LALS 65 Final

_____ denotes a 52 year period determined by the intermeshing of the 260-day ritual calendar and the 365-day solar calendar. All possible combinations of the two calendars are exhausted after 18,980 days, equaling 52 years.

Calendar Round

What was the name of the Maya rain god?

Chaak

This Aztec deity was the personal god of the Mexica peoples.

Huitzilopochtli

The _____ is a sacrificial ceremony held once every 52 years to mark the passage of one major cycle into another.

New Fire Ceremony

In Late Postclassic Central Mexico, _____ was considered a mythical and paradisiacal place of origin.

Tamoanchan

The _____ of Tenochtitlan was significant because it supported the shrines of the great gods Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli.

Temple Mayor

The name of the Mexica cit-state and the center of the Aztec empire currently buried under Mexico City was called

Tenochtitlan

The name of the Mexico city-state currently buried under Mexico City was called

Tenochtitlan

This central Mexican site had over 200,000 residents at its peak in 500 CE and influenced cities and towns beyond its boundaries.

Teotihuacan

One of the deities honored during the festival of Toxcatl included:

Tezcatlipoca

_____ is the "Smoking Mirror," a powerful god of sorcery and ruling lineages in Central Mexico.

Tezcatlipoca

Identify the following archaeological monument: (huge circular stone)

The Aztec Calendar Stone

The Maya underworld was known as _____.

Xibalba

Flower Quetzal. Goddess of the arts, patroness of weavers, presided over pregnancy and childbirth, and took care of young mothers.

Xochiquetzal

A series of lintels from the Mexican archaeological site of _____ depicts Lady K'abal Xook engaged in bloodletting rituals

Yaxchilan

Scholars of Mesoamerican religion rely on which of the following lines of evidence to understand past beliefs and behaviors?

all of these

This field study has to do with the branch of philosophical or scientific speculation that deals with the origin and structure of the world.

cosmology

Which of the following terms is a type of worldview that integrates the structure of space and the rhythms of time into a unified whole.

cosmovision

This solar cardinal direction was the most important in the Mesoamerican landscape so it was always placed in the top position on the prehispanic maps of the cosmos.

east

Archaeologists have often interpreted the presence of _____ in agricultural communities as evidence for fertility rituals assuming women's roles to be about motherhood rather than womanhood.

figurines

Mesoamericans used _____ as divination devices.

mirrors

These rituals mark the passage of a person through the cycle of life, from one state to another over time or from one role or social position to another.

rites of passage

_____ is a belief system focusing on spiritual mediation by gifted individuals who purport to move between the profane everyday world of human life, and the spirit world.

shamanism

European myths about Mesoamerica and the people who lived there included fantasies about the Mesoamerican geography and misconceptions regarding which of the following?

the nature of human beings

God G or K'inich Ajaw was the Maya god of what?

the sun

When Itzpapalotl led the ancestors out of Chicomoztoc this was an example of which essential process animating the world of the ceremonial center?

worldmaking

The Aztec cosmos consisted of a terrestrial region, an underworld, and a celestial realm consisting of _____ levels.

13

The Aztec cosmos consisted of a terrestrial region, a celestial realm, and an underworld consisting of _____ levels.

9

"Place of whiteness" or "place of herons." This was the mythical point of departure for the Mexica (Aztecs).

Aztlan

The importance of caves to Mesoamerican rituals can be seen at the Olmec influenced site of _____ in Morelos where an Olmec ruler or deity is depicted on Monument 1 as sitting in a cave surrounded by the symbols for clouds, water, preciousness, vegetation and stone.

Chalcatzingo

This was a legendary mountain perforated by a single cave or by seven caves, and was considered a sacred place by the Aztecs and most other Nahuatl-speaking people of Central Mexico.

Chicomoztoc

Huitzilopochtli was born at this place.

Coatepec

Which of the following denotes Serpent Mountain - the mythical mountain where the Lady of the Serpent Skirt, gave birth to the Aztec patron god Huitzilopochtli.

Coatepec

Which deity below is the female warrior goddess who led the attack against Caotlicue in the mythic episode of Huitzilopochitli's birth?

Coyolxauhqui

Which of the following gods is associated with the moon in Mexica society?

