Chapters 6-8
fetish
(n.) an object believed to have magical powers; an object of unreasoning devotion or reverence
potlatch
A Native American ceremony in the northwest pacific coast where families or individuals loan, give away, or destroy large quantities of valuable goods in order to demonstrate their wealth and power. While the ritual might appear destructive, it has long served to create cultural bonds among participating social groups and communities.
Tapu
A Polynesian word for something holy or sacred with restrictions regarding its use. Hence the Gnglish word taboo. Also see mana.
Primitivism
A Western art movement that borrowed materials and motifs from non-western art. This term is fromt eh french word primitif which was initially used in reference to certain late medieval and early Renaissance Italian and Flemish painters. Later it was applied to the arts of Africa. The pacific islands and native america. Meaning in this context, the early or prime forms from which later, more sophisticated western art was thought to have developed. Because of negative connotations, it is no longer in common use in scholarhip. Art from these palces was wrongly considered primitive because it was taken out of context.
Mana
A belief in and around Polynesia, Melanesia and Micornesia that works of art and other objects as well as people may have sacred powers. Since the lineage of a chief may descend from the gods, those with royal blood are born with plentiful quantities of mana, which can be increased by good deeds or decreased by poor ones, cowardice or violations of a TAPU (taboo), a rule that must not be broken. Mana is often envisioned as an invisible but forceful spiritual substance, a manifestation of the gods on earth that can link people to their ancestors and the gods. It is also a power that enables artists to be creative. Later the mana in a work of art may be increased by the status or mana of its successive owners, and the importance of any associated rituals honoring the gods and ancestors, Valued heirlooms passed down from one generation to the next in royal families can accumulate tremendous quantities of mana.
kente cloth
A brightly colored, woven cloth made by the Ashanti and Ewe peoples. the Asante people of Ghana developed an intricately designed cloth, today its designs represents the philosophy, moral values, and code of conduct of Ghanaian culture. a royal and sacred fabric associated with Ghana's Akan people and characterized by geometric shapes, bright colors, and designs associated with proverbs, leaders, events, and plants
Kiva
A place for worship and religious rituals in Pueblo culture. Normally, a round semi subterranean enclosure symbolizing the center of the universe. It may have a ladder entryway in the middle of the roof and a shallow hole in the floor, a symbolic entryway to the subterranean world of the spirits.
lost wax method (metal casting)
A technique for casting hollow as opposed to solid metal objects. The desired image fashioned out of a material such as heat-resistant clay is coated with a thin layer of wax that conforms to the clay. The wax is then coated with a thick heat resistant material called a 'mold.' When the mod is heated. the wax melts, leaving a thin space between the inner and outer molds. Hot molten metal is then poured into that open space where the wax was 'lost.' When the metal cools, the molds are removed.
pictographs
Also known as "pictograms" An image that conveys its meaning through representation. Often used in writing systems along with phonograms.
airport art
Also known as "tourist art/" Mass-produced art resembling works in regional and period styles specially made for the tourist trade in locations such as airport terminals.
X-ray style
Also known as the "in-fill style." A Western name for a technique used by Australian Aboriginal artists in which the inner parts of an animal or person may be visible as if the outer skin were transparent.
Native American Graves Protection and Reparation Act (NAGPRA)
Applied similar repatriation procedures to all federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding. Law requires institutions to produce inventories of cultural objects subject to the law: Human remains Funerary objects (associated with a burial or not) Sacred objects Items of cultural patrimony Human remains and associated funerary objects must be repatriated to direct descendants or culturally affiliated group that has a reasonable connection to the earlier group. Evidence like oral history supposed to be given as much weight as scientific evidence. Does not apply to private individuals or institutions that don't receive federal funding. Non-recognized tribes do not have standing to make NAGPRA claims. Culturally unidentifiable human remains: insufficient evidence or provenience to identify the affiliation of remains identification of remains to an earlier group for which there is no present-day tribal organization affiliation of human remains to a modern-day tribal organization that is not federally recognized as an Indian tribe Institutions under purview of NAGPRA reported at least 150,887 Native American remains, only about 32,000 have been culturally affiliated.
shamanism
Belief in a conection with nature spirits. Nature spirits guide though shaman. General idea is that the shaman is a preist/healer who goes into spiritual trances and communicates with animal spirits which have super natural power. Through communicating with animal spirits, the shaman is able to heal or have other visions.
