Date: February 24, 2019, 8:37 pm
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In our modern world, our lives revolve around food and our aims
to obtain it. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, this
was still the case. Our reading tonight explores the attempts of
the New England people to grow grass to feed their cows. And for
maybe the first time the roles of women in the New England
agricultural society was mentioned! On page 113 Donahue states,
"women toiled without respite to transform the raw products of
the land into usable food and clothing and formed their own
neighborly circles by exchanging garden produce, spun, yarn,
woven cloth, and midwifery services." Let's all give a quick
hurray to the acknowledgment of women in the New World!
Moreover, this reading made me think about how the importance of
farmers in our society has evolved over the years. New England
Farmers basically formulated "the classic New England landscape"
with their own hands during the early stages of the New World.
People's lives depended on farmers, and farmers received a
"competency and a respected place in their family and community"
(113) for their work. Today, this perspective has changed
dramatically. It seems that less and less people are going into
the farming industry, one that is so pivotal to our survival.
Taken over by commercial farms that devestate lands more than
the early New England farmers ever could, farmers are outsed out
of the profession. So my main question is really how did we get
here? When did America begin to devalue it farmers?
#Post#: 351--------------------------------------------------
Re: #7: "Bisons on the Great Plains" by Andrew Isenber
g and Brian Donahue, "The Rise and Fall of M
By: nanaafiaba Date: February 24, 2019, 8:46 pm
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To Sofia:
My answer to your question is a big yes! I have repeatedly
noticed that European Americans practically refused to own up to
their actions. Even in our first reading, Worster states,
"Perhaps we spend too much time talking about our ideas,
neglecting to examine our behavior" (eight). And Chaplin also
mentioned in "Natural Philosophy and an Early Racial Idiom in
North America" how the early settlers would blame the Native
American deaths on the Native Americans' own cultural laziness
to fight the diseases. Such ideas are preposterous and do not
make sense, but time and time again we still see the same
behavioral patterns.
#Post#: 352--------------------------------------------------
Re: #7: "Bisons on the Great Plains" by Andrew Isenber
g and Brian Donahue, "The Rise and Fall of M
By: Annaliese Date: February 24, 2019, 8:57 pm
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I liked that the second reading was about Massachusetts and the
area around Weston specifically. I never really understood the
importance of grass and how it sustained the ecosystem and
farming.It makes sense that cattle would be pivotal in driving
farming and feeding people because manure fertilizes the crops
and milk and butter provided a year round food supply. I didn't
realize that Watertown was used for farming early on. I thought
it was interesting the way it gave a timeline of the growth and
changes in the landscape as society developed, and how land was
used in particular.
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