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Compare/contrast mayans aztecs and incas
Describe the political, cultural, and religious structures of the mayan, inca, and aztec civilizations prior to european contact
The rising and falling of the inca aztec and mayan civilization
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Around 1,800-500 years ago, the Maya, Inca, and Aztec civilizations existed in parts of South and Central America. Of the three civilizations, the Mayans are the most intellectually advanced due to their advantages in geography, social structure, agriculture, and the scientific arts.
As aforestated, these three civilizations lived in South and Central America, specifically the Mayans in the Yucután Peninsula, the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico, and the Incas in the Andes Mountains. The geography helped the cultures in many ways; the Aztecs used the lakes as barriers making it easy to defend, and the soil was extremely fertile. The Incas could effectively trap enemies in the valleys of the mountains by cutting a few bridges, leaving their opponents to die. The Mayans used surrounding jungle to isolate themselves. All of these societies were isolated from each other due to their geography, but their gods developed in similar fashions. All important gods were mainly the sun, the earth, rain, and farming.
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The Aztecs had floating rafts loaded with lake soil to grow food. The Incas had the coast and jungle to harvest, but since many were on the mountains, they developed terrace farming. The Mayans made raised fields in the rainforest. 90% of Mayans were farmers, but from the top to the bottom, there were priests, nobles, and peasants. The Aztecs valued warriors above all, and then nobility, priests/priestesses, poor/free people, slaves, servants, and then the middle class. The Incas had a king believed to be the son of the sun, then royalty, nobility, and commoners. Though created practically independently, the civilizations’ gods and hierarchy are very
The Aztec’s and the Inca’s have many similarities, such as religious beliefs, and views about gods. Inca’s views about training for war are different, and the Aztec’s artifacts are somewhat different. The farm land compared to the Inca’s differs also, because where the Aztec’s lived the land was elevated about ten thousand feet. The religious beliefs of the Aztec’s were bloody; they believed they had to make many sacrifices to appease the gods. The sacrifices were an important aspect of the Aztec religion.
Three tribes ruled modern day Mexico and South America, both at different times. These three tribes were called the Incas, the Aztecs,and the Mayans. And while they do have some similarities. They also have some differences that are actually matter quite a bit. As all three tribes lived in different
The Aztecs and Incas served an important role in the primal Native American civilizations. They were similar and different with the treatment of women, the economy, and intellectual achievements. Economically, both civilizations used trade, tribute, and agriculture to build their economy. However, the Aztecs had a more mixed economy, used trade more frequently than the Incas, and had a merchant class whereas the Incan civilization had more governmental control. Intellectually, both civilizations achieved in fields such as architecture, and art; however, the Incan empire had a wider range of achievements, disregarding their lack of writing. Throughout both civilizations, women had a tough life and were underappreciated but comparing the two, Incan women had it better off due to parallel descent.
The Spanish and Aztecs were both, very powerful and rich empires. They both were immensely successful. The Aztecs, originally known as the Mexica, was a group of people who lived in Tenochtitlan, now know as Mexico City. They believed that the gods controlled the world, and that they worshipped them by sacrificing. If the gods were not fed blood, the believed that the world would end. The Aztecs became one of the greatest cities in the world. On the other hand, the Spanish lived in the west of Europe, converting people to Catholicism. The Spanish wanted to explore, to conquer and by doing that, they could get rich. They were both powerful in their own areas. The Spanish soon were exploring and came across the Aztecs. The Spanish were seeking
The Aztecs and Incas were the two dominant new world societies which greeted and eventually succumbed to the Spanish conquistadors in the early 16th century. Since then, they have occupied some of the most curious comers of the western imagination. Purveyors of scholarly and popular culture render them in various disparate ways: as victims of European colonialism, incompetent militarists, heroic forbears, barbarians, or authentic practitioners of native utopias and cults. The Aztecs and Incas were two Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations that roamed the land of Latin America throughout 14th and 15th century. Aztec empire ruled much of what is now Mexico from 1428 till 1521, when the empire was conquered by Spaniards. Aztecs controlled a region stretching from the Valley of Mexico in central Mexico east to the Gulf of Mexico and south to Guatemala. Aztecs were great engineers and developed a multifarious social political and religious system with Tenochtitlan as their capital city. Inca Empire stretched it boundaries from Colombia to Chile and reached west to east from the Atacama to Amazonian rain forest. Incas lack the concepts of written language however they had an incredible system of roads. Casco as their capital Inca Empire only lasted a century before it was conquered by Spaniards in early 16th century. The two Mesoamerican civilizations burgeoned independently of each other with no cultural or religious swap. Aztecs and Incan societies were predominantly agricultural. Religions of both societies were shamanistic which were heavily influenced by preceding cultures. These complex polytheistic religions regardless of their chronological exclusivity have significant features in common.
