Native Americans

A

9

The Arctic

The Arctic culture area runs along the coasts of Alaska and northern Canada. Because winters are long and dark, agriculture is impossible; people live by fishing and by hunting seal, caribou, and (in northern Alaska and eastern Canada) whale. Traditional summer houses were tents. Winter houses were round, well-insulated frame structures covered with skins and blocks of turf; in central Canada the winter houses often were made of blocks of ice. Populations were small because resources were so limited.

The Arctic was not inhabited until about 2000 bc, after glaciers finally melted in that region. In Alaska the Inuit and the Yuit (also known as Yupik) developed ingenious technology to deal with the difficult climate and meagre resources. In about ad 1000 bands of Alaskan Inuit migrated across Canada to Greenland; called the Thule culture, they appear to have absorbed an earlier people in eastern Canada and Greenland (the Dorset culture). These people are now often referred to as the Greenland Inuit. Because of this migration, traditional Inuit culture and language are similar from Alaska to Greenland. Living in south-western Alaska (and the eastern end of Siberia) are the Yuit, who are related to the Inuit in culture and ancestry but whose language is slightly different. Distantly related to the Inuit and Yuit are the Aleuts, who since 6000 bc have remained in their homeland on the Aleutian Islands, fishing and hunting sea mammals. Like the Subarctic peoples but, unlike most Native Americans, the Inuit, Yuit, and Aleut peoples today retain much of their ancient way of life, because their culture areas are remote from cities and their lands cannot be farmed.

B

Mesoamerica

Civilizations developed in Mexico and upper Central America after about 1400 bc. These civilizations originated from an Archaic hunter-gatherer way of life that by 7000 bc included cultivation of small quantities of beans, squash, pumpkins, and maize. By 2000 bc Mexicans had come to depend on their planted fields of these crops, plus amaranth, avocado, and other fruits, and chilli peppers. Towns developed, and by 1500 bc the Olmec civilization boasted a capital with palaces, temples, and monuments built on a huge constructed platform about 50 m (165 ft) high and nearly 1.6 km (1 mi) long. The Olmec lived in the jungle of the east coast of Mexico; their trade routes extended as far as Monte Albán in western Mexico (in what is now Oaxaca State) and the Valley of Mexico in the central highlands. As the power of the Olmec declined (about 300 bc), the centres in the central highlands grew, and, shortly before the beginning of the Christian era, the earliest city in pre-Columbian Mexico had developed to an urban size at Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico. From 450 to 600 Teotihuacán dominated Mexico, trading with Monte Albán and with the kingdoms of the Maya that had arisen in south-western Mexico and conquering rivals as far south as the Valley of Guatemala. The capital city covered some 21 sq km (8 sq mi) with blocks of apartment houses, markets, many small factories, temples on platforms, and palaces covered with murals. Maya culture was also distinguished for developing, uniquely among Native American peoples, a written language based on glyphs.

About AD 700 Teotihuacán suffered attacks that destroyed its power. From about AD 750 to AD 950 the Maya civilization in the lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula collapsed, although other cities, mostly in northern Yucatán, were not as affected. Recent scientific research suggests that the reason for the decline of these Maya cities may have been three multi-year droughts between AD 810 and AD 910, which placed enormous pressure on the resources of the communities, whose agriculture was dependent on seasonally consistent rainfall. This empire collapsed in 1168. By 1433 the Valley of Mexico had regained domination over much of Mexico as a result of an alliance of three neighbouring kingdoms. This alliance secured the homeland from which one king, Montezuma I of the Aztecs, began territorial conquests in the 1400s. The empire flourished until 1519, when a Spanish soldier, Hernán Cortés, landed in eastern Mexico and advanced with Mexican allies upon the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán. Internal strife and a smallpox epidemic weakened the Mexicans and helped Cortés conquer them in 1521.

At the time of these initial Spanish conquests the native peoples of Mexico included those in the domains of the Aztec Empire and of the powerful kingdoms of the Mixtec rulers in what is now Puebla State and the Purépecha (Tarascan) in Michoacán State, and of the Zapotec in Oaxaca, the Tlaxcalan in Michoacán, the Otomí in Hidalgo, and the Totonac in Veracruz; the subjects of the remnants of the Maya state of Mayapán in the Yucatán and of a number of smaller undestroyed Maya states to the south; and many independent groups in the frontier regions, such as the Yaqui, Huichol, and Tarahumara in northern Mexico and the Pipil in the south. After the Spanish conquest—which took more than two centuries to reach throughout Mexico—most of the Native American peoples were forced to survive as peasants governed by the Spanish-Mexican upper class.

The culture area of Mesoamerica—Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, western Honduras, and western Nicaragua—was one of farming villages producing maize, beans, squash, amaranth, turkeys, and other foods, supporting large city markets where traders sold tools, cloth, and luxury goods imported over long land and sea trade routes. In the cities lived manufacturers and their workers, merchants, the wealthy class, and priests and scholars who recorded literary, historical, and scientific works in hieroglyphic texts (astronomy was particularly advanced). Cities were adorned with sculptures and brilliant paintings, often depicting the Mesoamerican symbols of power and knowledge: the eagle, lord of the heavens; the jaguar, lord of the Earth; and the rattlesnake, associated with wisdom, peace, and the arts of civilization.

