The Indigenous peoples pt.4

Question 1

The corn god in Mayan society

Answer 1

Yum Kax

Question 2

The rain god in Mayan society

Answer 2

Chac

Question 3

The god of the earth in Mayan society

Answer 3

Ah Kinchil

Question 4

Mayans played a ball game similar to basketball called?

Answer 4

pok a tok

Question 5

In Mayan society a red dye was obtained from the berries of the ___________ and a dark blue one from the fruit of the _______________

Answer 5

annatto shrub, genipa tree

Question 6

The Mayans used __________ for money

Answer 6

cacao beans

Question 7

What were some metals and materials produced by the Mayans

Answer 7

gold, copper, jade and wood

Question 8

One of the Mayans favorite objects was?

Answer 8

the figurine whistle

Question 9

In Mayan mathematics what were the symbols they used for the following:
0, 5 and 1

Answer 9

0- a shell
1- a dot
5- a bar

Question 10

Name two of the Mayan languages

Answer 10

Kekchi-Maya & Yucatec-Maya

Question 11

What does the word ‘Taino’ mean?

Answer 11

peace / men of the good

Question 12

What were the names of the three groups of Arawaks?

Answer 12

Lucayans, Borequinos and Tainos

Question 13

Migratory routes of the Caribs and Kalinagos

Answer 13

Tainos migrated in a north easterly direction to venezuela then into the Lesser Antilles, moving up the chain of islands until they reached the Greater Antilles

The Kalinagos followed the rivers Xingu and Tapajoz across Brazil northwards to the Amazon. One group moved east and the other crossed the Amazon river and followed its tributaries (Rio Negro and Rio Bronco) to the north reaching the valley of the Orinoco and they drove out the Arawaks.

The latter group of Kalinagos eventually arrived at the Gulf of Paria from where they took to the sea. They moved up tnhe chain of the Leeward islands pushing out the Arawaks. The Arawaks in Trinidad resisted the Kalinagos and so continued to occupy all but the north western part where the Kalinagos occupied.

By the time the Spanish arrived the Kalinagos had reached Puerto Rico

Question 14

Name two areas other than South America from which the Amerindians could have migrated directly to the Caribbean

Answer 14

Florida and Central America

Question 15

Possible reasons for the migration of the Amerindians?

Answer 15

Migration was an integral part of their culture

The population had outgrown the available food resources in their homeland and it was becoming more difficult to feed everyone

resources used for creating shelter had been exhausted so there was the need to find new supplies

changes in climatic conditions might have adversely affected their health so they wanted to find more favorable climate

The Amerindians were a seafaring people so they could have accidentally discovered any one of the islands and opted to settle there

The Arawaks might have seen the islands as a place of refuge from the warlike Kalinagos

The kalinagos were warlike so they might have migrated in search of new targets or in pursuit of the Arawaks

Question 16

Which two islands did the Kalinagos and Tainos share?

Answer 16

Trinidad and Puerto Rico

Question 17

Which of the Caribbean islands was there no permanent settlement of the Amerindians in?

Answer 17

Barbados

Question 18

Places in central America that the Mayans settled in?

Answer 18

Mexico (including the states of Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco), Belize (British Honduras), parts of El Salvador and Honduras

Question 19

Name the four types of areas that the Tainos mainly located their settlements

Answer 19

on hillsides overlooking the sea

near rivers and streams

on coastal plains

near flat fertile land

Question 20

Give three reasons whwy the Tainos chose certain types of locations for their settlements

Answer 20

1) The wangted to have easy access to water for domestic purposes, for transportation and communication, recreation, trading with other coastal settlements, fishing, defence from attackers, carrying out raids, and irrigating their crops to protect them from drought

2) they were an agricultural people so they needed fertile land for agriculture

3) they chose sites on the top of hills as a precaution against surprise attacks from the Kalinagos

Question 21

Five reasons why Amerindian settlements might have maintained contact with one another?

