Chapter 16 Vocabulary
1. potlatch [PAHT•LACH] n. a ceremonial feast used to display rank and prosperity
in some Northwest Coast tribes of Native Americans.
2. Anasazi [AH•nuh•SAH•zee] n. an early Native American people who lived in the
American Southwest.
3. pueblos [PWEHB•lohz] n. villages of large apartment-like buildings made of clay
and stone, built by the Anasazi and later peoples of the American Southwest.
4. Mississippian [MIHS•ih•SIHP•ee•uhn] adj. relating to a Mound Builder culture
that flourished in North America between A.D. 800 and 1500.
5. Iroquois [IHR•uh•KWOY] n. a group of Native American peoples who spoke
related languages, lived in the eastern Great Lakes region of North America,
and formed an alliance in the late 1500s.
6. totems [TOH•tuhmz] n. animals or other natural objects that serve as symbols of
the unity of clans or other groups of people.
7. glyph [glihf] n. a symbolic picture—especially one used as part of a writing
system for carving messages in stone.
8. codex [KOH•DEHKS] n. a book with pages that can be turned, like the one you
are reading now.
9. Popol Vuh [POH•pohl VOO] n. a book containing a version of the Mayan story of
creation.
10. obsidian [ahb•SIHD•ee•uhn] n. a hard, glassy volcanic rock used by early
peoples to make sharp weapons.
11. Quetzalcoatl [keht•SAHL•koh•AHT•uhl] n. “the Feathered Serpent”—a god of
the Toltecs and other Mesoamerican peoples.
12. Triple Alliance n. 1. an association of the city-states of Tenochtitlán, Texcoco,
and Tlacopan, which led to the formation of the Aztec Empire.
13. mita [MEE•tuh] n. in the Inca empire, the requirement that all able-bodied
subjects work for the state a certain number of days each year.
14. quipu [KEE•poo] n. an arrangement of knotted strings on a cord, used by the
Inca to record numerical information.
Chapter 17 Vocabulary
Renaissance [REHN•ih•SAHNS] n. a period of European history, lasting from about 1300 to 1600, during
which renewed interest in classical culture led to far-reaching changes in art, learning, and views of the
world.
2. humanism [HYOO•muh•NIHZ•uhm] n. a Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied
classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements.
3. secular [SEHK•yuh•luhr] adj. concerned with worldly rather than spiritual matters.
4. patron [PAY•truhn] n. a person who supports artists, especially financially.
5. perspective [puhr•SPEHK•tihv] n. an artistic technique that creates the appearance of three dimensions on a
flat surface.
6. vernacular [vuhr•NAK•yuh•luhr] n. the everyday language of people in a region or country.
7. Utopia [yoo•TOH•pee•uh] n. an imaginary land described by Thomas More in his book Utopia—hence, an
ideal place.
8. indulgence [ihn•DUHL•juhns] n. a pardon releasing a person from punishments due for a sin.
9. Reformation [REHF•uhr•MAY•shuhn] n. a 16th-century movement for religious reform, leading to the
founding of Christian churches that rejected the pope’s authority.
10. Protestant [PRAHT•ih•stuhnt] n. a member of a Christian church founded on the principles of the
Reformation.
11. Peace of Augsburg [AWGZ•BURG] n. a 1555 agreement declaring that the religion of each German state
would be decided by its ruler.
12. annul [uh•NUHL] v. to cancel or put an end to.
13. Anglican [ANG•glih•kuhn] adj. relating to the Church of England.
14. predestination [pree•DEHS•tuh•NAY•shuhn] n. the doctrine that God has decided all things beforehand,
including which people will be eternally saved.
15. Calvinism [KAL•vih•NIHZ•uhm] n. a body of religious teachings based on the ideas of the reformer John
Calvin.
16. theocracy [thee•AHK•ruh•see] n. 1. a government in which the ruler is viewed as a divine figure. 2. a
government controlled by religious leaders.
17. Presbyterian [PREHZ•bih•TEER•ee•uhn] n. a member of a Protestant church governed by presbyters
(elders) and founded on the teachings of John Knox.
18. Anabaptists [AN•uh•BAP•tihst] n. in the Reformation, a Protestant group that believed in baptizing only those
persons who were old enough to decide to be Christian and believed in the separation of church and state.
19. Catholic Reformation [REHF•uhr•MAY•shuhn] n. a 16thcentury movement in which the Roman Catholic
Church sought to make changes in response to the Protestant Reformation.
20. Jesuits [JEHZH•oo•ihts] n. members of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order founded by
Ignatius of Loyola.
21. Council of Trent n. a meeting of Roman Catholic leaders, called by Pope Paul III to rule on doctrines
criticized by the Protestant reformers.
1.