The first one is the Sumerian civilizations. Sumerian cities began in the south of Mesopotamia. Ruler was dependent upon to make sure that the city walls and irrigation systems were okay. Their government was based heavily on religion. They had created a system of laws which allowed them to keep order in their society. These laws were later called the Hammurabi’s Codes of Laws. The Sumerian cities also had a system of ranks. The ranks are as followed: leading family, priests, scribes, merchants, artisans, and peasant farmers. Majority of the population was made of farmers. As for education, only the royals went to school. Can you imagine only the upper class humans being able to go to school? Next, when the Mesopotamians were first civilizing women were equal to women. Although as time progressed the society became a fairly patriarchal society. Despite the women’s setbacks they still had some political rights. The Sumerians were polytheistic. Not surprising since it was an early civilization huh? They built ziggurats or a pyramid temple that soared towards the heavens. Although they were the first to create them Assyrians and the Babylonians also built them due to cultural diffusion. With these temples they praised their gods and thank them for all they have done. The Sumerians believed in an afterlife. Although they never went to extremes they buried their dead with weapons in case they needed them. The
The Maya and Aztec civilizations were both indigenous people that flourished in Mesoamerica during different periods of time. Maya 's classic period is dated from 250 to 900 AD, which was considered to be the peak of their civilization. They covered much of the Yucatan Peninsula and were centered in what is now known as Guatemala. The Aztecs dominated from 1325 AD to 1521 AD, in what is now modern day Mexico. Although they shared cultural similarities such as their social structure, they also had their differences in military and religious rituals.
The Aztec had a very simple society. Slaves, commoners, and nobility. Even still, the Aztec gave the poor people chances at achieving high society status. This fairness and practice of not judging someone on their financial status was beneficial for the Aztec. Highly qualified people were able to show what they could do and the overall efficiency improved. Even in religion, the Aztec had determined who would continue into the afterlife and what they did on Earth had an impact on what decision would be made. The Inca automatically assumed that all nobility would go to the sky regardless of what they did on Earth.
The Incas are much more advanced. Labor specialization was common, especially in the large densely populated areas like Cuzco. The Incas made roads, irrigation channels, fortresses, and mines. They used crop rotation, terracing and other advanced agricultural methods. These civilizations had retainers and all had slaves, usually slaves from other villages that they had fought in wars.
This decided what they could grow if they could even grow anything. It also determined whether or not they had water, also whether or not it would be safe to travel for trade. In the Roman empire the cities were overflowing with people. So full that, poor people couldn’t have their own home and only rich people could. Where they were they could grow olives and grapes, they also ate vegetables, bread, and cheese. Where the Maya lived farmers lived in wood houses and rich people lived in stone houses. In the Maya civilization, they had corn, beans, and yams if they were poor; if they were rich they ate meats and crops that servants grew. Both had a fine line between the rich and the poor. The two civilizations both had the ability to grow things to keep themselves
The major Mayan gods and goddesses all have common characteristics and, according to “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). One of these characteristics is that Mayan gods and goddesses have “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). The majority of the gods and goddesses take a form that combines animal and human features. For example, rain and earth deities often have characteristics derived from crocodiles and snakes (Thompson, 198). The Mayan deities also have a duality complex in which they could be both benevolent and malevolent, but this duality could also apply to age and sex such as a god or goddess being portrayed as youthful or aged or a masculine god sometimes being portrayed as feminine (Thompson, 199). Worship of animals, such as the Jaguar, was present (Thompson, 200) and numbers were seen as deities as well (Thompson, 239). Each deity corresponds to a number. For example, the sun god is the god of the number four as well and the moon goddess is the goddess of the number one. Inanimate objects had spirits, like animals and numbers, which had the ability to achieve the rank of de...
In the fertile valleys or high plateaus the Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs built communities and villages practicing sedentary lifestyles. They had for the most part “permanent, intensive agriculture.” (Lane and Restall 2012) This allowed them to produce complex foods that benefitted the villages because it made them possible but it also resulted in social stratification. “Agricultural activities of the majority allowed a minority to live and work as artisans, merchants, warriors, nobles and royalty – permitting the development of writing, metallurgy, bureaucracy, and other features of high civilization.” More specifically, the Mayans were able to create the most complete of the three Mesoamerican writing systems, “one that was still used in the early sixteenth century.” (Lane and Restall 2012) They were also able to expand, but their expansion would also be their demise. Because they were so large -- filled with regional kingdoms and empires -- the Spanish were easily able to conquer
1) The Aztecs, like most societies, had a type of class structure. There were two main classes. The first was the class of the nobles or the pilli. The second class were the commoners or the macehaulli. There were also many subsets to these groups that held different responsibilities in societal life. Nobility was thought to be mostly hereditary. The nobles were educated from a young age to be leaders in Aztec society. However, the commoners had a variety of occupational choices. They were the farmers, merchants, and could even be athletes. Art, social events, and religion were all a huge part of Aztec culture. The Aztecs had a game known as Ullamaliztli and the athletes that played in these games were a kind of celebrity in Aztec culture. One interesting thing about their culture was the mandatory education. Once the women and the men were properly educated it would be time to marry. Marriages in Aztec culture were arranged and were also very closely intertwined with religion. There are many fascinating things about the Aztec culture, but perhaps the most important to them was their religion.
The Mayas developed a system of taxes, where the farmers were allowed to pay with food. The Aztecs eventually controlled most of Mexico, about 30 million people. The Incas domesticated llamas and alpacas and used them for transporting goods in mountainous terrain. These civilizations produced these results over a thousand years ago. Their accomplishments illustrate how advanced they were.
Maya civilization was based mainly on agriculture and religion. Maya every day life revolved around an innumerable number of earth Gods. The most important God was chief, ruler of all Gods. The Mayans prayed to these God’s particularly about their crops. For example, they prayed to the Rain God to nourish their crops. They practiced their religion during ceremonies conducted by priests. They also practiced confession and even fasted before important ceremonies (Gann and Thompson 1931 118-138). The Mayans also b...