Transcript Americas PowerPoint - Tanque Verde Unified School District

Key Themes
 Built elaborate ceremonial centers that reflected both a
complex religion and a powerful political authority
 Left a rich artistic legacy that included pottery,
sculpture, metalwork, and painting
 Developed sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and
mathematics.
 Human Sacrifice
Key Themes
 Isolation from one another and from the cultures of the
Eastern Hemisphere.
 Absence of metallurgy, although the peoples of
Mesoamerica and South America mined gold and silver.
 Few domesticated animals–the llama and alpaca of the
Andes Mountains being the notable exceptions–and, as a
result, no wheeled transport.
 Rudimentary writing (Aztec) or lack of a written language
(Inca)
MESO-AMERICAN
CIVILIZATION
 Advanced civilization in Americas since about 1500
B.C.E.
 From 1500 B.C.E. to 1500 C.E., several different
groups would establish dominance before succumbing
to internal or external problems.
 They were all located in central valley of Mexico or
along Gulf coast.
Movement of Early People
Governmen
t & politics
Society &
Religion
Advancements
Maya
Aztec
Inca
• Each city had a chief
•Military leaders helped rule & keep
order
•Rulers usually men, but some
women
•Ceremonial centers
•Large empire with a single ruler
•Emperor chosen by council of
nobles & priests
•Conquered cities had to pay
tribute
•Went to war often to capture
enemies for sacrifices
•Ceremonial centers
• Large empire with single king – Sapa Inca
•King had absolute power – claimed to be a god –
everything belonged to king
•Queen helped rule
•Nobles & local chiefs helped rule
•Ceremonial centers
•Roads & military outposts to keep conquered people in
line
•People had to work for emperor & priests part of the
year
•Kings & Nobles highest class
•priests also very powerful because
of ceremonies they conducted
•Most Mayans farmers
•Many gods – worshipped on
stepped pyramids
•Some human sacrifice
•Sun God very important
•Kings, nobles at top of society,
with warriors below them
•Warriors could become nobles
by capturing enemies
•Then came common people –
farmers and merchants
•Many slaves at bottom of society
•Priests also upper class
•Conducted ceremonies &
human sacrifices on pyramids
•Sun God very impt
Prayed to Gods and ancestors for help
•Sacrificed animals like llamas
•Sun God very impt – girls could be “chosen women”
that served his temple
•Gov’t strictly regulated people’s lives
•People lived in close-knit communities – ayllus
•Leaders of allyus made sure gov’t orders were followed
by communities
•Gov’t arranged marriages sometimes
•Polytheistic with religious festivals each month
•Priests very impt
•Hieroglyphic writing system
•Books made of bark
•Great at math and astronomy
•365 Day solar calendar
•Invented numbering system &
concept of zero
•Chinampas – artificial floating
islands for farming
•Accurate calendar
•Good at math & astronomy
•Good at mending broken bones
& cavities
•Pottery and weaving
•Quipu – knotted, colored strings to keep records
•Great Road system
•Great engineering
•Terraces for farming
•Good with metal – could alloy – blend metals
•Could do Surgery on human skulls
MESO-AMERICAN
CIVILIZATION
MESO-AMERICAN
CIVILIZATION
 Shared several characteristics:
 Agriculture: maize, beans,
squash
 Hierarchical structure:
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Warriors/Priests
Merchants
Peasant farmers
 Polytheism
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Human-sacrifice
Temples/ritual centers
 Advanced Astronomy &
calendars
 Basic writing systems
 Trade/Interaction with each
other
 Highly urbanized
Olmec La Venta
Early Mesoamerican societies,
1200 B.C.E.-1100 C.E.
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Olmecs
 1200-100 BCE
 The “Rubber People”
 Ceremonial Centers
 San Lorenzo, La Venta,
Tres Zapotes
 Olmec Heads
 Up to 10 ft tall, 20 tons
 Transported by dragging,
rolling on logs
 1000/workers per head
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Olmec Society
 Written language & bar/dot number system
 First widespread art style
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Mexico through Costa Rica
Three dimensional sculputure
Stone, jade, wood, pottery
Subjects: rulers, gods, jaguars & other tropical creatures
 Settled village life
 Elite class
 Probably authoritarian in nature
 Large class of conscripted laborers to construct ceremonial sites
 Also tombs for rulers, temples,
pyramids, drainage systems
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Mysterious Decline of Olmecs
 Ceremonial centers destroyed
 No evidence of warfare
 Revolution?
