Latin American and Caribbean Cultures
Anthropology 307
Review for First Exam; Fall 1998

Conch shell instrument - Called people to prayer, announced time of day and was used in battle.

Traditional instruments - baked clay acurinas (whistles); slit drums; flutes made of reed, clay or animal bone, deer hoof rattles - Most music associated with religion. Inca Demon dance. 5-tone scale.

Spanish instruments - violin, guitar,guitaron - 7-tone scale. Dances include the Flamenco, Capateato Vera Cruzano, Malambo.

Three nations with largest populations: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia.

Three nations with smallest populations: St. Kitts-Nevis, Antigua-Barbuda, Grenada.

Four nations with highest per capita incomes: Bahamas, Antigua, Barbados, Trinidad plus the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Three nations with lowest per capita incomes: Guyana, Nicaragua, Haiti.

Highest waterfall - Angel Falls, Venezuela. Widest waterfall=Iguazu Falls, Brazil Deepest Lake - Lake Titicaca. Longest river - Amazon.

Latino reality - Iberian inheritance but be careful not to over generalize, distinct national cultures so that people speak of Mexicanidad, Argentinidad, etc., strong extended family bonds, urban civilization - frequent human contact sought, urbanization not always linked to industrialization, machismo, marianismo, motherhood respected, "Salud, amor, pesetas y el tiempo para gozarlos" - leisure =Health, love, money and the time to enjoy them, work=necessary evil, Jose Velasco Ibarra's statement that, "Give me a balcony and I will be president." - charisma is more important than political ideology, dualism-the mask and Octavio Paz.

Ivan Van Sertima - Olmec's as the foundation of high culture in Latin America. Baby faced gods, jaguar faced gods, jade, large monumental African looking heads. DIFFUSION THEORY. Import idea of pyramid building and high culture. GUANIN gold, von Wuthenau's pottery, Leo Weiner's linguistic evidence of African loan words in Native American languages. Hypostyle columns, mummification, basenji, false beards, Almayzars, Quarequa, etc. Equatorial Current. Thor Hyerdahl's "experimental archaeology" using reed ships, murex shells, etc.

David Grove=Foremost U.S. authority on Olmec & believes that their high culture evoled from indigenous roots due to surplus wealth creation. Baby faced gods & jade statues with human faces and jaguar mouths. Laura Laurencich Minelli -Olmec culture INDEPENDENT INVENTION THEORY. La yenta (Tres Zapotes & San Lorenso) Classic Phase 200 B.C. - 800 A.D. Autochthonous language, native dress, figurines, masks, and pitted surface (Pox) pottery.

John Lloyd Stephens - "Father of Maya archaeology"

Father Diego de Landa - Burned (auto-de-fe) most Mayan books in 1549.

Michael Coe - Classic Maya Culture. Impressive stepped pyramids with vaulted arches and narrow rooms. Obsession with TIME. Independently invented the ZERO. Developed sophisticated calendars. Tzolkin or 260 day sacred calendar, Tun or 360 day secular Calendar, Haab or 365 day vague year. CALENDAR ROUND every 52 years. POK-A-TOK ball game. Dresden Codex, Codex Tro- Cartesians, Codex Peresianus. Sacbeob =White raised roads. Milpa=raised farm fields for growing corn, squash, beans. No metal tools, no draft animals, no wheeled vehicles. BURDEN of time carried by gods. Lucky days=Monday and Saturday; unlucky days=T/F. True man-leader/Halach Uinic. Crossed eyes, flattened heads and pointed teeth=beautiful. Raised corn fields and milpas. HUMAN SACRIFICE condoned and victim painted BLUE. Suicide guaranteed entry to heaven. Overpopulation and foreign invasion compete as explanations of their collapse and the abandonment of their cities by 900 A.D.

Francis Berdan - Aztec Culture. Chichimecs. Tenochitlan Huitzilopchtligod of blood and war. Quetzalcoatl=benefit creator god and patron of the arts. Tlaloc=god of rain. Tzompantli=skull rack. Yaoxechtil ="WarIvan Van Sertima - Olmec's as the foundation of high culture in Latin America. Baby faced gods, jaguar faced gods, jade, large monumental African looking heads. DIFFUSION THEORY. Import idea of pyramid building and high culture. GUANIN gold, von Wuthenau's pottery, Leo Weiner's linguistic evidence of African loan words in Native American languages. Hypostyle columns, mummification, basenji, false beards, Almayzars, Quarequa, etc. Equatorial Current. Thor Hyerdahl's "experimental archaeology" using reed ships, murex shells, etc.

