Early American Civilizations and Cultures

Flashcards covering vocabulary and key concepts of early American civilizations from the Olmec to the Iroquois.

Anthropologist

A scientist who studies human development, cultures, and societies.

Agricultural revolution

The shift from hunting and gathering to farming, which allowed for settled civilizations.

Multiethnic

Describing a society or group made up of people from many different ethnic backgrounds.

Obsidian

A hard, dark volcanic glass used by early cultures to create sharp blades and arrowheads.

Tribute

A payment or tax made by a conquered people to their rulers or a dominant power.

Kiva

A circular ceremonial room built by the Ancestral Puebloans, often at rainwater junctions.

Pueblo

A Spanish term for the multistory buildings made of adobe or stone used by Southwestern cultures.

Beringia

The land bridge that early humans likely crossed to reach Alaska from Northeast Asia between $15,000$ and $30,000$ years ago.

Wooly mammoths

The large prey species that early Americans were likely following when they crossed Beringia.

Maize

A crop developed from wild grass in Mesoamerica, also known as corn, which allowed hunter-gatherer societies to transform into farming societies.

Olmec

The culture considered by anthropologists to be the first civilization in Mesoamerica, developing between $1500$ B.C.E. and $1200$ B.C.E.

Teotihuacán

The first large city in the Americas, located $30$ miles northeast of modern Mexico City, with a peak population of $200,000$ people.

Avenue of the Dead

The main road in Teotihuacán that connected its major pyramids and temples.

Maya

A civilization that emerged around $200$ C.E. on the Yucatán Peninsula, known for independently creating the concept of zero and building temple pyramids.

Tenochtitlán

The city founded in $1325$ C.E. by the Mexica people, who later became known as the Aztec.

Hohokam

A Southwestern culture that used the Gila and Salt Rivers to support an $800$-mile canal system and created red-on-buff pottery.

Ancestral Puebloans

A civilization in the Four Corners area that constructed multistory buildings in Chaco Canyon and cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde for defense.

Mississippian culture

A culture in the Mississippi River valley known for rich soil, maize and bean agriculture, and building flat-topped mounds.

Cahokia

The largest city of the Mississippian culture, located near modern St. Louis, which featured the large Monks Mound.

Matrilineal

A social system, such as that of the Cherokee, where connections and heritage are traced through women.

Slash-and-burn agriculture

A technique used by Northeastern woodland peoples to clear fields for farming.

Longhouses

The traditional housing structures used by Iroquoian-speaking peoples.

The Great Law of Peace

The law under which five Iroquoian nations formed an alliance in the $1500\text{s}$.

Powhatan confederacy

A confederacy formed before $1607$ to provide military assistance in exchange for tribute.