Coyolxauhqui

These Maya architectural assemblages are based on a calendar organized by equinoxes. These architectural complexes served as solar observatories.

E groups

This site is in Veracruz, Mexico and it is known for its numerous ballcourts and the use of ballcourt symbolism in the murals at the site.

El Tajin

True of False. According to Patel, Maya women in the Classic period did not participate in the pilgrimage journeys and the political rituals found in the Mesoamerican region.

False

True of False: In the "Great Debate" Juan Gines de Sepulveda argued that Native Americans could be favorably compared to peoples in the ancient Old World civilizations.

False

True of False: The myth of the birth of Huitzilopochtli has nothing to do with the architectural arrangement at Temple Mayor

False

True or False: Contemporary fieldwork carried out in many indigenous communities is not a form of evidence or research that historians of religion rely on.

False

True or False: Olmec deities have clearly defined sexual or gender attributes.

False

True or False: The cardinal points were not that important in the religion of the indigenous peoples of Central Mexico.

False

True or False: Throughout the history of Mesoamerican studies, scholars like Lord Kingsborough believed that the New World civilizations and cultures developed as a result of the cultural creativity of indigenous Americans.

False

Which of the following documents is a twelve-volume encyclopedia of Aztec life, compiled by Bernadino de Sahagun with the help of native informants that described the supernatural, human, and natural world of pre-Columbian central Mesoamerica.

Florentine Codex

The _____ Period in Mesoamerica marks the first appearance of permanent ceremonials structures in the center of urban precincts such as pyramid, monuments, palaces, tombs, and outdoor ritual platforms.

Formative

_____ was an Olmec site where jaguar motifs and giant sculpted stone heads embroider a small wampy, stone-less island. However, at the site's center sits Mesoamerica's first great pyramid fashioned to resemble a volcano.

La Venta

The Olmec _____ deity can be recognized by the foliage that sprouts from the cleft in its head.

Maize

Specific _____ rulers from Copan, Tikal, and Piedras Negras visited Teotihuacan to undergo rituals royal legitimation that gave them dynastic authority in their home communities.

Maya

In Mesoamerica the _____ is a mythic mountain that was the source of abundance, rain, seeds, corn, and food.

Mountain of Sustenance

At the Olmec site of _____ an elaborate drainage system was found by the excavators. The drainage system may have provided drinking water to the elites living at the site but it may have been used for ritual purposes as well.

San Lorenzo

This Maya deity wears a jade net skirt and is depicted sometimes as a male god and sometimes as a female goddess.

The Maize God

This colonial text of the Quiche Maya found in Chichicastenango, Guatemala, in 1701 contained a rich account of a cosmovision emphasizing creation mythology, the journey of the Hero Twins, and genealogies.

The Popol Vuh

Which of the following planets is associated with warfare in Mesoamerican societies?

Venus

_____, "He Who Makes Things Sprout." This was the god of rain, lightning and thunder in Central Mexico.

Tlaloc

According to the Vaticanus A codex, those who drown or die from other aspects of water such as floods and/or the striking of lightening, go directly to this place in the afterlife.

Tlalocan

This postclassic goddess originating in the Gulf Coast region was patroness of midwives, healers, and weavers.

Tlazolteotl

True and False: Quetzalcoatl is associated with the Feathered Serpent.

True

True of False: Chalchiuhtlicue was the Aztec goddess of water on the ground, in rivers, lakes, seas.

True

True of False: Ritual practices in Mesoamerica included bloodletting and human sacrifice.

True

True of False: The Aztecs had a ritual calendar of 260 days and a solar calendar of 365 days.

True

True or False: Mesoamerica is a geographic, cultural and linguistic area corresponding to the Native peoples who lived in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador prior to the Spanish Conquest.

True

True or False: The entire city of Teotihuacan was laid out by planners and architects as a four part imitation of the cosmos.

True

True or False: The primary purpose of Mesoamerican pyramids/temples was to provide space for public and elite performances of religious ceremonies.

True

True or False: Two other important religion innovations, astronomical alignment and pictorial narratives in stone took place by the time the ceremonial centers of Monte Alban and Izapa were constructed.

True