Mayan Ball

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Mayan Ball
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Early Americas

• Mayas, Aztecs, Incas, and Llamas

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Mayas

• Yucatan Peninsula, 250-900 CE
• Organized into small city-states ruled by kings
• Known for
• Pyramids
• Ball Game
• religious and political significance
• Playing the game would maintain cycles of sun and
  moon and bring rains
• Gameplay
• The goal was to get the ball through a hoop
• The goal was also NOT to touch the ball with
  one's hands
• The winners of the game were treated as heroes
  and given a great feast. The penalty for losing a
  game was death. The leader of the team who lost
  the game was killed
• Polytheistic

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More Mayas

• Limited human sacrifice
• Cut own bodies so blood would nourish gods
• Sacrificed some captured enemies to gods never
  to extent of other societies
• Calendar-predicts massive catastrophe in Sunday,
  December 23, 2012 which few will survive
• Bad times ?
• Actually two calendars, one with 200 days and one
  with 360 and a 5-day holiday period, every 52
  years they start on the same day
• We dont know what happened to them

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Greeks of the Americas

• Contributions include
• Writing based on pictographs
• Use of zero as a placeholder
• Astronomy and eclipses
• Calculated length of year
• Cultivation of maize
• Copper metallurgy
• Great city Teotihuicán, center for trade and
  worship

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Rise of the Aztecs

• Decline of the Mayan civilization
• Nomadic Toltecs established an empire in Mexico
• Conquered Chichén Itzá
• Legend of Quetzalcóatl
• Toltecs fell in 12th C., taken over by nomadic
  Mexica (Aztecs)
• Capital at Tenochtitlán in 1325
• Built on island in Lake Texcoco
• Built chinampas floating gardens
• Maize and beans were staple crops

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Aztecs

• Central Mexico, 1200-1500 CE
• Known for
• Worship of Huitzilopochtli, the sun god
• polytheistic
• Human sacrifice on a large scale
• Sun god needed human blood to battle evil and
  rise the next day
• Victims included enslaved people, criminals, and
  people offered as tribute by conquered peoples
• Prisoners of war preferred victims priest
  required steady supply of victims battle tactics
  adapted to ensure opponents taken alive

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Government

• Basic Structure
• Emperor ruled empire from Tenochtitlan
• Elected from one royal family by all of the
  rulers of all Aztec city-states
• Advised by other members of the nobility who
  served in various councils
• Each Aztec city-state ruled by a hereditary ruler
• Cities divided into clan-based neighborhoods
  called calpulli, each was
• ruled by a hereditary chief
• had its own local temple and school
• Tribute
• Conquered city-states were allowed to keep their
  own ruler/government, as long as they paid their
  tribute
• Commoners of the empire were also required to pay
  tribute (taxes) to the nobles of their city-state

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Society

• Social Classes
• Nobility
• Rulers leaders of city-states of the empire
• Chiefs ruled over districts within cities and
  served in high positions in army and government
• sons of nobles served in lower army and
  government posts and also as priests
• Non-noble elites
• Pochteca hereditary merchant/spy class
• Artisans who made luxury items
• Commoners
• free commoners farmers, artisans
• rural tenants who lived on/worked nobles
  lands
• slaves

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Economics

• Craft production
• Artisans lived in major cities and had guild-like
  organizations
• Each guild usually had their own neighborhood
  (calpulli) within cities
• Trade
• Pochteca
• Long-distance trade over land and water
• Tributary State Relationships
• Aztecs conquered outlying peoples and forced
  tribute out of them
• Pochteca collected tribute and brought stuff back
  to major cities for storage and distribution
• All cities had marketplaces for buying/selling of
  goods

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More Aztecs

• Calendar
• called Eagle Bowl
• Predicts end of earth on December 24, 2011
• 260 day ceremonial calendar
• 365 day solar calendar
• Record Keeping
• Spoken language is called Nahuatl
• Some basic symbols (mostly related to numbers and
  dates)
• But, no fully-developed system of writing
• Women
• Women who died in childbirth were given same
  status as men who died in battle
• Politically subordinate
• Could inherit property

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End of the Aztecs

• Weakening
• 1502 AD Montezuma II takes power
• 1502 1519 AD Rebellions of Tributary states
• 1519 AD Spanish Conquistadores (led by Cortez)
  show up
• Many believe that Quetzalcoatl has returned
• In a few years, Aztec empire crumbles

