• • The Incas and Aztecs, empires that both peaked in the 16th century, shared many differences and similarities socially and politically. The Incas were the more powerful empire because the Aztecs were more focused on their religion and had a better social system. • • The Incas were at first a little tribe that was a chiefdom, or form of political organization with rule by a hereditary leader. They used Andean social and economic customs. Incas were pastoralists meaning their military strength and success based on how many llamas and alpacas you had.
They led nomadic lives. They would follow the large herds of wild game and move to new areas when local supplies of roots and berries were depleted. Their religion was closely related to the natural world, they worshiped gods whom they linked with rivers, forests, and other forces of nature. Settlements in the new world Europeans were driven to establish settlements in the new world because there was a large growth in Europe’s population in the 15th century and a new interest in commerce. There was also the emergence of new governments that were more united and powerful than the feeble ones of the past.
Wallace begins the book by describing who the people were who benefited from the diffusion of agricultural practices way before Columbus. He explains how the area east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes there’s a vast temperate land, with extensive forests and meadows that were among separate tribes of Indians. The southern tribes, the Cherokees, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, and the Seminoles, all had more urbanized towns. They started making architectural advances, began having big elaborate ceremonies, unlike the northern tribes. We learn that the villages were composed of a number of large communal houses, each being occupied by a bunch of families.
For two centuries after the first colonists arrived, beaver pelts were an important medium of exchange in North America, not only between Native Americans and the new settlers, but also between the colonists and Europe. The commercial trade in furbearers, especially beavers, helped drive the early economic and historic development of this country. Beaver pelts were in great demand in Europe, where the fur was made into high quality felt and then fashioned into hats. By the early 1800s, the beaver top hat was fashionable in England. This demand for fur allowed North American colonies to pay off large debts to England through beaver trapping.
American Indians cultivated new strains of crops and built irrigation systems that allowed them to farm in the driest of deserts. Some tribes, such as the Pueblo of the Southwest depended solely on agriculture for their food. Others such as the Plains Indians depended entirely on hunting.1 Most American Indians gathered acorns and ground them into bread meal, fished the rivers and ocean shores, hunted dear and other mammals. American Indians also improved hunting and fishing techniques and crafted more efficient weapons and tools.1 Indians from the coastal area first constructed canoes from bundles of tule reeds for inshore fishing, as their tools became more efficient their canoes then were constructed from planks. In the Pacific Coast region craftsmen developed specialized tools that allowed them to increase their woodworking skills.
In Mississippian society they grew a lot of plants. They grew plants such as corn, beans, quash, sunflowers, goosefoot, sumpweed. They also hunted and gathered food as in berries, and nuts, and they also would hunt for fun and make a game out of it. They spent almost all their time doing stuff out doors. They would build fences around their land and build mounds for their
Each group believes in different supernatural ancestors that created the natural world. They have emerged from land features which are considered sacred sites. Sacred sites may be land /rock formations, parts of rivers/seas or burial grounds. The Land is regarded as sacred to aboriginals because ‘The Dreaming’ occurs on it. The dreaming consists of creation stories about how the ancestral spirits moved through the land creating rivers, lakes, mountains, animals and plants.
They came to depend upon the buffalo for their livelihood, and they made use of virtually every part of the animal: its flesh, its hide, and even its bones. Many Cheyenne religious rituals, such as the Sun Dance, were designed to ensure the abundance of buffalo. This Cheyenne myth is in many ways a "typical" creation story. It contains several common motifs, or recurring story features. Of special interest is the "earth-diver" motif.
Mayan society was divided into different social classes. Priests were at the top of Mayan society. The priests performed the religious ceremonies that the Mynas believed were needed for their crops to grow and their warriors to be successful in battle. Government officials, warriors and nobles were also in the upper classes of Mayan society. People of high social class would were special clothing to set them apart from the other Maya.
Of all Mesoamerican cultures the Aztecs were the most war-like. The practice of sacrifice held an effect of inciting fear into the surrounding populace as well. Religion plays an important part of life in almost every culture. In the Aztecs case, religion meant life or death. Religion gave meaning and explained human existence, agriculture, natural biological occurrences, and even the light of day.