CHAPTER 15 ART OF THE AMERICAS VOCAB

chacmool

term used to refer to a particular form of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican sculpture depicting a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, supporting itself on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its stomach.

lost-wax casting

a method of casting metal, such as bronze, by a process in which a wax mold is covered with clay and plaster, then fired, melting the wax and leaving a hollow form. molten metal is then poured into the hollow space and slowly cooled. When the hardened clay and plaster exterior shell is removed, a solid metal form remains to be smoothed and polished.

Warp and weft

Warp are the vertical threads in a weaver's loom. Weft is horizontal.

tapestry

Pictorial or decorative weaving meant to be hung on a wall or placed on furniture.

geoglyph

earthen designs on a colossal scale, often created in a landscape as if to be seen from an aerial viewpoint.

kiva

a chamber, built wholly or partly underground, used by male Pueblo Indians for religious rites.

The Aztec empire

emerged in the Valley of Mexico in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Hernan Cortes

he was a Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered their capital, Tenochtitlan, in 1519 C.E.

Codex Mendoza

The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex (book) created about twenty years after the 1521 Spanish conquest of Mexico with the intent that it be seen by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.

Land of the Four Quarters

four parts together; Inca empire centralized monarchy, what the Inka called their empire.

Inca

A great empire in South America that rose to prominence in the fifteenth century. Later destroyed by European explorers. At its peak, the empire extended more than 2600 miles along western South America. They called their empire the Land of the Four Quarters with a capital at Cuzco in the Andes Mountains.

Huitzilopochtli

Of the Aztec religion, he is the Mesoamerican deity of war, sun, human sacrifice and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the national god of the Mexicans, also known as Aztecs, of Tenochtitlan.

bloodletting

is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease. Bloodletting was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluids were regarded as "humors" that had to remain in proper balance to maintain health. Rituals performed to appease the gods and maintain calendar and cosmic order.

puma

Cuzco laid out their city plan like this fierce cat

Tenochtitlan

Aztec capital, modern Mexico city

Coatlicue

Aztec goddess and mother of Huitzilopochtli. Her name means "she of the serpent skirt"

Cuzco

City situated in the Peruvian Andes, developed under the Inca ruler Pachacutec. Inka capital at the center of Land of the 4 Quarters, "the navel of the world" high in the Andes.

beveled (bevel or beveling)

a cut made at any angle except a right angle. Also: the technique of cutting at a slant, which creates shadows. Used in architecture, carpentry, printmaking, metalwork, and sculpture. The Inka used cut masonry.

tolteca

Toltec culture was an archeological Mesoamerican culture from Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico. The later Aztecs saw the Toltecs as their intellectual and cultural predecessors. Among the Nahuan people, the word 'tolteca' came to mean artist, artisan or wise man. middle class Aztec luxury artisans reflecting Aztec admiration for earlier Toltec civilization.

quillwork

A Native American decorative craft technique with dyed quills and feathers woven together. Eastern Woodland embroidery with soaked porcupine and bird quills. A woman's art form.

shaman

a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, especially among some peoples of northern Asia and North America. Typically such people enter a trance state during a ritual, and practice divination and healing. People thought to have special powers and an ability to foretell events and assist their people through contact with spirits.

beadwork

the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them with a sewing needle or a beading needle and threading onto a thin wire, or sewing them to cloth. Beads are used to create jewelry or other articles of personal adornment; they are also used in wall hangings and sculpture and many other artworks; Eastern Woodland medium with clam, shell beads and conch for belts (wampum).

tipis

portable, cone shaped tents made of skins, cloth, or canvas on a frame of poles, used by Native Americans of the Plains and Great Lakes regions. Light and portable and made to withstand wind, dust and rain.

Pueblos

modern and old communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material. Village dwelling groups.

reintegration

to make up, combine, or complete to produce a whole or a larger unit, as parts do. Process that Native Americans began to adapt European needlework techniques and patterns and the design of European garments into their own work Some of the functional aspects of those garments were transformed into purely, decorative motifs: a pocket, for example, would be replaced by an area of beadwork in the form of a pocket.

Anasazi

a member of an ancient Native American people of the southwestern US, who flourished between circa 200 BC and AD 1500. The earliest phase of their culture, typified by pit dwellings, is known as the Basket Maker period; the present day Pueblo culture developed from a later stage. They build large multistoried apartments like villages and cliff dwellings in Arizona and New Mexico.

Chief

the head or leader of an organized body of people; the person highest in authority; head or leader of a tribe or clan.

Tunic

A loose garment, typically sleeveless and reaching to the wearer's knees. In the Inka empire, textiles (such as tunics) were one of the primary sources of wealth. The patterns and designs on the, we're not simply decorated but indicated many things such as one's ethnic identity and social rank.

repousse

(of metalwork) hammered into relief from the reverse side