Historical Terms -VIII

American Civilizations and the World
Archaic cultures: hunting and gathering groups dispersed over the Americas by 9000 B.C.E.
In the Americas, sedentary farmers depend on the staple crop known as “maize,” which they domesticated in central Mexico around 4000 BCE.
Manioc: another staple of sedentary agriculturists in the Americas; principal crop in the
lowlands of South America and the Caribbean islands.
Mesoamerica: the area from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua.
Chiefdom: widely diffused pattern of social organization in the Americas; featured chieftains who ruled from central towns over a large territory, including small towns that paid tribute; predominant towns often featured temples and priest class.
Olmec: cultural tradition that arose at San Lorenzo and La Venta in Mexico circa 1200 B.C.E.; featured irrigated agriculture, urbanism, elaborate religion, beginnings of calendrical and writing systems.
Monte Alban: Zapotec ritual center, Oaxaca, Mexico; influenced by spreading Olmec cultures
Teotihuacan: site of classic culture in central Mexico; urban center with important religious functions; supported by intensive agriculture in surrounding regions; population up to 200,000.
Maya: classical culture of southern Mexico and Central America contemporary with Teotihuacan, which extended over a broad region, featured monumental architecture, written language, calendrical and mathematical system, and a highly developed religion.
Stelae: large memorial pillars to commemorate triumphs and events in the lives of Mayan rulers.
Long count: Mayan system of dating from a fixed date in the past; 3114 B.C.E. marked the beginning of a great cycle of 5200 years that allowed precision dating of events in Mayan history.
Toltecs: successors of Teotihuacan culture in central Mexico; established political control over large territory after 1000 C.E.; declined after 1200 C.E.
Chichén Itzá: Mayan city in Yucatan, Mexico.
Hopewell culture: second of the mound-building cultures; lasted from 200 to 500 C.E.
Mississippian culture: last of the mound-building cultures; included Moundville and Cahokia; flourished between 800 and 1300 C.E.; had large towns and ceremonial centers.
Anasazi: culture of the southwestern United States; flourished from 200 to 1200 C.E.; had large multistory adobe and stone buildings built in protected canyons or cliffs.
Kivas: circular pits in Anasazi communities used by men for religious meetings.
Puna: high valleys and steppes lying between the two major chains of the Andes; site of South American agricultural origins; also the only location of pastoralism in the Americas.
Lunar cycle: one of the principal means for establishing a calendar; based on the cycles of the moon; failed to provide an accurate guide to the round of the seasons.
Solar cycle: calendrical based on the solar year; variations in Western civilization are the Julian and Gregorian calendars; the Maya had a solar calendar.
Chavín culture: appeared in the highlands of the Andes between 1800 and 1200 B.C.E.; had ceremonial centers with large stone buildings; the greatest center was Chavín de Huantar. Between 200 and 700 C.E., Mochica flourished in the Andes north of Chavn culture in the Moche valley; it had impressive clay-brick temples and established a military chiefdom with a sizable irrigation system.
Tihuanaco and Huari: large centers for regional chiefdoms between 300 and 900 C.E., located in southern Peru; had large ceremonial centers supported by extensive irrigated agriculture; a center for the spread of religious and artistic symbols all over the Andean zone.
Chimu: regional Andean chiefdom that flourished from 800 to 1465 C.E.; fell to the Incas
Ayllu: households in Andean societies based on kinship; traced descent from a common,sometimes mythical, ancestor.
Incas: Quechua-speaking peoples; originating in the area of Cuzco.
Curacas: leaders of the Andean peoples; representatives of the ayllus.
Huacas: spirits of Andean animism