Final SS

Question 1

By what routes did the native peoples of the New World first arrive?

Answer 1

Across Beringia, land bridge that once connected Siberia and Alaska, By boat along northern rim of Pacific, then southward along coast, From Iberian Peninsula to Newfoundland by boat, along edge of an ice cap, Migration, by boat, from west Africa to Brazil

Question 2

What was the way of life for the first Americans?

Answer 2

Mobile Hunter-Gatherers

Question 3

What environments did the first Americans inhabit?

Answer 3

All of them: Mountains, prairies, deserts, forests

Question 4

When and where did the America’s first settled population emerge?

Answer 4

Mesoamericans around 1200 BC.

Question 5

What crop allowed these people to settle?

Answer 5

Maize

Question 6

Where are the Eastern Woodlands located?

Answer 6

Between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean

Question 7

What were the main crops of the native peoples in the Woodlands?

Answer 7

Corn, beans, and squash

Question 8

What agricultural techniques did Woodlanders practice?

Answer 8

Slash and burn

Question 9

What was the drawback, or cost, to native peoples in the shift to agriculture?

Answer 9

Became less healthy, as evidenced by weaker bones and teeth

Question 10

Despite the negative consequences, what benefits to agriculture encouraged them to continue its adoption?

Answer 10

Steady, reliable food source, Surplus, Specialization

Question 11

What were examples of American Indian cultural traits that were different from those in Europe?

Answer 11

Worldview, Religious beliefs and practices, Concepts of ownership and property, Kinship networks

Question 12

How did Indians view the material and the supernatural worlds?

Answer 12

There was no separation between the two, they were one and the same.

Question 13

How can their religious beliefs be characterized?

Answer 13

Animistic, Polytheistic

Question 14

What are some examples of how their religious beliefs shaped the way they lived their lives?

Answer 14

Rituals for everything, Blood of extreme importance and sacredness, Dreams considered real and taken seriously as a consequence,

Question 15

Unlike most human societies, how did North America’s Indians trace their ancestry?

Answer 15

Through the female, matrineal

Question 16

What are some examples of what this looked like day-to-day in North American Indian society?

Answer 16

Men typically joined woman’s family

Question 17

While Indians had some semblance of “ownership,” how did their conception of ownership differ from the European conception of ownership and private property?

Answer 17

For Europeans, ownership and property rights was God-given and thus inviolable, Natives had no conception of ownership or property rights beyond utilitarian items like tools or weapons or maybe some jewelry

Question 18

Where were the largest population societies?

Answer 18

South west, Mississippi, and Mesoamerica

Question 19

What was the Chaco Canyon civilization like?

Answer 19

They lived in Pueblos in a canyon.

Question 20

What caused the collapse of Chaco Canyon?

Answer 20

Deforestation and over-irrigation forced them into ever smaller communities

Question 21

What makes Cahokia particularly significant?

Answer 21

Possibly being the largest civilization in Mexico

Question 22

What is Cahokia famous for?

Answer 22

Earthen pyramids

Question 23

Describe Cahokia’s political structure.

Answer 23

Organized around chiefdoms

Question 24

How was slavery understood in Cahokia? What did this understanding mean for someone who was a slave?

Answer 24

Slaves weren’t property but rather individuals without connections to the community

Question 25

What happened at Cahokia’s Big Bang?

Answer 25

Massive population explosion ➢ Population surged nearly 500% in single generation

Question 26

What caused Cahokia’s collapse?

Answer 26

When the Big Bang happened, it is thought that too much people put a strain on the soceity

Question 27

What sort of communities did Eastern Woodlanders live in?

Answer 27

Small, dispersed ➢ Semi-nomadic

Question 28

What advantage did these sort of communities offer them?

Answer 28

Allowed them to take advantage of rich soil and abundant rivers and streams

Question 29

Describe the role of sachems in Eastern Woodland society.

Answer 29

1 or more sachems governed by people’s consent

Question 30

Describe the role of women in Eastern Woodland societies.

Answer 30

Possessed authority over marriages, households, agricultural production, and selecting sachems

Question 31

What was the primary food source of the Pacific Northwest peoples?

Answer 31

Salmon

Question 32

What did the way of life of the Pacific Northwest peoples revolve around?

Answer 32

Salmon

Question 33

What allowed the Pacific Northwest to become one of the most densely populated regions of the New World?

