Geography & the Five Themes
What are the five themes of geography?
Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, and Region.
What does it mean to be nomadic?
Moving from place to place instead of staying in one location permanently.
What does the word Mesoamerica mean?
Middle America
Where did the Olmec civilization develop?
Mesoamerica
What is obsidian?
A hard volcanic rock that can be shaped into sharp tools and weapons.
What imaginary line divides Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres?
The Equator.
What theory explains how the first people may have traveled from Asia into North America?
The Bering Land Bridge Theory
Name two landforms found in Mesoamerica.
Mountains, lowlands/coastal plains, volcanoes, and plateau highlands.
Why are the Olmec sometimes called the mother culture of Mesoamerica?
They influenced later civilizations, including the Maya and Aztec.
What natural resource from the Guatemalan highlands was used to make small figures?
Jade
What is the difference between latitude and longitude?
Latitude measures north and south of the Equator. Longitude measures east and west of the Prime Meridian.
Why did Paleo-Indians move from place to place?
To follow animal herds and find food and other resources.
How does elevation affect temperature?
Higher elevations are cooler, while lower elevations are warmer.
What were the names of two major Olmec cities?
San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes.
How did the environment affect the resources available to people in different parts of Mesoamerica?
The environment determined which natural resources people could find and use.
A map shows the location of a city using 20°N, 100°W. Which two geographic lines are being used?
Latitude and longitude
How did Paleo-Indians use their environment to help them survive? Give two examples.
They hunted animals, used natural resources to make tools and weapons, and used the environment for food and shelter.
Why might people living in the southern lowlands have had a different lifestyle from people living in the highlands?
The southern lowlands were hot and rainy, while the highlands were cooler. This affected available crops, resources, and daily life.
What are glyphs, and how did the Olmec use them?
Glyphs were pictures or symbols that represented words. The Olmec used them to record information such as events, dates, and stories.
How could trade help civilizations share more than just goods?
Trade helped people exchange ideas, knowledge, and technology, as well as goods.
A person travels from 10°N to 30°N. Did they travel north or south? Explain how you know.
North. The numbers increased from 10°N to 30°N, moving farther north of the Equator.
Imagine a group of Paleo-Indians has hunted all the animals near their camp. What would they most likely do next, and why?
They would likely move to another area to follow animal herds and find more food and resources.
Explain how Mesoamerica's different climates and landforms could affect where people settled and what they grew.
Different environments provided different resources and growing conditions. People settled where they could access resources and grow food suited to the climate.
Why are the giant Olmec stone heads still a mystery to historians?
Historians do not know for certain who or what the heads represent or exactly why they were created.
A person living near the coast trades seashell jewelry with someone from the highlands who has jade. What does this tell us about the relationship between environment and trade?
People had access to different resources depending on where they lived. Trade allowed them to exchange materials they did not have locally.