Section 3: Mesoamerica and Andean South America
· Early Civilizations
o Food surpluses allow for growth of cities.
o Priests and High officials lived in the centers of the cities and ran the government.
· The Olmec
o Earliest Culture in Mexico
o Small elite class held religious, military, and political power.
o Famous for giant stone heads that weigh 50 tons each.
· The Chavin
o Developed in South America.
o Worship of a cat god
o Both cultures disappeared.
· The Maya
o Occupied the Yucatan peninsula to El Salvador
o Skilled architects and engineers
o Developed a complete and complex written language
o Worshipped many gods with human sacrifices.
o Declined for a variety of reasons: war, famine, and rebellion.
o Astronomy
§ Very skilled at watching the stars.
§ Built massive observatories to view the stars which were considered gods.
· Mayan Calendar
o Based on 2 different calendars
o A 260 day calendar and a 365 day calendar.
o Every 52 years they coincided and it was a year of bad luck.
o Predicted end is Dec 21, 2012 A.D.
· The Toltec
o A warrior people with Tula as its capital
o Invaded into Maya territory and influenced their way of life.
o Worship of Quetzalcoatl-plumed (feathered) serpent.
o Ended when Tula was destroyed by invaders.
· The Aztec
o Wandering warriors that settled in the Tenochitlan
o Borrowed from the societies they conquered.
o Had advanced metal/leatherworking, pottery, mathematics
o Chinampas- raised fields made with mud taken from the bottom of lakes.
o The military was the most important aspect of the culture.
o Had to feed sun god human sacrifices to keep back the darkness.
o Declined due to unrest and the conquistadors
· The Inca
o Name means “children of the sun”
o Controlled a vast empire along the Andean mountain range.
o They built fortresses, roads, and irrigation systems
o Roads allowed for easy travel and transportation.
o Tried to remove regional differences.
o Set up an education system for the elite.
o Quechua-the official language of the empire and is still spoken today.
o Quipu- a series of knots on parallel strings.
§ Used to store information on harvests, trade, etc.
o Juanita
§ A young Inca girl found frozen in the mountains. May have been a sacrifice.