Chapter 8: Worlds Apart: The Americas and Oceania- Vocab Flashcards
Aboriginal peoples
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.
Al’i nui
Hawaiian class of high chiefs.
Ayllu
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.
Aztec Empire
Central American empire constructed by the Mexica and expanded greatly during the fifteenth century during the reigns of Itzcoatl and Motecuzoma I.
Cahokia
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.
Calpulli
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.
Chinampa
Agricultural gardens used by Mexica (Aztecs) in which fertile muck from lake bottoms was dredged and built up into small plots.
Chimu
Pre-Incan South American society that fell to the Incas in the fifteenth century.
Chucuito
Pre-Incan South American society that rose in the twelfth century and fell to the Incas in the fifteenth century.
Cuzco
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.
Huitzilopochtli
Sun god and patron deity of the Aztecs.
Inca Empire
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.
Inti
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.
Iroquois
Eastern American Indian confederation made up of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes.
Itzcóatl
“the Obsidian Serpent,” ruling the Aztec Empire from 1428 to 1440, that helped to conquer Oaxaca and then the Gulf Coast.
Kapu
Hawaiian concept of something being taboo.
Maori
Indigenous people of New Zealand.
Marae
Polynesian temple structure.
Mexica
Nahuatl-speaking people from the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Aztec Empire.
Montecuzoma
c. 1397–1468. Fifth Aztec ruler whose conquests significantly extended Aztec rule beyond the Valley of Mexico.
Nan Madol
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.
Navajo
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.
Polynesians
A people that inhabited the larger Pacific islands (specifically New Zealand) whose population surged after 1000 CE, which prompted social and political development.
Pueblo
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.
Quechua
A language spoken by the Incas.
Quetzalcóatl
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.
Quipu
Incan mnemonic aid comprised of different-colored strings and knots that served to record events in the absence of a written text.
Tenochtitlan
Capital of the Aztec empire, later Mexico City.
Teotihuacan
Central American society (200 b.c.e.–750 C.E.); its Pyramid of the Sun was the largest structure in Mesoamerica.
Tezcatlipoca
A principal Mexica God’ “the Smoking Mirror,” a powerful figure who was the giver and taker of life and the patron deity of warriors.
Toltecs
Central American society (950–1150) that was centered on the city of Tula.
Tula
Original region of the Toltec people, located to the northwest of modern Mexico City.
Viracocha
The creator of the world, humankind, and all else in the universe. Pachacuti showed favor to it.
