Transcript Aztec, Inka, Maya

Aztec, Inka, Maya
ANTH162
Agenda
 About the course
– this week chp 1,2
 The syllabus
– assigned readings
– policies
 The web page
 Expectations
 Assessments
www.sjsu.edu/people/marco.meniketti/courses/Aztec
Restored
Mayan
murals at
Bonampak
Format
 Chronological
– link region and time
– follow specific culture development
 Regional
– examine regional variation
 Thematic
– key on particular topics with each culture
• art, architecture, religion, lifeways, etc.
To be successful
 Keep up with readings
 Think in broad
 organize your notes
thematic terms
 Learn your geography
 Take notes from text
on what was not
discussed in class
 Readings and lecture
overlap
according to region
and culture
 use different
techniques to learn
(memorize)
chronology
Geography of MesoAmerica
 Essential environmental factors influencing
development of social groups
 Highly variable terrain
– mountains, plains, tropical, dessert, lack of
major river systems
 Unlike areas where civilizations arose in the
“Old World”
A few words about “Old World”
 Euro-centric terminology
 Shapes and informs our thinking about
“New World” culture in subtle, racist ways
 New World did not conform with biblical
knowledge
– influenced interaction between cultures
– conceived of in biblical terms
– How to be explained?
Definitions
 Many concepts and terms should be
understood before we encounter them.
 1. Complex societies
 2.Civilization
 3. State level organization
 4. Pre-industrial society
Modes of Integration
(see pages 24-25 Evans)
 Egalitarian, Ranked, Stratified
 Areas of integration
– subsistence, economy, territory, settlement,
community, society, politics, ideology
 Environmental interaction
– system feedback
A few terms
 ideology
 cosmology
 subsistence
 culture area
 cultural ecology
 shaman
 preceramic
 Elite
 luxury good, preciocities, elite craft
 “practical rationality”
Formative period
 Normal formative 2000 BC-AD 300 also
(pre-classic)
 Classic AD 250-900
 Post-classic AD 900-1521
 Colonial period
Earliest settlement
 Foraging phase since
 By 8000 BC the paleo-
at least 10,000 BC
 First migration of
humans to North and
South America begins
near end of last glacial
period. Certainly
15,000 years ago, but
possibly earlier.
Indian groups are
thriving.
 The route was
Beringia and likely
also coastal.
Foraging leading to sedentism
 Foraging groups small in size--dependent
on carrying capacity of environment.
 Semi-sedentary wherever beans, squash,
corn were naturally abundant.
 Although fertile lowlands, much of
highland regions were agriculturally
challenged.
Environmental conditions
 North America, MesoAmerica and South
America lacked the wide variety of
potential domesticatable plants and animals
found in the “old world” (Diamond)
 The geography is extremely variable in a
north/south axis.
Geophysical features
 Dry deserts, high mountains, humid
lowlands
 Tierra caliente, Tierra templada, Tierra fria
 Tectonically active with earthquakes and
volcanoes
Benefits / Problems
 Stable food source
 Sedentary life limits
allows sedentary life.
 Food surpluses are
possible
 food surplus allows
increased population
 Large population
provide more labor
resources base
 Reliance on limited
resources bring
environmental
dependence
 Increased population
increases need for
resources
Discoveries in
ceonotes