 Civil war?
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ART
 Were-Jaguar with Half-Mask
 Olmec, c. 150 BCE – 250 CE
 Ceramic jar
 Shamans/Kings equated with jaguars
 Great Jaguar ancestor of royal lineage
 Rain & fertility
 Were jaguar skin/mask to transform
(& some drugs)
 Ear-pendants
 Loin-cloth with jade pendant
City of Teotihuacan
 Highlands of Mexico
 Lakes in area of high elevation
 Village of Teotihuacan, 500 BCE, expands to become
massive city
 Important ceremonial center
 Extensive trade network, influenced surrounding areas
 Begins to decline c. 650 CE, sacked in middle of 8th
century, massive library destroyed
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View of the
Calzada de los
Muertos (Highway
of the Dead) from
the Pyramid of the
Moon.
Teotihuacan,
Mexico State,
Mexico.
Maya
 huge cities discovered in
19th c.
 300 BCE-900 CE
 Terrace Farming
 Cacao beans
 hot chocolate
 Currency
 Major ceremonial center at
Tikal
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Temple of the Giant Jaguar - Tikal
Maya Warfare
 Warfare for purposes of capturing enemy soldiers
 Ritual sacrifice of enemies
 Enslavement
 Small kingdoms engage in constant conflict until
Chichén Itzá begins to absorb captives
 Some nevertheless choose death
 Center of empire develops
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Mysterious Decline
 800 CE people begin abandoning cities
 Population & civilization declines
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Environmental Degradation?
Disease?
Water supply?
Invasion?
Internal strife?
Mayan Society
King, priests, nobles
Merchants
Architects,
Artisans
Peasants & Slaves
Mayan Ritual Calendar
 Maya built on achievements of
Olmec
 Complex math
 Invention of “Zero”
 Calendar of 365.242 days (17
seconds off)
 Solar calendar of 365 days
 Ritual calendar of 260 days
 Management of calendar lends
authority to priesthood
 Timing of auspicious moments
for agriculture
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Mayan Language and
Religion
 Ideographs and a syllable-alphabet
 Most writings destroyed by Spanish conquerors
 Deciphering work begins in 1960s
 Popol Vuh: Mayan creation myth
 Importance of bloodletting rituals
 Human sacrifices follow after removal of fingers,
piercing to allow blood flow
 Self-mutilation of penises, earlobes
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The Toltecs
 Regional states in central Mexican valley
 Religious and cultural influence of collapsed Teotihuacan
 Intense warfare
 Toltecs migrate from north-west Mexico, settle at Tula (near
modern Mexico city)
 High point of civilization: 950-1150 CE
 Urban population of 60,000, another 60,000 in surrounding area
 Subjugation of surrounding peoples
 Civilization destroyed by internal strife, nomadic incursions
1175 CE
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The Mexica
 One of several groups of
migrants, mid 13th c. CE
 Tradition of kidnapping
women, seizing cultivated
lands
 Settled c. 1375 CE in
Tenochtitlan (later becomes
Mexico City)
 Dredged soil from lake
bottom to create fertile plots
of land
 Chinampas, up to 7 crops
per year
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Tenochtitlan city center – model
Historia de Mexico. Web
Although the lakes of central Mexico have largely disappeared, a few chinampas
survive, such as this one in Xochimilco, near modern Mexico City.
The Aztec Empire
 Mexica develop tributary empire by 15th century
 Itzcóatl (1428-1440), Motecuzouma I (Montezuma,
1440-1469)
 Joined with Texcoco and Tlacopan to create Aztec
Empire
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The Toltec and Aztec empires, 9501520 C.E.
