Grambling State University - BUSINESS/C 301

Chapter 4 - Early Societies in the Americas and Oceania

1)Where is the region of Mesoamerica?

2. What crops did the peoples of Mesoamerica cultivate when they began to experiment with agricultural production by 8000 to 7000 B.C.E.?
3. What were ceremonial centers?
   1. Who resided there?
   2. Where did the other residents live?
   3. When did they enter the ceremonial centers?
4. Who were the Olmecs?
   1. What were they also referred to and why?
   2. What was the most distinctive artistic creation of the Olmecs?
   3. What lead to the decline and fall of the Olmec society?
   4. Despite the collapsing of their society, what traditions of the Olmecs influenced later Mesoamerican societies?

5. Who were the earliest heirs (complex societies that carried on many of the legacies) of the Olmecs that emerged following their thousand-year disappearance?
   1. How did they establish an agricultural society?
   2. What crops were successful?

6. How did the Maya organize themselves politically?
   1. What led to their decline?

7. Explain Maya society. Include:
   1. social classes and individuals’ roles and responsibilities;
   2. development of the calendar;
   3. writing;
   4. religious beliefs and cultural traditions. Include:
      1. Creation Myth
      2. Bloodletting Rituals
      3. Ball Game
   5. Gender roles.

8. What was Teotihuacan? Include:
   1. Pyramid of the Sun
   2. Political structure

1. 3. Society
      1. social class structure
      2. areas of economic specialization
   4. cultural traditions
   5. decline

9. What were the early societies of South America? Explain:
   1. Early Andean society and the Chavín Cult
   2. Mochica State

10. Explain the early societies of Oceania. Discuss
    1. Australia
       1. Early food source and types of food
       2. People
    2. New Guinea
       1. Food source
       2. society
    3. Pacific Islands

11. Who were the Austronesian peoples and the Lapita peoples? Include:
    1. Origin of migration (where from) and where they located?
    2. Include early food sources and early agricultural production
    3. Political structure