The first human act wasn ’ t the eating of forbidden fruit . It was a naming ceremony . Adam called the animals each by their own and then gave a name to the woman who had been created to ease , or to share , his loneliness . Naming is a sign of power , and sometimes of ownership , actual or intellectual . When a new species is identified , it is often given the name of the discoverer , as if Georg Wilhelm Steller really did own the eiders , jays , sea lions and sea cows called after him . When colonists landed on a fresh green breast of earth in the New World they gave it the name of a queen or king , or the man who had paid for the voyage . When the colonists eventually give way to a native-born government , the old names are taken down and replaced with indigenous ones : revolutionary heroes instead of kings , old and meaningful names for places that had no lasting connection to London or Paris or Berlin .
The myth of America is also largely concerned with naming , or renaming . In the Old World naming was a matter of continuity , of asserting and confirming bloodlines that maybe stretched back many centuries . Naming in America had a different aspect . As “ Carolina ”, “ Virginia ” and “ Georgia ” (“ Louisiana ” if you include the French part , “ Los Angeles ” and “ San Francisco ” if you include the Iberian ) all bear out , new territory was treated as if it was part of Surrey or the Ile de France , or more idealistically (“ Philadelphia ”) as if the new country really was an expression of some universal principle of brotherly love . There were eventually names – Milwaukee , Minnesota , Winnebago , Sioux City – that reflected native usage , even as the indigenous inhabitants were marginalised , displaced or massacred . The American was a replica of Adam , part of the myth of a new Eden , a world redeemed . Henry
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