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Aztec ruins of the former island city-state of Tlatelolco (foreground) and the church
of Santiago de Tlatelolco on the Plaza of the Three Cultures, Mexico City. Tlatelolco
was subsumed by Tenochtitlán in the late 15th century.
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© 1997; AISA, Archivo Iconográfico, Barcelona, España
Mexica Society
 Hierarchical social
structure
 High stature for
soldiers
 Mainly drawn
from aristocratic
class
 Land grants, food
privileges
 Sumptuary
privileges,
personal
adornment
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Aztec eagle warrior –
National Museum of
Archeology, Mexico
Mexica Women
 Patriarchal structure
 Emphasis on child-bearing
 Especially future soldiers
 Mothers of warriors especially lauded
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Priests
 Masters of complex agricultural/ritual calendars
 Ritual functions
 Read omens, advised rulers
 Occasionally became rulers as well
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Cultivators and Slaves
 Communal groups: calpulli
 Originally kin-based
 Management of communal lands
 Work obligation on aristocratic lands
 Slave class
 Debtors
 Children sold into slavery
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Mexica Religion
 Influenced by indigenous traditions from the Olmec
period
 Ritual ball game
 Solar calendar (365 days) and ritual calendar (260
days)
 Not as elaborate as Maya calendar
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Mexica Gods
 Tezcatlipoca (“smoking
mirror”)
 Powerful god of life
and death
 Patron god of warriors
Mask of
Tezcatlipoca, the
Smoking Mirror.
 Quetzalcóatl
 Arts, crafts, agriculture
 Huitzilopochtli
 14th century popularity,
patron of Mexica
 Emphasis on blood
sacrifices
Huitzilopochtli –
“Left-claw of shining
feathers
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Ritual Bloodletting
 More emphasis on human
sacrifice than predecessor cultures
 Sacrificial victims had tips of
fingers torn off before death, ritual
wounds
 Victims: Mexica criminals,
captured enemy soldiers
 Personal rituals: piercing of penis,
earlobes
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Aztec Priest bloodletting, Aztec codex, 16th century.
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Aztec bloodletting. Photograph. New World Cultures Online
Dictionary. Web.
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Human Sacrifice
 Human sacrifice to honor
the sun, Aztec codex, 16th
century.
 human sacrifice.
Photograph. Encyclopædia
Britannica Online School
Edition. Web.
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An illustration from a reproduction of the Codex Magliabecchi depicting an Aztec priest performing a sacrificial
offering of a living human heart to the war god Huitzilopochtli.
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Codex Magliabecchi. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition
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Aztec round dance for Quetzalcóatl and Xolotl (a dog-headed god who is Quetzalcóatl's companion), detail
from a facsimile Codex Borbonicus (folio 26), c. 1520; original in the Chamber of Deputies, Paris.
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Quetzalcóatl: Aztec round dance. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Web.
Cannibalism
 "And in this way they sacrificed all the
victims one after another, and, when all
were dead and the corpses had been
rolled down the stairs, their owners—
those by whose hands they had been
made prisoner—picked them up and
carried them and distributed them
among themselves and ate them,
celebrating solemn rites with them. The
smallest number of these victims was
always above forty or fifty, for some
men were very expert in taking
captives. All the nations round about
did the same, imitating the Mexicans in
their rites and ceremonies in the service
of their gods." (José de Acosta, Natural
and Moral History of the Indies, p. 296).