C

South America

The culture areas of South America extend from lower Central America—eastern Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica—to the southern tip of South America. Four principal areas can be distinguished: northern South America, including the Caribbean and lower Central America; the central and southern Andes and adjacent Pacific coast; the Tropical Forest of eastern South America; and the tip and eastern portion of the narrow southern third of the continent, an area supporting only nomadic hunting-and-gathering peoples.

C

1

Northern South America and the Caribbean

The culture area of northern South America and the Caribbean includes jungle lowlands, grassy savannah plains, the northern Andes, some arid sections of western Ecuador, and the islands of the Caribbean. Given its geographical location, the region might seem to link the great civilizations of Mexico and Peru; but because land travel through the jungles and mountains of lower Central America is difficult, pre-Columbian contacts between Peru and Mexico took place mostly by sea, from Ecuador's Gulf of Guayaquil to western Mexican ports. The indigenous peoples of northern South America and the Caribbean lived in small, independent states. Although they traded directly with Mexico and Peru by way of Ecuador, they were bypassed by the empires.

Finds of Clovis-like spearpoints indicate the presence of hunters in the area by 9000 bc; other evidence suggests that people were in the northern region by 18,000 bc. The Archaic style of living continued from the time of the extinction of the mastodons and mammoths, in the Clovis period, until about 3000 bc. About this time, village dwellers developed the cultivation of maize in Ecuador, and of manioc (or cassava) in Venezuela, and pottery-making flourished. Also after this date, the Caribbean islands were first settled. By 500 bc, in towns in some areas of northern South America, distinctive local styles had developed in sculpture and metalwork. Population growth and technological progress continued until the Spanish conquered the region; at that time the Chibcha kingdoms of Colombia were famous for their fine gold ornaments. Around the Caribbean, smaller groups such as the Mískito of Nicaragua, the Kuna of Panama, and the Arawak and Carib peoples of the Caribbean islands farmed and fished around their villages; the Carib also lived along the coast of Venezuela. These peoples lived a simpler life than did the peoples of the northern Andean states.

C

2

Central and Southern Andes

The chain of the Andes that stretches down the western half of South America, together with the narrow coastal valleys between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, were the home of the great indigenous American civilizations.

In recent years, excavation at the Monte Verde site in southern Chile has yielded unequivocal evidence of human occupation dating back to 11,000 bc. Excavations farther north, in Peru, show that by 7000 bc beans, including the lima bean, were cultivated, as were chilli peppers. A few centuries later the domestication of llamas was begun. Guinea pigs were eventually raised for meat; cotton, potatoes, peanuts, and other foods gradually became part of Peruvian agriculture, and about 2000 bc maize was brought from the northern Andes. The peoples of the Pacific coast, from Chile through Peru into Ecuador, also made use of the rich sea life, which included many species of fish, as well as water birds, sea lions, dolphins, and shellfish.

After 2000 bc peoples in villages in several coastal valleys of central Peru organized to build great temples of stone and adobe on large platforms. After about 900 bc these temples appear to have served a new religion, centred in the mountain town of Chavín de Huántar. This religion had as its symbols the eagle, the jaguar, the snake (probably an anaconda), and the caiman, which seems to have represented water and the fertility of plants. These symbols are somewhat similar to those of the Mexican Olmec religion, but no definite link between the two cultures is known. After 300 bc Chavín influence—or possibly political power—declined. The Moche civilization then appeared on the northern coast of Peru, and the Nazca on the southern coast. In both, large irrigation projects, towns, and temples were constructed, and extensive trade was carried on, including the export of fine ceramics. The Moche depicted their daily life and their myths in paintings and in ceramic sculpture; they showed themselves as fearsome warriors and also made moulded ceramic sculptures depicting homes with families, cultivated plants, fishers, and even lovers. They were also expert metalworkers.

By about ad 600 the Moche and Nazca cultures declined, and two new, powerful states appeared in Peru: Huari in the central mountains, and Tiahuanacu in the southern mountains at Lake Titicaca. Tiahuanacu seems to have been a great religious centre, reviving symbols from the Chavín. These states lasted only a few centuries; after 1000, coastal states again became important, especially Chimú in the north, with its vast and magnificent adobe-brick capital city of Chan Chan. All Peru was eventually conquered by a state that arose in the central mountains at Cuzco; this was the Quechua state, ruled by a people known as the Inca. The emperor of the Inca at the time, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, began large-scale expansion of the empire in the 1400s; by 1525 Inca rule extended from Ecuador to Chile and Argentina. Civil war raged within the empire from 1525 to 1532. At its conclusion, the Spanish adventurer Francisco Pizarro landed in Peru and had little trouble conquering the devastated Inca Empire.

During this time the central and southern Andes were populated by farmers who raised a variety of crops. Local products, transported by llama caravans, were exported and traded between the coast, the mountains, and the eastern tropical jungle. The region's kingdoms were governed by administrators aided by soldiers and priests. The Peruvians did not have a written language, but they did use the abacus for arithmetic calculations, and they kept numerical records for government by means of abacus-like sets of knotted strings called quipus.