What do you think when you hear about the cliff dwellings of Machu Picchu and Mesa Verde? Thesis: The Machu Picchu and Mesa Verde cliff dwellings were ancient civilizations that contained both differences and similarities, and they were highly important. Mostly because of their harvestation, supplies, skills, terrains, structures, and artifacts. The Machu Picchu cliff dwellings were different in several ways regarding farming, building, and other numerous things.…
The Quest Cabeza de Vaca had only wanted to survive through this beating of a journey. He was a well-known man that had very many near-death experiences. Cabeza started his journey searching for gold and settlement, but in a matter of days, he didn’t care about any of that. He only wanted to live. How did Cabeza de Vaca survive in these conditions? He survived because of his wilderness skills, his great success as a healer, and his deep respect for the Native Americans.…
How did Cabeza de Vaca survive? The age of exploration has sprung, we all know of the glory. Discovering a new world, exploring. But have you ever heard of what happens when that all falls apart?…
In his notorious book , Dr. Pauketat explains Cahokia and concentrates on how Cahokia affected various cultures throughout the central North America. Cahokia was considered the center of the regional Mississippian culture that covered most parts of the Mississippian Valley. The author introduces Pax Cahokiana as a culture of people and materials that had a significant influence to the different regions of North America. In his creditable analysis, Dr. Pauketat explains the rise of Pax Cahokiana, highlighting its political connections to the greater Mississippian world, how Pax Cahokia was maintained, and what happened to it before the arrival of Europeans during 800-1300 CE.…
Popocatepetl is a stratovolcano that is located in Puebla, Mexico. Its last eruption was in the year of 2013. Did you know that Popocatepetl also has a story that has to do with another volcano named Iztaccíhuatl it is one of the most romantic stories you'll ever hear about to volcanos. According to the myth the volcano every time the volcano erupts it is know for crying and it is because he cries for his loved one.…
The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction by David Carrasco is a succinct but comprehensive history of the, in many ways infamous, ancient Latin American civilization known as the Aztecs. His book goes through an overview of the foundation and creation of the Aztec culture and way of life, their expansion, their taboo rituals of sacrifice and reputation as a violent and warlike group, and eventually the fall of the civilization as a whole. The book as a whole speaks volumes in its simplicity; it gives readers an excellent sense of what this strange and once very powerful culture once was in, as the title suggests, a very short amount of pages. The book begins with the description of the massive and intimidating wonder that was the city of Tenochtitlan.…
Ishi in Two Worlds depicts the life story of Ishi, the last survivor of the Indian Yana tribe, who emerged starving in the northern California town of Oroville in 1911 after being captured. Written by Theodora Kroeber—UC Berkeley graduate, writer, anthropologist, and wife of Alfred Kroeber (leading anthropologist during the time, and one of Ishi’s close friend) – the book delivers a humane study, and the valid, realistic past history which in turn explains the treatment of Ishi’s people. Among some of Theodora Kroeber’s works are her first book, The Inland Whale (1959), a collection of California Indian myths, and Alfred Kroeber, a Personal Configuration, which, for anthropologists, remains an astonishing accomplishment (Mandelbaum 238). Ishi in Two Worlds stands as the “most widely read book on American Indian subject and one of the most generally known books on the basis of anthropological observations” (Mandelbaum 237). The piece marks Ishi’s completed trip out of Stone Age into the Iron Age.…
In Song of the Hummingbird, Graciela Limon illustrates how her life and the lives of other Mexica people were destroyed by the Spanish conquest and Cortés. A young monk, Father Benito Lara, is called to hear the last and only confession of an old woman named Huitzitzilin. Huitzitzilin had much to say about her life and the coming of Cortés and the Spanish which intrigued father Benito therefore he begins to listen to her stories everyday and writes down what she was saying to record her side of what happened during the conquest . He begins to see the story through the eyes of a native and develops sympathy for Huitzitzilin so he forgives her sins.…
Cabeza de Vaca and Mary Rowlandson had very different views and attitudes towards Indians beliefs and culture. Much of the differences in their accounts can be attributed to the circumstance of their experiences and purpose of their narratives. Comparing Cabeza de Vaca’s and Mary Rowlandson’s situation makes one realize they have very different backgrounds. Cabeza de Vaca was an explorer who lived as a captive among various native Indian tribes for many years before escaping to Spanish settlements in Mexico.…
Chilam Balam was my favorite story. first of all, if you're Mexican you learn something about your culture. The Yucatan people were strong working people that believe in so many things but mostly God. The Chilam Balam was written of the language in Mayan but, had a mixture script of Europeans. It was a sacred book to the Yucatan and the Mayans.…
The Popol Vuh opens by telling how the multiple Mayan gods created the Earth, everything it is composed of, and how they later create beings capable of worship. In Genesis, one God is responsible for the creation of everything, the most important being mankind. The Popol Vuh and Genesis are so similar that the Popol Vuh is sometimes thought of as a Mayan take on the Bible. The most paramount similarities are explaining the origin of humanity, illustrating the consequences for not following the rules set by the gods or of God, and the creation of everything on Earth.…
If left up to the text of the 16th century the fall of the Aztec Empire would be accredited only to Cortes, but as Kevin O. Collins stressed in The Fatal Flaws of the Aztec Empire we see that we must look past the conquest and look more to the political, and religious view of the Aztec. Writers, such as William Prescott saw the flaws in the manuscripts written by those under Cortes and stressed that it was the mismanagement of Tenochtitlan that caused its fall. Unfortunately for this paper I will not be focusing on the fall of the Aztec Empire, but I will be focusing on what made the empire great; its symbolism, myths, temples, and if only for a little its ruler Motecuhzoma the second. Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec Empire was in what is now present day Mexico City. Tenochtitlan was immense in size housing over 200,000 inhabitants at its high; the city was constructed on an island.…
While the idea that the arrival of Europeans to “The New World” brought upon the indigenous cultures of America no small amount of strife and misery, as well as fame and fortune upon the Spanish is widely accepted as fact, there is limitless dissention among historians about the true history of the conquest of “New Spain”. One event that exemplifies this dissention is that of the Siege of Tenochtitlan. In the following analysis I will describe and discuss two conflicting accounts that document this occasion (The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico and The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz). The accounts are conflicting in the way each author presents certain events of the siege and manipulates them to represent their…
Fall of Aztec Empire For many years now, historians have pondered upon the many reasons for the fall of the Aztec Empire. There have been many factors that played into the fall of the Empire, such as the diseases plaguing the population, the Spaniard’s technological advantages, religious rivalries, alliances, and the list goes on. But to focus on two of the major contributors, this essay will focus on the effects of European diseases on Mexico, and the impact alliances between the Spaniards and the Tlaxcala people had on Tenochtitlan. To begin our observations, we will delve into the life of a man named “Hernan Cortés”. Hernan Cortés was a Spanish Conquistador, and one of the driving forces in the fall of the Aztec Empire through the capture of Tenochtitlan and of the then leader Motecuhzoma II.…
The Mayan civilization had a remarkable culture and society in ancient Mesoamerica developed by the Mayan people. The advanced civilization encompasses modern day southern east of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western segments of Honduras and El Salvador. The Mayan civilization had a written language system of hieroglyphs, created the Mayan calendar, constructed pyramid-like structures to cherish its gods, had a polytheistic belief in gods that constitute by images of animals, and advancement in the areas of astronomy and mathematics. (Last Name 136) However, the Mayan civilization state of decline when the Spanish conquistadors invaded and colonized the Mesoamerican region in the sixteenth century and entirely ended of what is left of…