Ancestral poles, Asmat, New Guinea, 1960. Wood, paint, and sago palm leaves. Other cultures in New Guinea is Asmat culture. They were head hunters. A lot of their social status was based on head hunting, fighting and killing enemy's and mana. By killing enemy and taking head or eating brains, you would take their mana. A persons mana was stored in the head. Asmat culture would have head hunting raids to increase social status but also as revenge between head hunting raids between villages. But if a relative was killed in a head hunting raid and you couldn't have a proper funeral, you could set up a pole (Bisj) like this image. Pole set up during ceremony to appease the spirits of the unburried dead so that their spirits could rest. Preperation or ritual carried out to build these poles was a recreation/reinactment of head hunting and a funeral. It had an analogy or metaphor of people as trees. Cutting down tree was decapitation, carving of pole was desecration of body, setting up of pole was the proper burial/funeral for lost relative. Human figures on the poles represent ancestors with stylized phallus as a symbol of strength and virility. Pole had cavities that could hold heads taken later as offerings to ancestor spirits. Along with the idea of Mana is the idea of Tapu which is a violation that decreases mana. For example a woman going into a community house would be a tapu that could decrease the mana of the house. Or touching a sculpture in the community house could decrease the mana of the sculpture and the person who violated it. It was a tapu to touch people in some rituals. Ancestral poles in a way were made as a way of rectifying a tapu that happened when a person died without a proper burial.
Chapter 6
Hunter and Kangaroo. Oenpeli, Arnhem Land Australia 1912 Painted on Bark Culture background: Religion/mythology - they see people and nature as insperable unity of the world going back to the beginning of time. Creation story begins in the dreaming or dream time when ancestor spirits created the land and earth and became part of the land. So natural formations, rock formations, rivers all seen as parts of ancestor spirits or embodyment of ancestor spirits. All rocks, plants and animals in landscape are the remains of the ancestor spirits from the dream time. The dream time/dreaming continues. Ancestor spirits continue to create and destroy so new plants/animals and environmental changes are all the result of ancestor spirits. All aboriginal art has a certain religious or spiritual connection and the belief is that the ancestor spirits are attracted to traditional/recognizeable art forms. Aborigional art is very traditional and concervitive. It repeads traditional forms because they are considered to have this power of attracting ancestor spirits. Aboriginal artworks are connected to ritual in some way and they take on full power during ritual the rituals they are made for. They may be destroyed or discarded after the ritual because they have served their purpose. Artists don't innovate. Even considered that artists don't create the art themselves but the ancestor spirits create them and artists are conduit for translating designs from the ancestor spirit into physical forms. So the art becomes a physical form of the power of the ancestor spirits. This art work from the ancestor spirits is called Mimi. This image called the hunter and kangaroo is an example of x-ray style or in-fill style which shows bones/organs within the animal/person depicted. Can see the bones inside the kangaroo. This goes back to around 2000 BC and continued into the 20th century. This is a newer example because the media was perishable so old examples are gone. Painted on tree bark.
Chapter 6
Kukailimoku. Hawaii. Late 18th or 19th cent. Wood. Hawaii settled later around 300 CE. Between 900 and 1200 another wave of settlers came tahiti. An import figure in Hawaiian history is King Komayamaya 1st who lived in late 18th/early 19th century and he consolidated the Hawiian islands under his rule. He was from the island Hawaii and he renamed the whole group after his home. Komayamaya was a great warrior and he dedicated himself to the Hawaiian war god Kukailimoku who is this sculpture. There are a lot of representations of the war god and a lot of art dedicated to him during Komayamaya's period. This statue has a large head (head is large and the seat of mana so large head means he has a lot of mana) His pose indicates he's ready to spring into battle. He's stout and muscular. Grimacing expression like he's making a battle cry. Long hair is a symbol of social status. Lines around his mouth probably tattoos.
