Grade 6 Chapter 6 Social Studies Notes

Transcription

1 Grade 6 Chapter 6 Social Studies Notes Lesson 1 1. The geography of the Americas gave rise to complex cultures. a. They came from northern Asia and followed game across a land bridge to what is now called Alaska. 2. What are the main geographic features of North, Central, and South America? a. A land bridge that ancient hunters crossed has been called Beringia, after the Beringia Sea. b. Glaciers: large sheets of ice. c. This period was known as the Ice Age. d. Humans soon spread throughout America. By at least 9000 B.C., they had reached the southernmost tip of South America. e. The continental backbone of the Rocky Mountains eventually merged into the Andes to extend down to the tip of South America. f. The Great Lakes were holes gouged out by glaciers that later flooded when the glaciers melted at the end of the last ice age. g. Isthmus: or narrow necks of land that connects North and South America. 3. What geographic factors contributed to ancient American civilizations? a. The warming of the earth s climate made North America extremely dry. Grass became sparse, and most of the big game died out. b. America s first inhabitants were forced to adapt to this change or become extinct like the animals they hunted. c. New tools had to be developed for hunting the smaller animals that had survived the warming. d. Faced with this challenge, some early people turned from a diet of meat to one of fruits and vegetables. They became more skillful at fishing and at gathering nuts, berries, and roots. Most important for their survival, they discovered how to cultivate plants. e. Americans had domesticated beans, squash, and maize, or corn. The hunters were becoming farmers. f. Corn soon became the leading crop. By planting corn, these early Americans had planted the seeds of civilization. 4. Mother Cultures

2 Section 2 a. One early farming culture took root in Mesoamerica which includes present-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, as well as the jungle peninsula called the Yucatan. b. Another group of people began farming in South America, high in the Andes. c. The Olmec have since come to be seen as the mother culture of all of Mesoamerica. Olmec accomplishments paved the way for the still more impressive civilizations that succeeded them, from the Maya to the Aztec. Civilization of corn, pyramid architecture, religious practices, even the development of a calendar and writing system- all had their origins in Olmec culture. The Olmec held religious rites in large stone temples, set in clearings carved from the surrounding jungle. d. Meanwhile, in South America, Chavin civilization of Peru flourished from about 1000 B.C. to 200 B.C. Like the Olmec, the Chavin farmed maize and were noted for their architecture and sculpture. They built large urban centers with carefully planned streets and homes. They also erected vast step pyramids to honor their gods, and impressive tombs for their dead leaders and nobles. 1. Great civilizations arose in Mesoamerica and South America. 2. The city stretched for miles through the Valley of Mexico. By A.D 500, it was home to as many as 200,000 people making it the sixth largest city in the world. Its name was Teotihuacan, the place of the gods. The main street, called the Avenue of the Dead. Drums boomed as priests climbed its steep staircase to the altar on its flat top. There they performed the rituals of human and animals sacrifice that were the cornerstone of Mesoamerican religion. a. Teotihuacan was both a city and a nation, a unique Mesoamerican civilization that began around A.D Maya s civilization lasted longer than any other, spanning the time between the end of the Olmec and the rise of the Aztec. 4. Early Maya modeled themselves after the achievements of the Olmec. Later, the Maya were inspired by the Teotihuacan civilization. 5. Eventually, other Mesoamerican peoples would model themselves after the Maya.

3 6. A city-state is a center of political power that includes an urban area and surrounding farmland. 7. The classic Mesoamerican city was built around a plaza, or public square. 8. The Maya s believed that the will of the gods was shown in the movement of heavily bodies. AS a result, the priests spent a great deal of time studying the sky. Eventually this interest led to the development of the calendar. 9. Farming was the main Mayan occupation in Mesoamerica. These people use stone tools rather than metal ones. 10.Glyphs, or word pictures telling the deeds of Copan s divine kings. 11.Copan was especially active on market days, when farmers from miles around crowded into the city to sell goods in the public bazaar. Maya did not use money, but bartered for their purchases with cacao beans, sea salt, and other goods. 12.Copan was a place of beauty, power and wealth. a. Farmers were forced to cultivate the mountain slopes. The more forest hey cleared, the more soil eroded. In time, the farmers could no longer feed the population. People grew weak. Disease spread. In addition, warfare between Copan and its neighbors grew constant. By A.D. 1000, most of Copan s inhabitants had left the valley, and the city was abandoned to the jungle. 13.While Mesoamerica thrived, civilizations were also developing to the south, along the rugged Andes. Lesson 3 1. The Mound Builders lived in the eastern half of what is now the United States. The two most important mound-building groups were the Hopewell and the Mississippian. a. The Hopewell culture was centered in present-day Ohio. It flourished from about 200 B.C. to A.D Mostly hunters and gathers, they lived simply and in small villages. They were brilliant and energetic builders. They left behind elaborate earth mounds. Some mounds were used for burials. They were only for the nobles, whose bodies would be placed in log rooms deep in the mound. Treasures were usually added. Finally, dirt was added

4 on top. Many of the materials that appeared in the burials could not be found locally. This group must have developed an extensive trading network. On foot or by canoe, Hopewell merchants traveled as far north as the Great Lakes and down the length of the Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Ohio rivers. b. The Mississippian culture started later than the Hopewell, beginning around A.D 900 and lasting almost until the arrival of the first Europeans at the start of the 1500s. The culture really began to develop once they learned how to cultivate corn and beans which spread north from Mesoamerica. People built towns and evennear what is now Cahokia, Illinois- a large, bustling city. With 30,000 inhabitants, ancient Cahokia was the largest community in North America. The great monuments were large plazas where Mississippians held public events. Several of these pyramids were used as temples, still others as tombs or dwellings. One pyramid supported the palace of Cahokia s chief. 2. In the winter of 1888, two cowboys, Richard Wetherill and Richard Mason were rounding up some stray cattle on their Colorado ranch. While riding across a mesa-a steep hill with a flat, table like top. The men had stumbled across the remains of a lost culture- the Anasazi people. a. The ruins were part of a group of cliff dwellings, now called Mesa Verde, or green table, for the forests on the mesa s top. i. The Anasazi culture appeared around A.D 200. At first the people lived in pit houses, dug partly underground. Later they moved aboveground into pueblos, or villages of flatroofed adobe houses. 1. These houses share adjoining walls and were built on many levels, in a step pattern. ii. The former put houses became kivas, or religious centers. b. Around A.D. 900, the people built their famous cliff dwellings. 3. The Anasazi adapted their buildings to be cool during the day and warm at night. They irrigated their fields with rainwater. It was hard to feed a population in the desert. So they hunted rabbit, deer, and bighorn sheep using everything from bows and arrows to nets woven from human hair.

5 4. The Anasazi also established a trading system. The main export was bright blue turquoise, which the Anasazi also made into jewelry and religious objects from their own use. 5. The Anasazi flourished for about 900 years. The crops failed and life became increasingly difficult.