Aztec Writing
 Aztec adopted writing system of Central Mexico when
they arrive
 Signs that represented words or sounds
 Written on deer-skin & paper codices
 Used for calendar/ritual purposes & record keeping of
tribute
 Pre-Aztec works gone because they burned them
 Aztec works gone because burned by Spanish
 Remaining records are post-conquest
Aztec writing
Aztec writing
 Coronation stone of
Motecuhzoma II
 The square area at the
bottom of the stone
corresponds to the year
"11 Reed" (1503), in
which the stone was
carved
 crocodile figure at the
top corresponds to July
15, the coronation day
of Motecuhzoma II
Aztec Calendar
 20 day signs of sacred calendar – Tonalpohualli
 Date composed of a day sign & a coefficient
 Also had solar calendar
 365 days
 18 months of 20, 5 “unlucky days”
 Calendar Round
 Combined the 2 calendars into 52 Year cycle
Aztec Calendar
 Only four day signs,, could be part of a year's name, and
hence they were called "year bearers".
 Accompanying the year bearers were coefficients from 1 13.
 To distinguish Calendar Round years from days in the 260day calendar, years glyphs were drawn inside rectangular
"cartouches".
Aztec Education
 Priest & noble elders – conservators – in charge
 Calmecac - schools
 Oral transmission of important events, calendrical
information & religious knowledge made tools for rote
memorization very important
 Oratory, music, poetry
 Visual aids
Peoples and Societies of the
North
 Pueblo and Navajo Societies
 American southwest
 Maize farming 80% of diet
 By 700 CE, construction of permanent stone or adobe
dwellings, 125 sites discovered
 Iroquois Peoples
 Settled communities in woodlands east of Mississippi
 Mound-building peoples
 Ceremonial platforms, homes, burial grounds
 Cahokia large mound near east St. Louis, 900-1250 CE
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Trade
 No written documents survive regarding northern
cultures
 Archaeological evidence indicates widespread trade
 River routes exploited
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States and Empires in
South America
 No writing before arrival of Spaniards, 16th century CE
 Unlike Mesoamerican cultures, writing from 5th c. CE
 Archaeological evidence reveals Andean society from
1st millennium BCE
 Development of cities 1000-1500 CE
 Inca called their empire Twantinsuyu
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Before the Coming of the
Incas
 After displacement of Chavín, Moche societies
 Development of autonomous regional states in Andean
South America
 Kingdom of Chucuito
 Lake Titicaca (border of Peru and Bolivia)
 Potato cultivation, herding of llamas, alpacas
 Kingdom of Chimu (Chimor)
 Peruvian coast
 Capital Chanchan
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The Inca Empire
 From valley of Cuzco
 Refers to people who spoke Quecha language
 Settlement around Lake Titicaca mid 13th century
 Ruler Pachacuti (r. 1438-1471) expands territory
 Modern Peru, parts of Equador, Bolivia, Chile,
Argentina
 Population 11.5 million
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The Inca empire, 1471-1532
C.E.
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Quipu and Inca
Administration
 More highly centralized, bureaucratic than Aztec empire,
allowing for more integration of various peoples
 Like Aztecs, gained control in 1400’s during a time of
warring between different groups after collapse of previous
empire
 Incas ruled by holding hostages, colonization
 No writing, used system of cords and knots called quipu
 Mnemonic aid
 asdf
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Cuzco
 Capital of Inca empire
 Residents high nobility, priests, hostages
 Gold facades on buildings
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Inca roads
 Massive road building system
 Two north-south roads, approximately 10,000 miles
 Mountain route
 Coastal route
 Paved, shaded, wide roads
 Courier and messenger services
 Limited long-distance trade, held by government
monopoly
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Incan Society and Religion
 Social elites dominated by infallible king
 Claimed descent from the sun
 Worship of ancestors
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Remains preserved in mummified form
Regularly consulted
Intermediaries with gods
Sacrifices offered
Paraded on festive occasions
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Aristocrats, Priests, and
Peasants
 Aristocrats receive special privileges
 Earlobe spools as adornment
 Priestly class ascetic, celibate
 Peasants organized into community groups called ayllu
 Land, tools held communaly
 Mandatory work details on land of aristocrats
 Public works
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Inca Religion
 Inti sun god
 Viracocha creator god
 Temples as pilgrimage sites
 Peasant sacrifices usually produce, animals (not
humans)
 Sin understood as disruption of divine order
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