Chapter 6
Moai. Easter Island. Pre-15th Cent. Native name for Easter Island is Rapanui. It was populated around 1200 CE by people from Markasias islands. It's 2000 miles from nearest other island in Polynesia. 1500-1200 miles from South America. It may have been an accident that it was discovered. Called Easter Island because it was supposedly discovered by a Dutch explorer on Easter Sunday in 1722. Most famous part of Rapanui are Moai which are the massive stone sculptures. They all have heads and torsos. Many only have heads visible because they are buried but they always have torsos and thin arms attached to sides. Made of soft volcanic stone and sit on elevated platforms which are related to the earlier meray platforms in other places. A lot of them had top knot hair styles on top of their heads made with a different redish stone. All had originally had eyes inlaid with stone/shell. There 887 moai known and hundreds others in quaries that are incomplete or that were broken along the way. Most are 30 ft tall or more. Heaviest way over 80 tons. Moving them took a lot of engineering know how. Were probably used for more than one purpose. One being territory markers for boundries between clans. Also probably were for ancestor spirits to reside in and watch over/guard the land. And may have had other significance. There's not writing so oral traditions weren't preserved. Don't really know for sure what they all meant. Produced until around 1500 and then the culture shifted to a bird cult religion and the moai weren't made anymore. A lot fell apart. They weren't cared for anymore. In 18th and 19th century when there as more contact with western world, some of them were taken away. One ended up in British museum. British museum claims it was rightfully taken but people of Rapanui want it back. They are an important object to the island because they represent the ancestor spirits. The island became part of Chili and still is today.
Chapter 6
Raharuhi Rukupo, Self-Portrait in the house of Te Hau-ki-Turanga. Wood. Self portrait of Rukupo that is in the meeting house. All of the lines are probably tattoos so since he has so many tattoos he is showing himself as very important, wealthy and filled with mana. He built the meeting house so he's really emphasizing his importance.
Chapter 6
Head of an oni (king), Nigeria, From the Wunmonije Compound in lfe-lfe._____(EarlierSlide)Nok produced a lot of terracotta sculpture beginning around 500 BC. The head as the container of the spiritual essence reoccurring here as well. These portrait heads are a common genre in west africa. Often they are ruler portraits which are related to ancestors/ruler cult which is worshiping kings as deities after they died. Often facilitated through portrait heads. Not always realistic portraits. Elements in the portrait tells us about the person.)This is a later head of a king from the Yoruba culture. Made of zink and brass. Head as container of spiritual essence of the king. Has holes along hairline and head was unfinished. Probably originally had a wig or head dress of some kind. Especially with the king, it probably had a vail like in the next photo. Yoruba portrait heads show up around 1200 CE. Before that is called 'prepavement period' in the Yoruba region. The technique used to make these is the lost wax technique.
Chapter 7
Nkisi nkondi (hunter figure) Democratic Republic of Congo, Kongo. Collected in 1905. Wood, metal, glass, and mixed media. Fetish- a man made object that is considered to have some sort of physical power of its own. It has an ability to take action/effect change on its own. Nkisi nkondi figures are fetishes. If you needed something/needed help, you could make an offering to this hunter figure and perform a ritual which involved driving a nail into the figure and the belief was that the hunter figure would physically make your request happen. There were limitations that different cultures believed in, but this is the basic ideas. It had a physical power within itself. The ritual involved putting a nail into the figure and when it was completed you would take it out or it would fall out or you would leave it in all depending on the local beliefs. This would be directed by a priest. The physical appearance has a lot of meaning built into it. Open mouth represented ability to speak in a way/take action/perform.
Chapter 7
Olowe of Ise, door from the king's palace at Ikere, Yoruba, Nigeria. Woodworking is still a major art form in Benin City. This is a set of doors from a palace created by Olowe of Ise. This is a narrative depiction of Captain Ambros of British navy to king of Ikere. It was in 1897 shortly before the British expedition. These doors were taken as part of the expedition. Would have been brightly painted origionally.