Answer 21

1) maintain familial ties between relatives
2) provide mutual security against hostile groups
3) share cultural, social, religious activities
4) create political alliances through marriages
5) trade with islands who share a common language and culture

Question 22

Why did Taino mothers flatten the foreheads of their babies

Answer 22

they thought it enhanced their beauty

Question 23

Describe how the Tainos dressed themselves

Answer 23

Taino mothers flattened the foreheads of their babies

Tainoswore little or no clothing. Married women wore a loin cloth while the yopung of both sexes and the less civilized went naked. Women married to Caciques wore skirts

Tainos adorned their bodies with brightly colored vegetable dyes

They wore arm and leg bands made of cotton

They wore ornaments such as pendants, necklaces and bracelets which were made of stone, bone, pottery, wood, feqather, beads, shells, and gold pieces. They also wore gold pieces in their ears and nose. Caciques wore more jewelry than others

The Caciques wore headdresses of feathers adorned with plates of gold and bands of colored beads and bones

Question 24

The taino used vegetable dyes. Red, blue and black dyes called?

Answer 24

red- roucou
blue- indigo
black- genip

Question 25

Why did the Tainos adorn their bodies with dyes?

Answer 25

to beautify and protect them from the fierece rays of the sun and from insect bites in the absence of clothes

Question 26

Who was the cacique of Hispaniola at the time when the Europeans came?

Answer 26

Anacoana

Question 27

What were some of the chores male Tainos had?

Answer 27

they cleared the fields

hunted, fished, defended the village

constructed the houses and canoes

made the tools, weapons and musical instruments

Question 28

What were some of the chore female Tainos had?

Answer 28

they reaped the crops, spun and wove cotton and made handicrafts

they also took care of children

Question 29

Chores in the Taino society done by both male and female

Answer 29

they made carvings and drew pictures on rocks or on the walls of caves to record their history and practices

Question 30

In Taino society the bards or sambas composed of sad or lively songs called ?

Answer 30

Arietos/Areytos

Question 31

Some skills/occupations of the Taino people

Answer 31

they were accomplished in wood work and pottery

they made zemis/idols representing their gods

they made ceremonial stools/duhos sometime carved in wood or stone in the shape of a human or animal

They dug out or shaped canoes from large cedar or silk cotton trees

they built highly polished stools and tables

they made tools and weapons

they made musical instruments

they made elaborate ceramics

they made cord or rope from hemp, cotton, grass and tree bark

from tree bark they made baskets

they spun cotton into thread which was then woven into cloth or made into cords which could be knotted to make fishing nets or hammocks

Question 32

What was the Tainos preferred way of cooking the animals they caught?

Answer 32

barbecues

Question 33

What were the methods the tainos used to obtain food?

Answer 33

agriculture, hunting, fishing, gathering, animal rearing and trade

Question 34

What method of agriculture did the tainos use to obtain food/

Answer 34

the advanced conuco method and the slash and burn method

Question 35

What weapons did the Tainos use to hunt?

Answer 35

darts, lances, nets and traps

Question 36

What weapons did the tainos use to fish?

Answer 36

nets, spears, traps, baskets, poison/stupefiers (barbasco), hook and line and remora (sucker fish)

Question 37

Explain the slash and burn method of agriculture

Answer 37

the selected land was cleared of brush and small trees with the use of stone axes. After the brush and small trees were cut they were left on the land to dry.

They used axes to cut rings around the larger trees in order to kill and cut them down. The stumps of these trees were left in the ground to rot. The felled tree trunks and their branches were allowed to dry on the ground surface before they were burnt and burning usually took place before the end of the dry season around April- May.

The land was cleared of weeds and brush and to create space for planting

The crops were planted by the women using their coa against the burnt stumps which remained. Cassava was planted twice a year when the soil was damp and corn was planted on hillsides during the period of the new moon and after the start of the rains.

In Cuba and Hispaniola, a mixture of urine and ash was used to fertilize the fields, and irrigation ditches were dug in Cuba to water the crops.

During the growing season children were stationed on platforms in trees near the fields to scare away the birds.

While the plants grew, women pulled out weeds from among the growing plants.

The fields had to be changed every few years, at which time new plots were selected and cleared.

Question 38

Advantages of the slash and burn method?

Answer 38

there was no need for a large labor force

the tools that were needed were very simple and could be made easily

the burning of the field was an important mechanism for releasing nutrients into the soil.

It increased the soil’s friability and beneficially facilitated planting and growth in output in the vital first year of cultivation.

It provided an immediate surge in the level of available phosphorus and exchangeable calcium and magnesium within the surface layers of the soil.

Question 39

`Disadvantages of the slash and burn method?

Answer 39

fire destroyed some of the nutrients in the soil, and so reduced its fertility

reduced fertility contributed to low yield which could not provide adequate food to support a large population

there was the need to change each field every few years. Therefore the Tainos either had to relocate their households frequently or they had to travel far distances from home to their new fields