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- American societies during the post-classic era remained isolated from
other civilizations.
- The societies continued to show great diversity, but there were
continuities.
- American civilizations were marked by elaborate cultural systems, highly
developed agriculture, and large urban and political units.
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- Columbus’ s mistaken designation of the inhabitants of the Americas as
Indians implies a non-existent common identity.
- The great diversity of cultures requires concentration upon a few major
civilizations, the great imperial states of Mesoamerica (central Mexico)
and the Andes, plus a few other independently developing peoples.
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- The collapse of Teotihuacan and the abandonment of Maya cities in the
8th century C.E. was followed by significant political and cultural
changes.
- The nomadic Toltecs built a large empire centered in central Mexico.
- They established a capital at Tula about 968 and adopted many cultural
features from sedentary peoples.
- Later peoples thought of the militaristic Toltecs as givers of
civilization.
- The Aztecs organized an equally impressive successor state.
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- The Toltecs created a large empire reaching beyond central Mexico.
- Around 1000 they extended their rule to Yucatan and the former Maya
regions.
- Toltec commercial influence extended northward as far as the American
southwest, and perhaps to Hopewell peoples of the Mississippi and Ohio
valleys.
- Many cultural similarities exist, but no Mexican artifacts have been
found.
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- Northern nomadic invasions probably caused the collapse of the Toltec
empire around 1150.
- The center of population and political power shifted to the valley of
Mexico and its large chain of lakes.
- A dense population used the water for agriculture, fishing, and
transportation.
- The region became the cultural heartland of postclassical Mexico.
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- It was divided politically into many small and competing units.
- The militant Aztecs (or Mexica) migrated to the region during the early
14th century and initially served the indigenous inhabitants as allies
or mercenaries.
- Around 1325 they founded the cities of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco on
lake islands.
- By 1434 the Aztecs had become the dominant regional power.
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- The Aztecs were transformed by the process of expansion and conquest
from an association of clans to a stratified society under a powerful
ruler.
- Central to the changes was Tlacaelel, an important official serving
rulers between 1427 and 1480.
- The Aztecs developed a self-image as a people chosen to serve the gods.
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- The long-present religious practice of human sacrifice was greatly
expanded.
- The military class had a central role as suppliers of war captives for
sacrifice.
- The rulers used sacrifice as an effective means political terror.
- By the rule of Moctezuma II the ruler, with civil and religious power,
dominated the state.
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- In the Aztec religion little distinction was made between the world of
the gods and the natural order.
- Hundreds of male and female gods representing rain, fire, etc., were
worshipped.
- They can be arranged into three major divisions.
- The first included gods of fertility, the agricultural cycle, maize, and
water.
- The second group centered on creator deities: Tonatiuh, warrior god of
the sun, and Tezcatlipoca, god of the night sky, were among the most
powerful.
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- The third division had the gods of warfare and sacrifice, among them
Huitzilopochtli, the tribal patron.
- He became the paramount deity and was identified with the old sun god;
he drew strength from the sacrifice of human lives.
- The Aztecs expanded the existing Mesoamerican practice of human
sacrifice to an unprecedented scale.
- Symbolism and ritual, including ritual cannibalism, accompanied the
sacrifices.
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- The balance between sacrifice motivated by religion or terror is still
under debate.
- The Aztecs had other religious concerns besides sacrifice.
- They had a complex mythology that explained the birth and history of the
gods and their relation to humans.
- Religious symbolism infused all aspect of life.
- The Aztecs had a cyclical view of history; they believed the world had
been destroyed before and, despite the sacrifices, would be again.
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- The Aztec believed their capital to be a sacred space.
- The great metropolis of Tenochtitlan had a central zone of palaces and
temples surrounded by residential districts and markets.
- Its design, craftsmanship, and architecture were outstanding.
- By 1519 the city covered five square miles and had 150,000 residents.
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- The island city was connected to the lake shores by four causeways and
was crisscrossed by canals.
- Each city ward was controlled by a kin group (calpulli) who maintained
temples and civic buildings.