Chapter 7
Queen Mother, Benin, Nigeria, Early 16th Century. Bronze, life size Another portrait head. Head is container of spiritual essence. Very similar to other heads.
Chapter 7
Rock art tradition developed in Southern Africa. Associated with the Sand People. These range over a long period of time. 12,000-couple hundred years old. Lots of layers of drawings done at different times. Sites were used over and over. A lot of animals. Quite a few depictions of people turning into antelope animals. Other image shows human turning into antelope. Same rock painting complex as above. Probably related to shamanism. Shows up in a lot of places. General idea is that the shaman is a preist/healer who goes into spiritual trances and communicates with animal spirits which have super natural power. Through communicating with animal spirits, the shaman is able to heal or have other visions. That's most likely what we are seeing here. Goes back to broader purpose of early art which usually has a ritual/religious/spiritual purpose. This is more of a literal depiction of what was believed to happen in the ritual.
Chapter 7
The Great Mosque, Djenne, Mali One of most famous sites in this area. This is in Mali. This version of the great mosque was built in 1906 but first version was from the 13th century and was probably similar in form and construction. Built with mud/plaster called adobe with wooden beams built into it. Some beams sticking out are roof beams that support the roof, some are decorative, and some support other structures. This adobe style is indegenous. It predates islam. When Islam incounters other cultures/architecture styles, often these styles are adapted and used for Islamic architecture. Wooden posts sticking out were used to support scaffolding because the adobe has to be repaired and touched up every year.
Chapter 7
Black on black plate, feather and parrot design.
Chapter 8
Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde. Four Corners Area Continuousely shaded cliff dwellings in arid climate was a comfortable way to live. Also hidden somewhat. Puebloan culture. Built into a canyon. Idea probably taken from Mongula. Over 600 dwellings built into the caves along the canyon. Largest collection of them but there are other areas along the canyon. Completed in 1200's. In all of Mesa Verda buildings theres no clear indication of an ellite class. All of the housing is the same size. Theres not a clear social heirarchy or distinct between elite and regular people. Pretty equal society. Planned and built together so shows high level of social organization. Also has round kivas (ceremonial/community areas)
Chapter 8
Colossal head, from San Lorenzo. Olmec culture. Olmec known for colossal stone heads. This one is 9 ft tall from San Lorenzo. They are made from natural boulders. Some are transported up to 80 miles before being sculpted and installed. Some weigh up to 50 tons. Most are found at San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo was early in the Olmec period. It was the central cultural epicenter. It wasn't the capitol but it was the most powerful city in Olmec. Side view of same head. Would have been covered with plaster and painted. May have had head dresses added to them to further embellish them. Probably won't origionally bear stone. Around 900 San Lorenzo looses most of its power and epicenter of Olmec culture moves to La Venta. Around 900 San Lorenzo is destroyed/overthrown. Heads are defaced and burried around 900 which suggests that they were significant and powerful. Who ever overthrew San Lorenzo went to significant effort to burry them.
Chapter 8
Gateway of the Sun. Tiahuanaco culture. Tiahuanaco culture was a valdivian influenced culture. This a good example of andea textile aesthetic. This is much later than valdevian culture but the andean textile aesthetic is going strong. Here it's translated into stone. Geometric abstraction of bird man figures. Angular outlines. Repetition of same figures. Staff god in the middle. Don't know what Tiahuanaco called it. Gateway of the sun was name given by excavators. Figure at center is staff god. Sometimes it's interpreted as sun god. May be a weather god of some kind. Not sure.
Chapter 8
Moche portrait head vessel. Moche best known for their ceramics. Especially portrait head vessels. Quite a few of these and they were unique so they were probably individual portraits. Most of them have elaborate headdresses which suggests they are priests or rulers or both. Not sure. They were often elaborately painted. Not glazed. A lot of these have ended up on the art market and not sure where they came from so we don't know a lot about how they were used.
