Who/What did the indigenous people encounter??

When two people meet for the first time, each takes stock of the other, often focusing on differences. Scholar Martha Minow warns that difference always “implies a reference: difference from whom? I am no more different from you than you are from me. A short person is different only in relation to a tall one; a Spanish-speaking student is different in relation to an English-speaking one. But the point of comparison is often unstated.” By identifying unstated points of comparison, we can examine the relationships between those who have the power to assign labels of difference and those who lack that power.

The first meetings between Europeans and the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas illustrate Minow’s argument. Historians Peter Carroll and David Noble describe those encounters:

[On] an otherwise ordinary autumn day shortly after sunrise, the Arawak inhabitants of the Caribbean Islands noticed strange ships sailing on the horizon, much larger than their dugout canoes. As these ships moved closer and closer, they saw strange-looking people with light skins aboard, making odd gestures. The Arawak youths stood at the banks hesitantly, and then some of the braver men began swimming toward the mysterious boats.

These strangers offered the Arawak red-colored caps, glass beads, and other curious trifles. In exchange, the Arawak brought parrots, cotton skeins, darts, and other items. Then the strangers drew out swords, which the Arawak, in ignorance, grasped by the blades, cutting themselves. It was a symbolic act, this inadvertent drawing of blood. For the Arawak and the strangers looked at the world from opposite angles, and both were fascinated by what the other was not.

To the Arawak, the newcomers were so obviously different in language, dress, and color that the Arawak doubted that the Europeans were human beings. “They believe very firmly,” wrote Christopher Columbus after his first voyage to the Americas, “that I, with these ships and people, came from the sky.” Other Indigenous Peoples reacted in similar ways to their first encounters with Europeans.

Columbus and other Europeans had their own misconceptions. They mistakenly believed that the Arawak were “Indians.” Carroll and Noble write:

Continued in comments

marginal cost is a microeconomic measure that us to evaluate the extent to which the level of production of a good is sustainable in accounting, that is, to how many quantities the company plans to profit from the production of the good.

the concept of marginal cost is simple, it means the cost of producing one more item. for example, in the case of pies, the marginal cost is the cost of producing one more pie than those that have already been produced.

it is important to understand that productive activity influences marginal cost. the marginal cost of some goods can be very high, while others may be insignificant. for example, the marginal cost of producing an extra plane is very high. already the marginal cost of a water company to provide 1l more water is derisory.

in the case of pies, the cost involves the inputs, the labor and the fixed cost, which involves the fixed space of the bakery. the level of production initially has the marginal cost decreasing because there is space and manpower available. however, to produce more you have to hire more workers and buy more inputs. if physical space is limited, workers will conflict with places, inputs and their productivity will decrease, meaning there is an optimum point of production for each level of space and manpower. from this point on, the productivity of the workers will be getting smaller because of lack of space, so that the marginal cost of producing one more pie will be increasing. so, although you have not posted the chart, but if you have the answer, you can see that my explanation goes according to the marginal cost curve that will increase from the 4th pie, answer (c).