- Tribute and support came to the imperial city-state from allies and
dependents.
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- Feeding the Aztec confederation depended both upon traditional
agricultural forms and innovations.
- Conquered peoples lost land and gave food as tribute.
- In and around the lake the Aztecs developed a system of irrigated
agriculture.
- They built chinampas, artificial floating islands, that permitted the
harvesting of high-yield multiple yearly crops.
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- Aztec peasant production and tribute supplied the basic foods.
- Clans in each community apportioned land between people, nobles, and
temples.
- There were periodic markets for exchange.
- The great daily market at Tlatelolco was controlled by a merchant class
(pochteca) which specialized in long-distance luxury item trade.
- The Aztecs had a state-controlled mixed economy: tribute, markets,
commodity use, and distribution were highly regulated.
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- The society of the expanding Aztec empire became increasingly
hierarchical.
- Calpulli organization survived, but different social classes appeared.
- Tribute from subject peoples was not enough to maintain the large Aztec
population.
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- By the 16th century the seven original calpulli had expanded from
kinship groups to become residential groupings including neighbors,
allies, and dependents.
- The calpulli performed vital local functions in distributing land and
labor and maintaining temples and schools.
- During wars they organized military units.
- Calpulli were governed by councils of family heads, but all families
were not equal.
- During Aztec expansion a class of nobility (pipiltin) had emerged from
privileged families in the most distinguished calpulli.
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- The nobles controlled the military and priesthood.
- Military virtues infused all society and were linked to the cult of
sacrifice; they justified the nobility's predominance.
- Death in battle assured eternal life, a reward also going to women dying
in childbirth.
- The social gulf separating nobles from commoners widened.
- Social distinctions were formalized by giving the pipiltin special
clothes and symbols of rank.
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- The imperial family were the most distinguished of the pipiltin.
- A new class of workers resembling serfs was created to serve on the
nobility's private lands.
- They held a status above slaves.
- Other groups, scribes, artisans, and healers, constituted an
intermediate social group in the larger cities.
- Long-distance merchants had their own calpulli, but restrictions blocked
their entry into the nobility.
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- Aztec women had a variety of roles.
- Peasant women helped in the fields, but their primary work was in the
household; skill in weaving was highly esteemed.
- Elder women trained young girls.
- Marriages were arranged between lineages, and female virginity was
important.
- Polygamy existed among the nobility; peasants were monogamous.
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- Women inherited and passed on property, but in political and social life
they were subordinate to men.
- New World technology limited social development, especially for women,
when compared to other cultures.
- The absence of milling technology meant that women spent many hours
daily in grinding maize by hand for household needs.
- The total Aztec population may have reached over 20 million.
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- Each of the Aztec city-states was ruled by a speaker chosen from the
nobility.
- The ruler of Tenochtitlan, the Great Speaker, surpassed all others in
wealth and power.
- He presided over an elaborate court.
- A prime minister, usually a close relative of the ruler, had tremendous
power.
- There was a governing council, but it lacked real power.
- During the first 100 years of Aztec expansion a powerful nobility and
emperor had taken over authority formerly held by calpulli.
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- Military virtues became supreme as the state religion, and the desire
for more tribute and captives for sacrifice, drove the Aztecs to further
conquests.
- The empire was not integrated; defeated local rulers often remained in
place as subordinate officials.
- They were left alone if tribute and labor obligations were met.
- Revolts against the exactions were ruthlessly suppressed.
- The Aztec system was successful because it aimed at political domination
and not direct control.
- In the long run the growing social stresses created by the rise of the
pipiltin and the terror and tribute imposed on subjects contributed to
the empire's collapse.
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- European concepts of civilization did not match with the practices of
American Indians.
- Judging a civilization different from one’s own always is a complex
proceeding.
- While some condemn Aztec sacrifice, others romanticize the Indian past.
- The arguments over the possible existence of Inca socialism or about the
nature of Aztec religion are examples.
- Moral judgment is probably inevitable, but students of history must
strive to understand a people’s practices in the context of their own
time and culture.