Chapter 8
Serpent Mound, Southern Ohio. Hopewell of Fort Ancienct Culture. Woodland period. Adina culture but not necessarily a uniform/united culture. It's a shared burial/funerary practices. There are similar burrials like this throughout the South East in the Adina style but that doesn't necessarily mean that other parts of the culturals were the same. They just the same burial. It does show that there was communication around this region to spread burial practice. Called an ephagie mound because they are animals. No burials in these. They took the burial mound tradition and expanded it into other practices beyond funerary practices. Animal shapes may be related to specific clans/tribes. May be related to shaman rituals. Generally believed to have a religious function but could also be used to mark territory. May also have an astrological orientation/meaning. Adina culture lasted from 1100BC - 700CE. Around 100 BC in North East in Upstate NY a new tradition/burial culture developed called hopewell culture which grows out of Adina culture and largely takes over the Adina culture territory. Hopewell Culture 100BC - 800CE so big overlap between Adina and Hopewell traditions. Hopewell burials include a variety of luxury goods and conical burial mounds with flat tops but most interesting development are ephagie mounds including this surpent mound in Ohio. This is late Hopewell. Called serpent mound because of serpent shape. Mound at the end that he's sort of swallowing.
Chapter 8
Stone of Five Suns or Aztec Calendar Stone, Tenochtitlan, Mexico Aztec adopted a lot of art from other cultures that they encountered. Especially the Toltec. Aztec art is a mixture of Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltec, Mexica, and El Tajin. It's a melting pot of styles. We can see geometric and architectonic elements of Teotihuacan style. Forms build on each other with geometric forms. Can also see El Tajine elements with scroll work style. This stone isn't really a calendar but it is representation of the story of creation for Aztec culture and a representation of time and cosmos. Aztec think time is cyclical. In the creation story the gods tried to create the earth 4 times before they were successful. Creating the cosmos began with creating the sun. The 4 boxes represent the 4 suns that were created in attempts to create the universe. (This was thought to have happened at Teotihuacan)
Chapter 8
Temple I (Temple of the Giant Jaguar). Tikal, El Peten, Guatemala. Tallest Mayan temple. Rectangular or square at base. Very styalized. Not natural looking or made to look like a mountain but still intended to be model or artificial mountains. All Mayan pyramids had temples at the top. Often funerary temples. This one was built as a tomb and funerary temple for ruler who died in 8th century. He is buried in a tomb below the temple and temple is built on top. Pyramid served as a link between tomb/underworld and the world above (heaven above). Maya temples usually have 9 steps/levels because hibalba had 9 levels. Mayan temples. Each layer has inclined face called talude and then vertal called tablero. These can be very different scales from each other. Talude can be very big and tablero can be very thin.
Chapter 8
Tlingit blanket. Pacific North West. Tlingit people are another Pacific North West group famous for weaving. Have similarities to Hyda culture in flat geometric patterns. This kind of blanket is a status symbol. It would take a very long time to make. The designs are always symetrical and have animals sacrid to the clan represented on them. There are several animals on this blanket represented with abstract patterns.
Chapter 8
View of Machu Picchu, with Huayna Picchu in the background. Most famous Inca site. Ritual center and royal retreat in mountains. Remote and elevated region. Country palace. It was always known by locals but not the larger world until 1911. Now it's a huge tourist attraction. Tourists beginning to have a very negative impact on the site itself now.
Chapter 8
Hopewell culture
Famous for creating animal effigies Animal shapes may be related to specific clans/tribes. May be related to shaman rituals. Generally believed to have a religious function but could also be used to mark territory. May also have an astrological orientation/meaning. Adina culture lasted from 1100BC - 700CE. Around 100 BC in North East in Upstate NY a new tradition/burial culture developed called hopewell culture which grows out of Adina culture and largely takes over the Adina culture territory. Hopewell Culture 100BC - 800CE so big overlap between Adina and Hopewell traditions. Hopewell burials include a variety of luxury goods and conical burial mounds with flat tops but most interesting development are ephagie mounds including this surpent mound in Ohio. This is late Hopewell. Called serpent mound because of serpent shape. Mound at the end that he's sort of swallowing.
bogolanfini cloth
Literally, "mudcloth." A traditional type of handmade, dyed, and decorated cloth made in Mai that has become fashionable in the twenty-first century. A Malian symbol of national and cultural identity. Cotton with mud and dye.
