I/ Primer Questions

[30 min]

Distribute the following sets of primer questions randomly among the students and give them 5 minutes to individually prepare answers.  Elicit responses sequentially from the students, facilitating discussion wherever it may be profitably cultivated.  Each cluster of questions narrows the field of discussion and draws the class closer to the historical subject matter.

1. What goes through your mind when you meet somebody for the first time?  What factors might influence (positively or negatively) how two strangers interact?
   
   Generally, how would you characterize the interaction between different cultural groups throughout history?  What factors might influence whether these interactions are peaceful or antagonistic?
2. What factors might lead you (personally) to leave your home and start a new life somewhere else?  Do you think this will happen?  Why or why not?
   
   Human populations have colonized much of the planet, including some very marginal environments (e.g. the Canadian Arctic, the Kalahari Desert).  Historically, why do you think our species has done this, even to the point of displacing other human groups?
3. When do you think the first contact between Aboriginal and European populations occurred in North America?
   
   What do you think would have been the tone of these initial contacts?  Under what circumstances might they have occurred?  Might they have been peaceful or antagonistic? Why?