Notes from May 7th, 8th, and 9th

Maya
- not anthropomorphic gods
- one god is more like a cluster of gods - they can take on many characteristics
- other offerings (instead of blood) included flowers, food, and incense
- Popul Vah was like the Illiad or the Oddessy
- had amulets for good luck, prosperity, fertility, etc. you could put them in your home or have a small one around your neck
- corn, beans, squash! also, avocados, tomatoes, caoco

- South American geography is very important
- mountains in the middle of rainforest and desert
- the different elevations allowed for a variety of crops to be grown
- mountains were terraced and agricultural products were grown and then traded
- every thousand feet that you go up, the climate changes, so you have a whole new range of crops
- vertical trade: trading up and down the mountain
- desert provided fish and mollusks because it was close enough to the sea; that's the reason that the desert was so important
- tierra calienta: at the bottom there was tropical and coastal agriculture such as fruits, coca, fish, maize, cotton, and manioc
- tierra templada: the most populated zone, where you can grow quinoa and potatoes
- tierra fria: up to the treeline, you can grow hardy crops and a wide variety of potatoes
- tierra helada: tundra is excellent for grazing animals (llama and alpaca), and trees cannot grow there because of a layer of permafrost is constantly under the ground
- tierra nevada: ice from the top of the mountain was taken down and used for religious rituals
- manioc is a root
- quinoa is a grain that is high in protein, similar to couscous, with a nutty flavor
- the first metallurgy in the Americas: gold and gold alloy as well as copper
- first domestication of a pack animal: llamas
- terraced farming, irrigation, drainage, engineering
- buildings placed to form u-shaped figures
- people may have made pilgrimages to Chavin
- not anthropomorphic
- military may have worked in trade
- reciprocal labor: you have a clan and the clan is expected to give a certain amount of labor, and the distribution of such is not important. While some people are working on building a building, some of the others are taking care of those people's family. Then it switches. Sort of like, I owe you one. The clan takes care of everybody - the people who are going to work, their family, the people who want their labor, everything is great.
- fall: increase of war undermined government and disrupted trade
- king/priests, chiefs, artisans, peasants

- earthquakes and volcanoes
- thin air (mountains)
- peanuts, 200 types of potatoes
- straightened rivers, built canals, and terraced all the way up mountains
- humans evolved to have larger lungs and shorter, stronger legs
- the desert is at least now the driest on earth
- the sun as a creator
- Amazonian tribes caused problems
- mummification
- ancestral veneration
- elite of the p-something smooshed heads of babies into strange shapes
- these same people also drilled holes in skulls, and most people survived this...
- nazca worshipped sun, moon, and stars
- moche
- warrior-priests
- hallucinating potions
- buried surrounded by your friends in life, including your pets
- used gold, silver, and lapis lazuli
- ended through earthquakes and drought