Land and Sea:
Nature and Culture in the Americas and Oceania

Themes

• worldviews and cultural identities: Aztec, Navajo, Marquesan
• history and civilization
• alternate lifestyles and worldviews

Environment and Development

Americas

• Mesoamerica:
  • Toltec empire ca. 950-1150 Tula
  • Aztec empire 1325-1519
• South America: Inca Empire ca. 1250-ca. 1500
  • Nasca lines *
  • Machu Picchu
  • quipu; *
  • carving*
  • textiles*
• North America:
  • Pueblo and Navajo ca. 700
  • five Iroquois nations ca. 1400
  • Cahokia ca. 900-1250: mound [Alt Cahokia mound]

Oceania

• population growth 11th cen.
• two-way voyaging 12th cen.
• social and political complexity 13th cen.
• Hawaiian fishponds 14th cen.

Aztec Culture

• Political *
  • urbanization: Mexico City
  • imperialism: Aztec Empire
• Social *; *
  • classes
  • extended family
  • children
  • law and ethics
• Religion
  • creation cosmology: Popol Vuh
  • Quetzalcoatl legend: Feathered Serpent *; *; *
  • Aztec Huitzilopochtli*: sun, war god *
  • Motecuzoma II 1502-1520
  • ball court images: the ball game; Chichen Itza
  • human sacrifice * 4 victims in ball court [source missing ball court]
  • Nezahualcoyotl 1402-1472 *
  • Nahuatl culture: poem
  • morality
  • death and the afterlife

North American Indians: Navajo Culture

• hunters and gatherers
• tribes: Plains, Navajo
• harmony with nature
• Blessing Way:
  • chanting
  • sweat house
  • sand-painting

Pacific *: the Marquesas

• two-way voyaging and isolation
• Marquesan culture *
  • Te Enata and Te Henua
  • Te Haoe
  • Tahiti and the Marquesas
  • chant/dance: putu
• Hawai`i

Comparisons and Conclusions

• rewriting the past
• complex societies

Explore!

• Global Consortium: Toltec and Aztec Civilizations
• Global Consortium: Inca
• Mexican and Latin American Literature: Selected Sources
• Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
• Polynesian Voyaging Society

return to lecture outline

kjolly@hawaii.edu 8/27/01