Continental Comparisons
- Basic similarities in development of human cultures everywhere
- Human migration
- Resulting in civilizations
- Important differences between civilizations in different regions
- Americas lacked animals for domestication
- Africa imported animals
- Writing was limited in Americas to Mesoamerica
- Fewer civilizations in Americas and Africa
- No common cultural identity in premodern era
- Great environmental variation
- Huge continent
- Most tropical super continent
- Nile Valley Civilization
- Ruled by all powerful monarch
- Long distance trade source of wealth and military power
Mesoamerica
- Lack of interaction with other major cultures (including Americas)
- Rugged mountain terrain gave rise to micro-climates
- Extraordinary diversity of mesoamerican societies
- Maya: Writing and Warfare
- Mayan ceremonial centers
- Well known achievements
- Advanced mathematical system
- Elaborate calendars
- Most elaborate writing system in Americas
- Architecture
- Maya economy
- Agriculture had large scale human engineering
- City state political systems
- Frequent warfare
- Densely populated urban centers
- Rapid collapse after long term drought
- Teotihuacan: Americas' greatest city
- Much is unknown
- City planned on a gridline pattern
- Little evidence of rulers
- Deep influence on Mesoamerica
- Mysterious collapse
- Aztecs-"city of the gods"
- Rich marine environment possessed endless supply of seabird and fish
- Most well known civilization was Incas
- Central Peruvian coast was home
- Moche: Civilization of the coast
- Flourished along 250 miles of Peru's north coast
- Agriculture based on complex irrigation system
- Relied on fishing
- Ruled by warrior-priests
- Wari and Tiwanaku: Empires of the Interior
- Bantu Africa: Cultural variation
- Spread over Africa
- Wasn't a conquest
- Significant interaction
- Advantages
- Numbers
- Diseases
- Iron
- Culture changed because of interactions with different people
- North America
- Village based societies
- Pit houses and great houses
- Establishment of permanent villages
- Local trading networks
- Development of larger settlements
- Chaco
- Pacific Oceania
- Environmental impact of human life
- Diverse threats to Hawaii
- Pan-pacific similarities
- Religious
- Had trade networks
I truly enjoyed reading about all the civilizations in this chapter. I love diversity and think its a beautiful thing that so many of these civilizations co-existed and that the United States today is represented by so many of these cultures.
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