A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and European settlers later introduced heads of iron and steel. The term came into the English language in the 17th century as an adaptation of the Powhatan (Virginian Algonquian) word.
Tomahawks were general-purpose tools used by Native Americans and later the European colonials with whom they traded, and often employed as a hand-to-hand weapon
Etymology
The name comes from Powhatan tamahaac, derived from the Proto-Algonquian root *temah- ‘to cut off by tool’. Algonquian cognates include Lenape təmahikan, Malecite-Passamaquoddy tomhikon, and Abenaki demahigan, all of which mean ‘axe’
History
The Algonquian people created the tomahawk. Before Europeans came to the continent, Native Americans would use stones, sharpened by a process of knapping and pecking, attached to wooden handles, secured with strips of rawhide. The tomahawk quickly spread from the Algonquian culture to the tribes of the South and the Great Plains.
Native Americans created a tomahawk’s poll, the side opposite the blade, which consisted of a hammer, spike or pipe. These became known as pipe tomahawks, which consisted of a bowl on the poll and a hollowed out shaft.
General Purpose Tool
Many Native Americans used tomahawks as general-purpose tools. Because they were small and light, they could be used with one hand. This made them ideal for such activities as hunting, chopping, and cutting. Both the Navajo and Cherokee peoples used them in this way. The development of metal-bladed tomahawks expanded their use even more. Most Native Americans had their own individual tomahawks, which they decorated to suit their personal taste. As Native American artwork shows, many of these were decorated with eagle feathers, which represented acts of bravery.
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I’m sure someone much smarter than I have made this connection, but does anyone else feel like burgerland is both a colony (I mean, it is a settler colonial nation but you know what I mean) by the ruling class as well as an empire?
The United States seems to be unique in how it embraces the imperial boomerang almost as part of its culture. In political science there’s this guns vs butter concept which is balancing how much to spend on defense and similar things (guns) vs butter (social programs, or pretty much everything else). The US subsidizes a lot of Europe’s military and this country is almost happy to be Europe’s personal attack dog, most likely to help it exploit Latin America and the Caribbean much more effectively. Domestically, austerity is practically a way of life. Little to no workers rights, abysmal and ugly infrastructure, a decreasing literacy rate, no universal healthcare, and education is now changing to be something only for the rich with literacy rates going down the toilet and a culture of fervent anti-intellectualism. All of this really makes you think “all that imperialism for THIS!?” But then that hit me: what if all this exploitation isn’t solely the idea of the American elites. Sure, they most definitely benefit a lot, but I doubt that they’re the sole beneficiaries as the ruling class is every bit as internationalist as the proletariat, so no doubt that American elites have a stronger sense of class solidarity than their so-called “nationalistic” fervor they so hypocritically claim.
I’m already aware of shit like segregation and both The Color of Law and The New Jim Crow are on my reading list, so I know that this is the case because of what the federal government as done to non-white communities, but ironically the imperial boomerang steps in and they do similar things to the very white people they claim to be fighting for the interests of. I forgot where, but a kkk member joked that if they ever got their ethnostate they’d just oppress each other.
Well yeah literally, capitalism always reproduces the same structure and “ideal” society to maximize power for the ruling class
Life in 1800 England was horrible, and so was life in 0 BC Rome despite not being capitalism yet