Chapter 8: Worlds Apart: The Americas and Oceania- Vocab

Question 1

Aboriginal peoples

Answer 1

The first people to live in Australia before colonists arrived. They ventured throughout their continent and created networks of trade and exchange, trading sporadically with merchants from New Guinea and southeast Asia.

Question 2

Al’i nui

Answer 2

Hawaiian class of high chiefs.

Question 3

Ayllu

Answer 3

Communities (similar to callpulli) that were the basic units of rural commoner society. They ranged from small villages to larger towns, living together and sharing land, tools, animals, crops, and work. They allocated land to families.

Question 4

Aztec Empire

Answer 4

Central American empire constructed by the Mexica and expanded greatly during the fifteenth century during the reigns of Itzcoatl and Motecuzoma I.

Question 5

Cahokia

Answer 5

Large structure in modern Illinois that was constructed by the mound-building peoples; it was the third largest structure in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans.

Question 6

Calpulli

Answer 6

Community groups that allocated land to families. They used to be family clans claiming common ancestry, but evolved into groups of families living together in communities and organizing their own affairs.

Question 7

Chinampa

Answer 7

Agricultural gardens used by Mexica (Aztecs) in which fertile muck from lake bottoms was dredged and built up into small plots.

Question 8

Chimu

Answer 8

Pre-Incan South American society that fell to the Incas in the fifteenth century.

Question 9

Chucuito

Answer 9

Pre-Incan South American society that rose in the twelfth century and fell to the Incas in the fifteenth century.

Question 10

Cuzco

Answer 10

The administrative, religious, and ceremonial center of the Inca Empire. At its center was a plaza filled with sand from the Pacific beaches sruddounded by red stone buildings with gold faces. It had a stable permanent population of rulers, high priests, and military hostages.

Question 11

Huitzilopochtli

Answer 11

Sun god and patron deity of the Aztecs.

Question 12

Inca Empire

Answer 12

An Empire from 1438 to 1533 stretching from modern Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and parts of Chile and Argentina (only reigned in by the Amazon rainforest and Pacific Ocean). It had a population of 11.5 million, and was the largest state ever built in South America.

Question 13

Inti

Answer 13

The sun and the major diety of the Inca. In Cuzco, there were thousands of priests, attendants, and virgins devoted to Inti, and its lavish/magnificent temple attracted people from all over.

Question 14

Iroquois

Answer 14

Eastern American Indian confederation made up of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes.

Question 15

Itzcóatl

Answer 15

“the Obsidian Serpent,” ruling the Aztec Empire from 1428 to 1440, that helped to conquer Oaxaca and then the Gulf Coast.

Question 16

Kapu

Answer 16

Hawaiian concept of something being taboo.

Question 17

Maori

Answer 17

Indigenous people of New Zealand.

Question 18

Marae

Answer 18

Polynesian temple structure.

Question 19

Mexica

Answer 19

Nahuatl-speaking people from the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Aztec Empire.

Question 20

Montecuzoma

Answer 20

c. 1397–1468. Fifth Aztec ruler whose conquests significantly extended Aztec rule beyond the Valley of Mexico.

Question 21

Nan Madol

Answer 21

A stone palace and administrative center built by the Sandeleur dynasty on Pohnpei in the Caroline islands. It included 93 artificial islets during 1200 to 1600, and had rigid social organization.

Question 22

Navajo

Answer 22

A people in the American Southwest that tapped river waters to irrigate maize crops. They also cultivated beans, squashes, and sunflowers, and caught wild game. They began to construct permanent stone and adobe buildings by 700 CE.

Question 23

Polynesians

Answer 23

A people that inhabited the larger Pacific islands (specifically New Zealand) whose population surged after 1000 CE, which prompted social and political development.

Question 24

Pueblo

Answer 24

A people in the American Southwest that tapped river waters to irrigate maize crops. They also cultivated beans, squashes, and sunflowers, and caught wild game. They began to construct permanent stone and adobe buildings by 700 CE.

Question 25

Quechua

Answer 25

A language spoken by the Incas.

Question 26

Quetzalcóatl

Answer 26

Aztec god, the “feathered serpent,” who was borrowed originally from the Toltecs; Quetzalcoatl was believed to have been defeated by another god and exiled, and he promised to return. He had a reputation for supporting arts, crafts, and agriculture.

Question 27

Quipu

Answer 27

Incan mnemonic aid comprised of different-colored strings and knots that served to record events in the absence of a written text.

Question 28

Tenochtitlan

Answer 28

Capital of the Aztec empire, later Mexico City.

Question 29

Teotihuacan

Answer 29

Central American society (200 b.c.e.–750 C.E.); its Pyramid of the Sun was the largest structure in Mesoamerica.

Question 30

Tezcatlipoca

Answer 30

A principal Mexica God’ “the Smoking Mirror,” a powerful figure who was the giver and taker of life and the patron deity of warriors.

Question 31

Toltecs

Answer 31

Central American society (950–1150) that was centered on the city of Tula.

Question 32

Tula

Answer 32

Original region of the Toltec people, located to the northwest of modern Mexico City.

Question 33

Viracocha

Answer 33

The creator of the world, humankind, and all else in the universe. Pachacuti showed favor to it.