CPSC wk 3 d2

MAYA CIVILIZATION- 250-900 AD

• Access to water and good soil- population grew; depended on rainfall to survive – although they suffered 100 years of low rainfall.
• They relied on craters of water as their source (cenote)

(Never burn a tropical area - soil isn't consistent after )

• They created their cenote called Chultuns to provide year-round water supplies. (average about 7,500 galls each-supplied about 25 people year-round)
• Earth is wetter due to increased water in the atmosphere v.s. droughts are worse and more frequent (fluctuation in the weather)

Mayan’s demise = lack of water

(their gods “lived” in the cenote- they were used as a place for sacrifices so they could get more water, which backfired because they polluted their water with metals, animals, and people)

• Although they built a filter out of quartz and zeolite

THEORIES OF THEIR DEMISE

• Peasant revolt
• Abuse of agricultural land
• Climate change
• Overpopulation

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE

• PICKING not CULTIVATING sunflowers
• Sumpweed Marchelder- high protein but they're pollinated ragweed and smells like a skunk and irritable to the skin

THREE MAJOR CROPS

1st crop domesticated cucurbits – Squash & Pumpkins (for food and tools)

2nd crop- Beans 5,000 BC

3rd crop- Maize

PLANTING ALL THREE

Plant the corn on a hill (big sister)– plant beans (so it climbs around the corn- provide the corn with nitrogen) – then plant squash (provides ground cover)

NITROGEN

• Living organisms require nitrogen to make amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, and other essential organic compounds
• Higher organisms cannot use atmospheric N2. It must be converted into nitrates (NO3) before plants can absorb and use it

N2 CYCLE

• Fixing bacteria fix N2 into ammonia (NH3)
• Nitrite-forming bacteria combine NH3 with O2 and generate nitrites
• Other bacteria convert nitrites >> Nitrates
• Plants absorb nitrates and reduce them to ammonium which is used to make amino acids

Bacteria grows into the roots and transfers into the plants (you want it on the big cap root)

You want the oxygen out so Leghemoglobin can oxygen due to the iron-containing heme in its center. To help the plant-based meat to taste like meat.

PROCESS

Myoglobin is not found in plants >>Plants need a compound to fix nitrogen - hemoglobin fixes it!

AMINO ACIDS - used for protein synthesis

• 2o total - (humans can synthesize 11 in their body)
• 9 amino acids must come from the diet and these are referred to as Essential Amino Acids
  • Egg, wheat, rice, beef, fish, potatoes

A diet of both corn and beans compensates for essential amino acids

Pellagra- Dermatitis Diarrhea Dementia Death

NATIVE AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL COMPLEX

They cleared land by girding trees and by removing brush with the aid of fire, axes, and mattock.

(questions for exam might be on here)

They made enough to trade to feed themselves and still had a surplus.

They stored food underground when they needed it. (although bc it was made out of clay it didn’t last very long)

• Mice were attracted to the food that went bad.

They required payment as iron hatchets. Native Americans of Virginia agreed by treaty to supply colonists nearby.

When the soil. Firewood or game was depleted a new location was selected in their territory and the village moved - communal ownership.

Individual control of gardens and fields within the general territorial boundaries. This control was passed through maternal lineage.

ONLY CULTIVATION WAS UNDER FAMILY OWNERSHIP.

All village members could use communal lands for hunting, fishing, berry picking, wood gathering, etc.

The reason natives didn’t have domesticated animals was because they used woodland to get their protein needs.

Complex system of tillage: fallow, hunting, fishing, and gathering. (all at once)

**This also prevented land hoarding for the wealth and status of an individual.