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Incas

• Peru (Andes), 1200-1500 CE
• Height 1438 1532 CE
• Known as Quechua, name Inca comes from rulers
  title- Inca
• Called their Empire Twantinsuyu
• Organized into clans called ayllus
• Government forced people to supply Mita, work on
  government lands
• Ruled a large empire over diverse people
• 1438 clan ruler Pachacuti gained control over
  Lake Titicaca
• Approximately 11,000,000 people
• Unified empire by
• Roads
• Quechua language
• Royal marriage alliances
• Settling conquered people far away from their
  lands

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Inca Government

• Structure of Tawantinsuyu (Quechua name for the
  Incan empire)
• Emperor (called the Inca) ruled from the
  capital
• Imperial divisions (a HUGE bureaucracy)
• 4 quarters or suyus, each ruled by a governor who
  was one of the Emperors relatives
• Each suyu was further divided into 10 districts,
  each ruled by an appointed noble governor
• A district roughly 10,000 peasants
• Each district was divided into waranqa
  (villages/small towns), each ruled by a noble
  village leader
• roughly 1000 peasants (usually related to one
  another)
• Each waranqa was divided into units of 100
  peasants, each overseen by another low-level
  noble
• Each unit of 100 was further divided into a unit
  of 10 peasants overseen by a low-level noble
• Taxes both resource and labor (called Mita
  system)
• Mitmaq system resettlement of people throughout
  empire to minimize rebellion

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Inca Social Classes

• Social Classes
• Nobility
• Royal Family said to be descendents of the Sun
  God, Inti
• Aristocracy served in highest levels of
  government, military and priesthood
• Commoners
• Artisans, farmers, merchants
• Divided up into ayllus each was clan-based and
  totally self-supporting (in terms of agriculture
  and craft production)
• Some boys and girls were selected and trained in
  special schools for a lifetime of service for the
  nobility
• Slaves

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Incan Economics

• Taxes
• Resources
• Mita system labor tax
• Craft production
• Artisans
• Gold and Silversmiths lived in special ayllus and
  were tax-exempt
• Trade System
• Complex system of roads and rope suspension
  bridges linked cities, 14000 miles of roads
• tambos structures along road system used as
  rest stops and storage of goods, chasquis
  messengers for the empire
• Vertical trade system
• Marketplaces in cities and villages
• Agriculture
• Food Crops potatoes, corn, beans, peppers,
  squash, peanuts, cassava, quinoa
• Domesticated Animals llama, alpaca, vicuña,
  guinea pig, ducks, dogs
• Terraced Fields Waru Waru

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Inca Culture

• Religion
• Polytheistic
• Royal family descendents of Sun God, Inti
• Huacas sacred places
• Sacrifice of animals and (rarely) people
• Ancestor worship (mummies)
• Priests
• Women priests of Inti Virgins of the Sun
• Record Keeping quipu and calendar system
• Cities Cuzco, Machu Pichu
• Advances
• Calendar System
• Surgery trepanning and bone graphs
• Masonry without mortar
• textiles

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Inca Collapse

• 1525 - Civil war over the throne between 2 sons
  of the recently dead emperor
• Atahualpa won and became the emperor in 1532
• 1532 Francisco Pizarro and 180 Spanish soldiers
  arrived
• Incas thought that he was Viracocha (the creator
  god)
• Spanish attacked and took Atahualpa Captive
• 1533 Spanish kill Atahualpa and place Manco
  Capac II on the throne as a puppet emperor
• 1536 Manco Capac II escaped to city of
  Vilcabamba and led revolt against the Spanish
• 1572 Spanish capture Vilcabamba and execute the
  last Inca Emperor, Tupac Amaru

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Comparisons

• Successful imperial and military organization
• Intensive agriculture organized by the state
• Govt controlled circulation of goods
• Social Hierarchy, nobles were personnel of state
• Empires created by conquest and extraction of
  tribute and labor
• Aztecs long distance trade, Inca system of roads
• Aztecs had an extensive merchant class, Inca did
  not

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Your moment of Zen
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Dailies Maya, Aztec, Inca

• Describe the Ballgame.
• Who is Quetzalcoatl?
• How did the Incas rule those they took over?
• How did the surrounding tribes feel about the
  Aztecs?
• Do you think the world will end in 2012?