David Grove=Foremost U.S. authority on Olmec & believes that their high culture evoled from indigenous roots due to surplus wealth creation. Baby faced gods & jade statues with human faces and jaguar mouths. Laura Laurencich Minelli -Olmec culture/INl)EPENDENT INVENTION THEORY. La yenta (Tres Zapotes & San Lorenso) Classic Phase 200 B.C. - 800 A.D. Autochthonous language, native dress, figurines, masks, and pitted surface (Pox) pottery.

John Lloyd Stephens - "Father of Maya archaeology"

Father Diego de Landa - Burned (auto-de-fe) most Mayan books in 1549.

Michael Coe - Classic Maya Culture. Impressive stepped pyramids with vaulted arches and narrow rooms. Obsession with TIME. Independently invented the ZERO. Developed sophisticated calendars. Tzolkin or 260 day sacred calendar, Tun or 360 day secular Calendar, Haab or 365 day vague year. CALENDAR ROUND every 52 years. POK-A-TOK ball game. Dresden Codex, Codex Tro- Cartesians, Codex Peresianus. Sacbeob =White raised roads. Milpa=raised farm fields for growing corn, squash, beans. No metal tools, no draft animals, no wheeled vehicles. BURDEN of time carried by gods. Lucky days=Monday and Saturday; unlucky days=T/F. True man-leader/Halach Uinic. Crossed eyes, flattened heads and pointed teeth=beautiful. Raised corn fields and milpas. HUMAN SACRIFICE condoned and victim painted BLUE. Suicide guaranteed entry to heaven. Overpopulation and foreign invasion compete as explanations of their collapse and the abandonment of their cities by 900 A.D.

Francis Berdan - Aztec Culture. Chichimecs. Tenochitlan Huitzilopchtligod of blood and war. Quetzalcoatl=benefit creator god and patron of the arts. Tlaloc=god of rain. Tzompantli=skull rack. Yaoxechtil ="War of flowers" or ritualized warfare to obtain sacrificial victims and train warriors. Land owned by kinship unit called the Calpulli. The calpulli and cacique system were modified by the Spanish and served as models for the encomienda system of land grants and peasant labor used by Spain to exploit colonial Mexico. Pyramid of the Sun. Triple Alliance=combined might of cities of Tenochitlan, Texcoco & Tlacopan whom collectively conquered the Valley of Mexico & much of the Mesa Central plateau. Sign of place to settle - eagle and serpent. Used chianampas to expand farming. Human sacrifice. Smallpox & Moctezuma's mistaken belief that Hernan Cortez was a reincarnation of god Quetzalcoatl enabled Cortez to conquer the Aztec. Cortez had between 6,000 & 75,000 Tlaxcalan allies.

Hiram Bingham - Inca Culture. Sapa Inca=title of supreme ruler. Allowed to marry their sisters since both were gods. Lords of gold and silver. "Cult of the Dead/dead rulers mummies brought out to witness important state ceremonies." Large scale terraced hillside farms and gravitational flow irrigation. Freeze dried food storage, especially potatoes & ducks. Empire stretched 2,500 miles from Colombian border to Chile. Huacas=holy places. Machu Picchu, Cuzco, Vilcabamba. Mita=labor tax system. Quipus=knotted rope system of recording information. Qollqas =storehouses. Trepanation of skulls. Mummification. Quechua language. Ayllu. Chasqui runners. Chullpas=funeral towers. Coca=elite privilege. Tiahuanco gate of the sun. Illapa=deity. Inti supreme deity along with Viracocha & PachaMama (earth mother). Llamas =sure footed pack animals. Cloth=money. Gold lined skull of vanquished enemy used as drinking cup. Atahualpa. Cajamarca. Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca in 1532 A.D. Tupac Amaru// Huayna Capac last leader of resistance to Spanish rule, lived in lost or hidden jungle city of Guanor Villca or Vilca Bamba.

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