Dreaming/Dreamtime
From Jukurrpa an Australian Aboriginal term for their all-encompassing immaterial or spiritual otherworld and mythic time. Not to be confused with the conventional meaning of dreaming in English. The concept also includes religious ceremonies, laws and art forms. To the Aboriginals the word signifies the otherworld created by the supernatural beings and ancestors, along with its religious ceremonies, laws and art forms. It is a kind of landscape-based mythology that ties the individual to a place and its spiritual powers, which come to life in myths, rituals, and arts. In this process of bonding with the otherworld, the aboriginals also believe they are moving to a higher spiritual level and becoming more genuinely who they are than they could ever be in everyday life. The Aboriginals refer to this process as jimeran, "making oneself."
kachina
In Pueblo culture, a spirit or its representation in the form of a masked dancer or a small wooden doll-like figure. In some pueblos, the kachinas appear at the winter solstice ceremony and return to the underworld through the floors of the kivas in early july.
quipu (Khipo)
In the Inca Empire, sets of knotted, colored cords attached to a central loop conveying inventory records and other important government statistics. Carried by relay teams of runners using the inca network of roads to take information to and from the capital, Cuzco.
Woodland period
In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeologists distinguishing the Mississippian period, from 1000 CE to European contact as a separate period.[1] The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic term for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the agriculturalist Mississippian cultures. Characterized by mound builder cultures- Adena and Hopewell groups.
nkisi nkondi
Kongo "hunter." Specially trained priests of the Kongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo use this type of carved wooden statue to "hunt" for solutions to village problems and search for wrongdoers. After receiving the carved body and head of a "hunter" from a sculptor, the priest begins the process by putting medicines and fetishes in the container on top of the head and in the box over the figure's stomach. These fetishes may include relics of dead ancestors or bits of clay from a cemetery that will help the priest and "hunter" contact the spirits of the dead. The priest may also give the "hunter" a headdress and attach hornes, snake heads, or beads to it, drive nails, blades, and other sharp objects into its body, and attach miniature images of the musical instruments the priests will play in the rituals when he unleashes the powers of the 'hunter.'
Geoglyph
Literally, "earth writing." Lines and images created by removing the uppermost levels of pebbles on the desert floor near Nazca, Peru
Totem pole
Most recognizeable art of this region are totem pole of Hyda people. Includes a broad range of tribes. Totem polls likely mark territory. Made up of animals stacked ontop of each other. Choice of animals and combenation are specific to tribe. Represent totems which are protective animals/spirtis. Combination is often related to tribal mythology. Tribal identity is encoded into totem poles. Some totem poles were also used as vertical coffins to keep dead family members spirt close by.
moai
The 887 known monumental sculptures carved from volcanic stone on Easter Island. Made between 1000-1500 CE. They are thought to represent deified ancestors who become guardian spirits. Many were set on platforms (AHU) encircling the island, and some were crowned with stone topknots weighing over 5 tons. When warfare broke out in the 18th cent, rival clans began toppling each other's guardian statue spirits and symbols of clan authority. Early visitors referred to the sculptures as 'heads' because many of them were buried up to their necks. In actuality, there are waste-length half figures with large heads, short torsos and pipe-stem arms. Of all the art works in the Pacific, none have piqued the imagination of the public and scholars alike as the Easter Island moai- universally recognized symbols of pacific art and culture.
Andean textile aesthetic
The Andean textile tradition once spanned from the Pre-Columbian to the Colonial era throughout the western coast of South America, but was mainly concentrated in Peru. The arid desert conditions along the coast of Peru have allowed for the preservation of these dyed textiles, which can date to 6000 years old.[1] Many of the surviving textile samples were from funerary bundles, however, these textiles also encompassed a variety of functions. These functions included the use of woven textiles for ceremonial clothing or cloth armor[2] as well as knotted fibers for record-keeping.[3] The textile arts were instrumental in political negotiations, and were used as diplomatic tools that were exchanged between groups.[4] Textiles were also used to communicate wealth, social status, and regional affiliation with others.[5] The cultural emphasis on the textile arts was often based on the believed spiritual and metaphysical qualities of the origins of materials used, as well as cosmological and symbolic messages within the visual appearance of the textiles. Traditionally, the thread used for textiles was spun from indigenous cotton plants, as well as alpaca and llama wool.[6] Often featured repetitive geometric designs and bold outlines.
