Natives of Central America

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Natives of Central America

• Olmecs 1200 BCE 400 BCE
• Hieroglyphic writing, pyramids, carved heads,
  religious basketball
• Body piercing and accessories
• Advanced agriculture chinampa terracing

2
Natives

• Mayans 600 BCE 900 CE
• Main city of Teotihuacan Yucatan Peninsula
• Libraries of hieroglyphs and Codex tablets
• Sea faring people with trade
• Polytheistic
• Formed flat heads pieced noses

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Natives

• Zapotecs 600 BCE 1400 CE
• People of the clouds
• Quetzalcoatl vs Tezcallipoca (Huitzulipotchli)
• Mixtecs took over eventually

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The Myth of Quetzalcoatl

• Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent who demanded
  animal sacrifice) versus Huitzilipotchli (war god
  who demanded human sacrifice)
• Intense conflict one had to go
• Queztal drank from the Pulque plant and lost his
  better judgment.
• Huitzs men place him in his sisters bed to
  sleep it off.
• Quetzal exiled himself for the disgrace of
  incest, but he vowed to return in a Reed year.
• Quetzal apparently had fair skin and a red beard
  and he left in a boat heading east.
• Cortes had red hair, fair skin, and arrived from
  the west in the reed year. He easily gained
  access to Tenochitlan and was treated as a
  returning god.

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Natives

• Aztecs (Mexica) 600 BCE 1400 CE
• People of the Sun
• Nomadic until the Valley of Mexico
• Settled on Lake Texcoco Tenochitlan built in
  1344
• Strict laws, imperialistic and oppressive.

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Map of Central Natives