Early Civilizations in the Americas

Henry Lesperance Alvarez

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Mexican Americans

•  “The History of Mexican Americans is a tale of a frontier people whose land was taken by conquest, whose culture was pushed aside by Anglo conquerors” (4)

•  First period must consider both their Indian and Spanish background.

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Early Civilizations in the Americas

1) Who inhabited the Americas before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese?

2) Where did these peoples came from? 3) How would you describe these peoples? 4) How do you think these peoples lived? 5) How do you think living then was different to our current life styles?

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The most prevalent theory is that the early people migrated from Asia to the Americas between 15,000 or 35,000 years ago.

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Alternative Migration Theories

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Early humans had reached Australia, which was never connected to the Asiatic mainland by a land bridge, by 50,000 years ago, surely by boat.

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Isla de Pascua 400 AD

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Semi-nomadic bands

•  “Were forced into a seasonal cycle of hunting, (fishing) and collecting by the poverty of the relatively rainless Mexican environment. However, their efficiency at collecting plant foods began to outweigh their hunting prowess, with and increase amount of settling down.” Michael D. Coe.

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Early Civilization

•  “Life became organized under the direction of an elite class, usually strengthened by writing and other techniques of bureaucratic administration.” Michael D. Coe.

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Early Civilizations in Mesoamerica

•  “The kind of art produced by them reveals the sort of compulsive force which held together these first civilized societies, namely a state religion in which the political leaders were the intermediaries between gods and humans.” Michael D. Coe.

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