Coming Of Age In The Dawnland

Have you ever thought about what it was like in Indian society before the coming of Christopher Columbus? In the history writing, “Coming of Age in the Dawnland,” (1941) by Charles C. Mann, Mann’s purpose was to inform about the common misunderstanding in society of the Native people being savages, so he wants to persuade his audience of how the Native people and the early European settlers were not very different in their lifestyles. I believe that Mann did very well in achieving his purpose for this writing because his style and the content was very strong and persuasive, and there is lots of textual evidence to prove that his content and style was strong and persuasive.

First off, Mann shows us that their homes are not very different from each other. For example, “English visitors did not find this arrangement peculiar; chimneys were just coming into use in Britain and most homes there, including those of the wealthy, were still heated by fires beneath central roof holes. Nor did the English regard the Dawnland wetu as primitive” (140-144).
For example, “Europeans in those days tended to view children as moving straight from infancy to adulthood around the age of seven and often thereupon sent them out to work. Indian parents, by contrast, regarded the years before puberty as a time of playful development, and kept their offspring close by until marriage” (170-174). This quote shows how both the Native Americans and Europeans raised their children and how their ways contrasted and also how the common belief that the Native Americans were “uncultured people” is