Aztec Culture
The Aztecs (/ˈæztɛks/) were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec peoples included different ethnic groups of central Mexico. Aztec culture was organized into city-states (altepetl), some of which joined to form alliances, political confederations, or empires. Tenochtitlan was capitol. Lots of trade with Mayans. The empire reached its maximal extent in 1519, just prior to the arrival of a small group of Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés.
Inca
The Inca Empire (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu, lit. "four parts together"[4]), also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.[5] The administrative, political and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilization arose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century. Its last stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572. Inca were able to construct "one of the greatest imperial states in human history" without the use of the wheel, draft animals, knowledge of iron or steel, or even a system of writing.[9] Notable features of the Inca Empire include its monumental architecture, especially stonework, extensive road network reaching all corners of the empire, finely-woven textiles, use of knotted strings (quipu) for record keeping and communication, agricultural innovations in a difficult environment, and the organization and management fostered or imposed on its people and their labor. The Inca Empire functioned largely without money and without markets. Instead, exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. "Taxes" consisted of a labour obligation of a person to the Empire.
maya
The Maya civilization (/ˈmaɪə/) was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. "Maya" is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that inhabited this area. They did not call themselves "Maya," and did not have a sense of common identity or political unity. The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD) saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC.In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north.
Moche
The Moche civilization (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmotʃe]; alternatively, the Mochica culture or the Early, Pre- or Proto-Chimú) flourished in northern Peru with its capital near present-day Moche, Trujillo, Peru[1][2] from about 100 to 700 AD during the Regional Development Epoch. While this issue is the subject of some debate, many scholars contend that the Moche were not politically organized as a monolithic empire or state. Rather, they were likely a group of autonomous polities that shared a common culture, as seen in the rich iconography and monumental architecture that survives today. Famous for Moche pottery. Especially head vessels.
Nazca
The Nazca culture (also Nasca) was the archaeological culture that flourished from c. 100 BC to 800 AD beside the arid, southern coast of Peru in the river valleys of the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage and the Ica Valley.[1] Strongly influenced by the preceding Paracas culture[citation needed], which was known for extremely complex textiles, the Nazca produced an array of crafts and technologies such as ceramics, textiles, and geoglyphs. They are known for two extensive construction projects that would have required the coordination of large groups of laborers: the Nazca Lines which are immense geoglyph designs in the desert whose purpose is unknown, and puquios, underground aqueducts for providing water for irrigation and domestic purposes in the arid environment. Several dozen still function today. The Nazca Province in the Ica Region was named for this people.
Olmec
The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands on the Gulf of Mexico in the present-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. The name Olmec is a Nahuatl—the Aztec language—word; it means the rubber people. Very fast growing and developing society. Olmec were among the first Mesoamerican complex societies, and their culture influenced many later civilizations, like the Maya. The Olmec are known for the immense stone heads they carved from a volcanic rock called basalt. Archaeological evidence also suggests that they originated the Mesoamerican practices of the Mesoamerican Ballgame—a popular game in the pre-Columbian Americas played with balls made from solid rubber. The Olmec culture was defined and unified by a specific art style. Crafted in a variety of materials—jade, clay, basalt, and greenstone, which is an archaeologist's term for carved, green-colored minerals—much Olmec art is naturalistic. Other art expresses fantastic anthropomorphic—human-shaped—creatures, often highly stylized, using an iconography reflective of a religious meaning. Common motifs include downturned mouths and cleft heads, both of which are seen in representations of were-jaguars and the rain deity.
hieroglyphics
from the greek Heiros, "sacred," and glyphein "to carve." A writing system that may use combinations of pictographs and phonograms.