Natural Characteristics and Pre-Colonial History

nI. Natural Characteristics of Latin America

nII. The Maya and Agriculture

nIII. Indigenous Groups in the Amazon Before European Arrival

nIV. Conclusions

n

I. Natural Characteristics of Latin America

nA. Geography of Latin America

n1. _________________________ powers created a “scientific mythology” emphasizing Europe and the northern hemisphere

n2. Europe is not a ____________________, but only the western edge of the Asian continent

n3. the U.S. built on this mythology as part of its rise to ______________________

n4. South America is actually ____________ than North America: 9 million square miles vs. 7.4 million

B. Mercator vs. Peters Projections

C. “Turnabout Projection”

D. Climates and Vegetation

II. The Maya and Agriculture

nA. The Classic Phase of the Maya

n1. approximately 1,000 BC to 400 AD

n2. Maya declined after 400 and Olmecs, Toltecs and Aztecs of ______________________ plateau (area around Mexico City) became dominant in Mexico

n3. Mayan technologies and social organization were basis for _________________

nA.4. Key question: how did the Maya support _______________________ (tens of thousands of residents) and societies of hundreds of thousands in the Mexican and Central American rainforests?

n5. Maya cities and societies were larger than _______________________________________ in what was seen as a much more hostile environment

nB. Traditional View of Mayan Agriculture and Society

n1. low _______________________ in difficult rainforest environment

n2. cities were ceremonial centers with very small ___________________________

n3. constant __________________ over large areas of land needed for agriculture

nB.4. agriculture was based on swidden (__________________________) production:

na. ___________ a patch of virgin or mature secondary forest by cutting large trees and burning plant material

nb. cultivate land for a __________________ (1 to 7 years, depending on crops and the region)

nc. move on to fresh land and let the land lie ________________ for decades

nB.5. key consequence of slash and burn agriculture: very low population density possible, making societies relatively ______________

n6. need for _____________________ of land to allow fallow periods

n7. _____________________ from surrounding groups creates conflicts and limits expansion

n8. time to ____________ to work limited range of expansion around a community to 5 km

nB.9. archaeologists prior to 1970s saw Maya as an unusual combination of __________________________ and sophisticated social organization

nC. Revised View of Mayan Agriculture

n1. initial phase of settlement of rainforest along ______________ because of difficulty of land transportation

n2. _____________________________ from river, riverbanks, and swamps

n3. Mayan societies grew by ____________________ use of resources around rivers

nC.4. key technology for intensification was construction and cultivation of _________________ (chinampas): human-created ecosystems

na. larger ___________________ could be supported on the same amount of land by increasing production per acre by using more labor

nb. _____________________, root crops, and tree crops were main products

nC.4.c. raised fields required large amounts of ________________ to dig canals to drain low lying land, move dirt from canals to fields, and maintain canals by dredging and dumping on fields; this also maintained productivity of fields over time by serving as ________________

nd. canals also provided quick, easy transport and served as ___________________

ne. fields can also be _____________________ simultaneously or rotated

nC.5. slash and burn was used as populations expanded into areas away from rivers until the frontiers of city-states came into _________________

n6. ____________________ developed on ridges as populations continued to grow, bringing the least productive land into use by intensive use of large amounts of cooperative labor to build stone terraces, transforming marginal land into human-created microecosystems

nD. Maya Decline

n1. explanations of the decline of Mayan societies focus on increasing conflict between city-states over ______

n2. conflicts killed _____________ and made it impossible to maintain extensive and intensive agricultural production

n3. famine and population _____________ resulted

nD. 4. raised fields fell into ________________ and rainforests took over cleared areas

n5. surviving Maya lived in ___________________ and relied on slash and burn agriculture

n6. Olmecs, Toltecs and Aztecs used ________________ technology as basis for agriculture in central Mexico

n

II. The Maya and Agriculture
E. “The Maya: Temples, Tombs and Time”
1. How would you describe Mayan civilization?




2. How would you describe Mayan cities?




III. Video: Sweet Fresh Water
A. Characteristics of Andean Ecosystems and their Inhabitants?




B. Characteristics of Rainforest Ecosystems and their Inhabitants?




C. Relationships between Land and River Ecosystems?

IV. Indigenous Groups in the Amazon Before European Arrival

nA. How Many People?

n1. estimates of the size of the indigenous population have ranged from _____________________

n2. lower estimates were based on the assumption that pre-European populations lived in small groups of ________________________, as indigenous groups that had survived into the 1800s and 1900s did

nA.3. However, many early European visitors reported numerous _____________________ along the rivers and large indigenous populations

nB. Denevan: analyze Amazonian ecosystems in terms of their ability to _____________ indigenous agricultural systems

n1. slash and burn in the __________________

nB.2. __________________ agriculture: wide floodplains with villages on terra firme or natural levees; relied on farming of sediment-enriched floodplains; many animals available along riverbanks, including peccary, capybara, monkey, deer, tapir, birds, and especially fish

n3. examined the availability of _____________ in rivers and in land animals and insects, since indigenous groups lacked domesticated animals and intensive maize cultivation

nB.4. estimated indigenous population prior to European arrival in the early 1500s at ________________

nC. Creation of _______________________

na. large human populations created fertile soil areas, along river banks and in uplands: terra preta do indio (____________________________), 10%+ of Amazon

nb. produced by long periods of human settlement in the same location, often made possible by extended hunting trips in the terra firme forest, and by efforts to ________________ via burning and other techniques

nD. Large Scale Political Organization of Indigenous Groups in the Amazon

n1. often several villages of _______________________ residents each linked under a common chief with armies numbering in the thousands

n2. Political control maintained by control over _____________________, allowing control over the movement of people up and down the rivers, the main type of transport

IV. Conclusions

nA. Indigenous populations in Latin America were ___________________ and often had very sophisticated agricultural technologies and social organization, including cities and empires

nB. Indigenous groups had very dramatic impacts on their environments by ___________________________ to support large human populations

nC. Indigenous Populations in the Americas in 1491 and the New Debate

n1. total indigenous population estimates __________________________, from a few million to 100 million+

n2. disease decimated populations even before ________________________ with Europeans in many areas, making it difficult to estimate total population in 1491

n3. disease-induced decimation opened the door to ___________________________

nD. European conquest decimated indigenous populations and thereby indirectly transformed many of Latin America’s __________________________