Answer 33

Moderate climate ➢ Lush forests ➢ Abundant rivers ➢ Food surpluses

Question 34

What were potlatches and what were they used for?

Answer 34

Elaborate feasts designed to develop relationships and elevate social status

Question 35

What were the cedar trees used for in the Northwest by the Native People?

Answer 35

Plank houses, Massive canoes to sail and fish in Pacific Ocean, Totem poles and other elaborate figures and items like drums,

Question 36

What does the word “Mesoamerica” refer to?

Answer 36

Mexico and Central America

Question 37

What were “chinampas”?

Answer 37

Floating gardens

Question 38

What’s the difference between highland and lowland agriculture in Mesoamerica?

Answer 38

Highland = permanent fields, irrigation, and chinampas ➢ Lowland = shifting fields, slash and burn techniques, chinampas in marshes and lakes

Question 39

What was the Mesoamerican currency?

Answer 39

Cacao

Question 40

What did Mayan urban centers contain?

Answer 40

Temples, pyramids, palaces, courts for playing ball, and plazas

Question 41

How were the Maya able to survive and practice agriculture at such high elevations?

Answer 41

Irrigation and terracing

Question 42

What are Mayan codices?

Answer 42

Mayan “books” where recorded calendrical and astronomical observations in hieroglyphic writing

Question 43

At its peak, how extensive was Mayan civilization?

Answer 43

More than 40 urban centers, each center population ranging from 5000-50,000

Question 44

What are the theories of the Maya collapse?

Answer 44

War-related disruption of river and land trade routes, Deforestation, Drought

Question 45

Who did the Maya sacrifice?

Answer 45

Urban centers warred with one another, taking losing aristocrats and remaining population captive

Question 46

Why were these sacrifices essential to the Maya?

Answer 46

Religious rituals to appease their deities and demonstrate piety, Believed universe would end without offering of blood

Question 47

What role did the Mayan priests have in the sacrificial ceremonies?

Answer 47

Intermediaries between people and deities, so had to ritually mutilate and draw blood from themselves

Question 48

Where did the Aztecs settle?

Answer 48

Lake Texcoco

Question 49

Why is the Aztec empire significant?

Answer 49

Largest empire in Native Americas

Question 50

Describe Aztec society.

Answer 50

Militaristic and brutal ➢ Everything revolved around military

Question 51

Many have questioned the truth of Aztec sacrificial practices, claiming they are either fabrications or exaggerations by imperialistic Europeans. Describe the evidence unearthed by Harvard scholar David Carrasco that rather emphatically refutes these assertions.

Answer 51

Skeletal remains of children with throats slashed ➢ 80 different sacrificial centers in Aztec capital alone

Question 52

Most Aztec sacrificial victims were of which sex?

Answer 52

Male

Question 53

According to the evidence, how many women and children were sacrificed?

Answer 53

At least 1/3

Question 54

What was the Aztec sacrificial ceremony like? How did the process differ if the victim was a woman?

Answer 54

Men would have their chest cut out and their still beating heart would be offered to the gods and they would be decapitated and their body would be thrown down the stairs, the women would have their throat cut until they were decapitated and the priests would wear their skin, the children just got their throats cut.

Question 55

Though it is impossible to put an exact number on the total of sacrificed individuals, what provides a window into the sheer magnitude of victims?

Answer 55

At least 18 major ceremonies required sacrifice each year, Each of these ceremonies had several hundred to couple thousand sacrificed victims per event

Question 56

Where was the Inca empire located?

Answer 56

West coast of South America, Andes Mountains

Question 57

How do we know anything about Incan civilization since they left no written records?

Answer 57

Inca memorizers

Question 58

Where do all written records pertaining to the Inca come from?

Answer 58

Spanish Conquest

Question 59

How did the Inca ensure political stability?

Answer 59

Forced resettlement of conquered peoples ➢ Made it difficult to coordinate rebellion

Question 60

Without money, how did the Inca people pay taxes?

Answer 60

Army service, public works, agricultural work

Question 61

What was Inca society like?

Answer 61

Highly stratified ➢

Question 62

Who was the Inca road network limited to?

Answer 62

Government and military

Question 63

Why did the Inca’s infrastructure, in part, prove its undoing?

Answer 63

Spanish able to utilize it as part of their conquest