Pre-European America Flashcards
Beringia
Bering strait, land bridge that connected Siberia and Alaska during the ice age
400-800 miles wide
Hunters followed large game
Creation stories
Many native american stories include belief in separate genesis
Archaic period
5000 BCE
First time american region could be inhabited
Domesticated animals
very few, limited things like agriculture and war
llamas and dogs domesticated from wolves
Neolithic revolution
move from gathering to cultivation
lack of animals for domestication
no wheat for cultivation
protected areas where animals/ plants naturally existed
3 sisters of Indian agriculture
wheat, soy, maize
Olmec civilization
Precursor to Mayans, core civilization
central America/ Mezoamerica
Mayans
Complex culture, irrigated fields, calendar and writing system
Mexica (Aztecs)
Fierce group of people
Built an empire
people resented leaders (taxes), some helped Spanish conquistadors
Anasazi, Pueblo-Hohokam, Mogollan
Horticulture, irrigation
southwest America
Cahokia
present day St. Louis
mound builders
wood hinge- help map and understand solar system
Tenochtitlan (mexico city)
larger than London
could house around 150,000
ceremonial center
Hopewell people
Mississippi river valley
Pre-contact Native pop
around 60-70 million natives in the Americas
pop estimates started at 2 million, variation in estimates
Death of Natives
Diseases- smallpox, tuberculosis, measles
virgin land epidemics
warfare
highest death rates in Caribbean, 90-95% in 150 years
around 60% in reast of Americas
