Chapter 12: Peoples and Civilizations of the Americas, 200-1500
1. Introduction
a. The marriage alliance between Dos Pilas and Naranjo
b. Scarce resources, warfare and dynastic crisis
c. Cultural diversity resulted in many different political and technological
solutions
2. Classic-Era culture and society in Mesoamerican, 200-900
a. Teotihuacan
i. Religion
ii. Population growth and agriculture
iii. Administration and commercial interests
iv. Military
v. Decline
b. The Maya
i. Agriculture
ii. City states and systems of control
iii. Religious cosmology
iv. Rulers and warfare
v. Bloodletting and lineage
vi. Technology—particularly the calendar
vii. Decline of Maya centers
3. The Post-Classis period in Mesoamerica, 900-1500
a. The Toltecs
i. Borrowed and built on earlier societies
ii. Most important innovations were political and military
iii. Rule of Tula
iv. Decline
b. The Aztecs
i. Early relations with urbanized agriculturalists and military
conquest
ii. Expansion and rulers
iii. Military expansion and clan influence
iv. Government legitimacy through ritual and class divisions
v. Food production and acquisition
vi. Commerce and markets
vii. Religion and human sacrifice
4. Northern Peoples
a. The Southwestern Desert Cultures
i. The Hohokam
ii. Anasazi economy, products and kivas
iii. Structure of Chaco Canyon towns and society
iv. Political and religious dominance in Chaco Canyon and trade
v. The abandonment of Chaco Canyon
b. The Mound Builders: The Adena, Hopewell and Mississippian Cultures
i. Adena people of the Ohio Valley
ii. Hopewell Culture
iii. Mississippian culture
iv. Cahokia
v. Decline of Cahokia
5. Andean Civilizations, 200-1500
a. Cultural response to environmental challenge
i. Record keeping and reciprocal obligations
ii. Large-scale organization of labor and gendered division of tasks
iii. Exploration of the environment and colonizing
b. Moche and Chimu
i. Moche regional control and production
ii. Moche society highly stratified and theocratic
iii. High-quality artisans and art
iv. Decline of Moche
c. Tiwanaku and Wari
i. Tiwanaku: agriculture and architecture
ii. Tiwanaku: social structure and trade
iii. Influence of Tiwanaku
iv. Wari
d. The Inca
i. The rise of the Inca state and conquest
ii. Pastoralism and the state labor system
iii. Imperial administration
iv. Urban design and the building of Cuzco
v. Inca cultural and technological achievements rest of earlier Andean
civilizations
vi. Decline
6. Conclusion
a. Environmental role in rise of American societies
b. Culmination of American process in Aztec and Inca Empires
c. Military, commerce and the exploitation of people
d. An end to isolation