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- During the period following the disintegration of the states of
Tihuanaco and Huari (c.550-1000 C.E.) smaller regional states exercised
power in the Andes.
- Some of them were centers of agricultural activity and population
density.
- The considerable warfare among the states resembled the post-Toltec
period in Mesoamerica.
- The state of Chimor (900-1465) emerged as most powerful, controlling
most of the north coast of Peru.
- After 1300 the Inca developed a new civilization.
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- In the southern Andean highlands many groups fought for supremacy.
- Quechua- speaking clans (ayllus) around Cuzco won control of territory
formerly under Huari.
- By 1438,under Pachacuti, they began campaigns ending with their control
of the region.
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- Pachacuti's son, Topac Yupanqui (1471-1493), conquered Chimor and
extended Inca rule into Ecuador and Chile.
- Huayna Capac (1493-1527) consolidated the conquests; by his death the
Inca empire - Twantinsuyu - stretched from Colombia to Chile, and
eastward to Bolivia and Argentina.
- From 9 to 13 million people were under Inca rule.
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- The Inca had other reasons for expansion besides the desire for economic
gain and political power.
- They adopted from Chimor the practice of "split inheritance":
all of a ruler’s political power went to the successor, while all wealth
and land passed to male descendants for the eternal support of the cult
of the dead ruler's mummy.
- The system created a justification for endless expansion.
- Inca political and social life was infused with religious meaning.
- The sun was the highest deity; the ruler (Inca) was the god’s
representative on earth.
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- The Temple of the Sun at Cuzco was the center of state religion.
- The sun cult spread throughout the empire, but the worship of local gods
continued.
- Popular belief was based upon a profound animism that endowed natural
phenomena with spiritual power.
- Prayers and sacrifices were offered at holy shrines (huacas), which were
organized into groupings under the authority of ayllus.
- The temples were served by priests and women dedicated to preparing the
sacrifices and managing important festivals and celebrations.
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- The Inca, considered virtually a god, ruled the empire from Cuzco.
- It also was the site of the major temple.
- The empire was divided into four provinces, each under a governor.
- The Incas had a bureaucracy in which most of the nobility served.
- Local rulers (curacas) continued in office in return for loyalty.
- They were exempt from tribute and received labor or produce from their
subjects.
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- Their sons were educated in Cuzco.
- The Quechua language, the use of colonists (mitmaqs), and the forced
transfer of peoples were important techniques for integrating the
empire.
- A complex system of roads, bridges, and causeways, with way stations (tambos)
and storehouses, helped military movement.
- Conquered peoples supplied land and labor.
- They served in the military and received rewards from new conquests.
- The Inca state organized building and irrigation projects beyond the
capabilities of subject peoples.
- In return tribute and loyalty were required.
- All local resources were taken and redistributed: there were lands for
the people, the state, and religion.
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- Labor on state and religious land was demanded rather than tribute in
kind.
- Women had to weave cloth for the court and religious use.
- Some women were taken as concubines for the Inca or as temple servants.
- Each community, was controlled by the ayllus and aimed at
self-sufficiency.
- Most males were peasants and herders.
- Women worked in the household, wove cloth, and aided in agriculture.
- Since Andean people recognized parallel descent, property passed in both
lines.
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- The idea of gender cooperation was reflected in cosmology.
- Gods and goddesses were venerated by both sexes, though women had a
special feeling for the moon and the fertility goddesses of the earth
and corn.
- The ruler's senior wife was a link to the moon.
- Still, male power within the empire showed in the selection of women for
state and temple purposes.
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- Reciprocity between the state and local community allowed the empire to
function efficiently.
- Within the system the Inca nobility had many privileges and were
distinguished by dress and custom.
- There was no distinct merchant class because of the emphasis on
self-sufficiency and state management of the economy.
- The state remained strong until it lost control of its subject peoples
and government mechanisms.
- Royal multiple marriages used to forge alliances eventually created
rival claimants for power and civil war.
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- The Inca produced beautiful pottery and cloth.
