chapter 1: Corn civilizations

-Olmeca mother of culture of Mexico, product of the cross-fertilization of indigenous cultures that included other Mesoamerican civilizations, built the first kingdoms and established a template of world view and political symbolism the Maya would inherit, Production of maize, domesticated crops, and most importantly they made pottery, social ranking and craft specialization resulted in a hierarchical society excluded women from production of outside the home, Huge trade networks allowed for advance art forms, Hieroglyphic script and three calendars (knowledge of math) , vanished around 300 BC

-The Maya (1800bc) huge trade networks in gulf coast, Oaxaca and central Mexico, advance forms of agriculture, irrigation canals, constructed raised fields, Agriculture and trade produced prosperity and gave the Maya the ability to build temple-pyramids, monuments, and palaces of limestone, astronomy, calendars and time science, number system based off 20 (fingers/toes) & concept of zero, hieroglyphic system identified dynasties of rulers and understanding various people and their interaction and homosexuality. They had extended families, women and men were held as equals, human sacrifice. Decline came from overpopulation, revolts, warfare, disease, class oppression, climate change.

-Teotihuacan ‘city of gods” strong central government, they had apartments, major manufacture of pottery, they stressed material production and common ideas due to the civic ceremonial center being durned down by invaders the Mesoamerican societies were less centralized and ended up breaking up into dozen of city states.

-tolteca, religion remained important , rise was expansion of market system and long distance trade, developed a system of cosmology, practiced religious rites, including human sacrifice, and built grand temples to their gods, there left over artifacts proved cross-fertilization with the

Mayans

-Zapoteca, wrote in hieroglyphics and were obsessed with astronomical observation. -Taeasco, pottery and metal work styles are unique were barrowed, their language and culture dominated the region and many surrounding villages assimilating into it. They were excellent craftspeople, and they invaded other peoples for honey, cotton, feathers, copal, and deposits of salt, gold, and copper. Not traders and no written language, Enemies of Aztecs

-Aztecs, huge trade network, building, arts and supplied food for large cities, highly produced agriculture infrastructure, assimilated culture from native people litature, pictographs and ideographs and Religious and cosmological themes dominate the manuscripts, two kinds of schools (commoners/nobility) teaching rhetoric, history, dancing, signing, future leaders would learn about law, arithmetic, astronomy, and agriculture, men/women were equal, homosexuality, but lesbian were lower than prostitutes, transvestitie proformers, justification for human sacrifice,

-Los nortenos, the northern people were bounded by corn and trade. Corn is bound to the rise of Mesoamerica and sustained the northern people, needed water to grown corn, breaded drought tolerant corn on single water, cultivated squash bean, tobacco and cotton.