1. Early Societies in the Americas and Oceania
Chapter 6

2. Mesoamerica: The Olmecs
Gulf coast of Mexico
Cultivated crops (no large animals) -> villages by 3000 BCE
Ceremonial centers with pyramids, temples, palaces (but not cities)
Governance? Authoritarian (labor, tribute)
Important features: art, widespread influence (military and trade), calendar, ball game, human sacrifice
Declined: destroyed their ceremonial centers and left

4. Mesoamerica: The Maya Southern Mexico and Central America
Agriculture (terracing for silt retention) -> permanent villages
Large ceremonial centers (some were cities) with plazas, temples, pyramids
Some became city-states – lots of war for POWs
Chichen Itza built a loose empire c. 800 CE

5. The Maya (cont.)
Began decline: invasion? Failure of water control system? Deforestation? Natural catastrophe? Disease? Combination?

6. Mayan Culture
Social organization: ruling families, priests, hereditary nobility, merchants, professionals and artisans, peasants, slaves
Calendars: solar and ritual, in 52 year cycles
Writing: ideographic and symbolic, scribes, most books destroyed
Religion: Popul Vuh, fertility, polytheistic, human sacrifice and blood-letting, ball game

7. Mesoamerica: Teotihuacan
Highlands of central Mexico
Irrigation agriculture -> population increase -> cities -> Teotihuacan
Pyramids, temples, markets, palaces, apartments, workshops
Theocracy: priests rule
Social organization: priests, farmers, artisans, merchants

8. Teotihuacan (cont.) Extensive trade networks
Early: no evidence of military organization; trade-based domination
Ball game, calendar, writing, sacrifice,
Decline c. 650 CE when city was destroyed

9. Early Societies of South America
As climate changed, agriculture developed -> pop. -> villages and cities -> civilization
Slow diffusion with Mesoamerica
Coastal settlements: agriculture + seafood
Increasing complexity: weaving, fishing nets, metallurgy, but not politically organized

11. South American States
In river valleys, with irrigation, trade networks, forcefully unified
No writing, but painted pottery tells a lot
Did not consolidate the region politically

12. Early Societies of Oceania
60,000 BCE: Australia and New Guinea via canoe – separated and differentiated
Australians: hunter/gatherers,small nomadic groups
N.G.: h/g at first, until SE Asians brought farming (yams, taro, pigs, chickens) -> pop. ->specialization -> permanent settlements throughout Pacific

14. Peoples of the Pacific Islands
Linguistic evidence of Austronesian language family shows migrations
Lapita: earliest migrants – agricultural villages, over-hunted, pottery, trade networks
Later, networks not needed as self-sufficiency increased -> hierarchical chiefdoms
Migration as alternative to conflict
Tribute based, irrigation, public ritual, semi-divine chiefs