- Their metallurgy was among the most advanced of the Americas.
- They lacked the wheel and a writing system, instead using knotted
strings (quipu) for accounts and enumeration.
- The peak of Inca genius was in statecraft and architecture.
- They constructed great stone buildings, agricultural terraces,
irrigation projects, and road systems.
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- Both empires were based upon the long development of civilizations that
preceded them.
- They excelled in imperial and military organization.
- The two were based upon intensive agriculture organized by the state;
goods were redistributed to groups or social classes.
- The Aztecs and Incas transformed an older kinship system into a
hierarchical one where the nobility predominated.
- In both the nobility was the personnel of the state.
- Although the Incas tried to integrate their empire as a unit, both
empires recognized local ethnic groups and political leaders in return
for loyalty.
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- The Aztecs and Incas found their military power less effective against
nomadic frontier people; their empires were based on conquest and
exploitation of sedentary peoples.
- There were considerable differences between Incas and Aztecs, many of
them the result of climate and geography.
- Trade and markets were more developed among the Aztecs.
- Other differences were present in metallurgy, writing systems, and
social definition and hierarchy.
- In the context of world civilizations both can be viewed as variations
of similar patterns, with sedentary agriculture as the most important
factor.
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- Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations were high points of Indian
cultural development.
- The rest of the American continents were occupied by many peoples living
in different ways.
- They can be grouped according to gradations based upon material culture
and social complexity.
- The Incas shared many things with tribal peoples of the Amazon,
including clan divisions.
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- The diversity of ancient America forces a reconsideration of patterns of
human development dependent on examples from other civilizations.
- Social complexity based upon agriculture was not necessary for fishing
and hunting-gathering societies of the northwest United States and
British Columbia: they developed hierarchical societies.
- In Colorado and South America, Indians practiced irrigated agriculture
but did not develop states.
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- Arguments about the population of the Americas have been going on for a
long time.
- Most scholars now agree that Mesoamerica and the Andes had the largest
populations.
- If we accept a total of 67 million, in a world population of about 500
million, Americans clearly were a major segment of humanity.
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- There were major cultural patterns in the Americas outside of the main
civilization areas.
- They shared features with both the Andes and Mesoamerica, perhaps
serving at times as points of cultural and material change between the
two regions.
- In central Colombia the Muisca and Tairona peoples had large, sedentary
agriculture-based chiefdoms that shared many resemblances with other
similarly based states.
- Along the Amazon the rich aquatic environment supported complex,
populous chiefdoms; other large populations dependent upon agriculture
were present on Caribbean islands.
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- Such societies resembled societies in Polynesia.
- By 1500 agriculture was widely diffused throughout the Americas.
- Some societies combined it with hunting-gathering and fishing.
- Slash-and-burn farming caused frequent movement in societies often not
possessing large numbers, strong class divisions, or craft
specialization.
- There were few nomadic herders.
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- In 1500 about 200 languages were spoken in North America.
- By then the towns of the Mississippi Mound Builders had been abandoned
and only a few peoples maintained their patterns.
- In the southwest the Anasazi and other cliff dwellers had moved to
pueblos along the Rio Grande and practiced irrigated agriculture.
- Most other North American Indians were hunters and gatherers, sometimes
also cultivating crops.
- In rich environments complex social organization might develop without
agriculture.
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- There were sharp differences with contemporary European and Asian
societies.
- Most Indian societies were kin-based, with communal ownership of
resources.
- Material wealth was not important for social rank.
- Women were subordinate to men, but in many societies held important
political and social roles.
- They had a central role in crop production.
- Indians, unlike Europeans and Asians, viewed themselves as part of the
ecological system, not in control of it.
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- Two great imperial systems had been created in Mesoamerica and the
Andes.
- By the close of the 15th century these militaristic states were fragile,
weakened by internal strains and technological inferiority.
- American societies ranged from the Aztec-Inca great civilizations to
small bands of hunters.
- The continued; evolution of all Indian societies was disastrously
disrupted by European invasions beginning in 1492.
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