Analysis: Coming Of Age In The Dawnland

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Science journalist, Charles C. Mann, had successfully achieved his argumentative purpose about the “Coming of Age in the Dawnland.” Mann’s overall purpose of writing this argumentative was to show readers that there’s more to than just being called or being stereotyped as a savage- a cynical being. These beings are stereotyped into being called Indians, or Native Americans (as they are shorthand names), but they would rather be identified by their own tribe name. Charles Mann had talked about only one person in general but others as well without naming them. Mann had talked about an Indian named Tisquantum, but he, himself, does not want to be recognized as one; to be more recognized as the “first and foremost as a citizen of Patuxet,”(Mann 24). Tisquantum wanted to project something, something about people calling him an Indian. He wanted people to call him from where he had come from, Patuxet. Though, not just Tisquantum, but other civilians themselves. There are three confederations that are brought together forming a tripartite alliance; Wampanoag, Nauset, and Massachusett. People from these confederations speak one of two languages, Algonquian or Massachusett. The way they got their language was unknown, until researchers had use “glottochronology” to see how far back in common ancestry. In an …show more content…

They mostly spoke of what the boys do with their education, whereas the girls were not mentioned. The boys were expected to be strong and brave, so their parents had decided to throw them into the snow stark naked. The children are quickly taken out of the snow and placed near the fire to warm up. Aside from being placed in snow, the boys were tested with their survival skills at their coming of age. They were sent into the woods alone with only a bow, knife, and a hatchet. The Europeans were shocked with this discovery of how they taught the children but with also how effective it