Confucianism
Who is the founder of Confucianism?
Confucius.
What is animism?
The belief that animals, places, and things possess spirits/souls and can interact with people.
Name at least three countries the Mayan civilization stretched over.
Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala.
What were chinampas and why were they created?
Chinampas were floating gardens the Aztecs built in order to increase the amount of space for food production.
What does the name "Inca" mean?
People of the sun.
What three things does Confucianism place emphasis on?
Filial piety (respect for parents/elderly relatives)
Obedience and Moral Conduct
Education
Many gods were anthropomorphic. What does this mean?
They had human characteristics.
How were the Mayan governments structured?
City-states, in which a king ruled over one city and its surrounding territory. If there wasn’t a male heir available to rule a city-state, Mayan women were allowed to take on the leadership position.
Where was Tenochtitlan located and why?
Tenochtitlan was located on an island in the middle of a lake so that it would be protected from attacks.
How were the Incan governments structured?
The Incan Empire was split into four provinces, each with its own governor and bureaucracy.
What are the key relationships in Confucianism? (Give at least three examples)
Emperor/King to Subject
Father to Son
Eldest Son to Youngest Son
Husband to Wife
Friend to Friend (equals)
What are two of the oldest forms of polytheism?
Ancestor worship and the veneration of spirits.
How did Mayan leaders legitimize their rule?
They claimed to be descendants of a god. Mayans believed that when a leader died, he would become one with his ancestor god.
What was the purpose of the tribute system? How did it function?
To insure that the people the Aztecs conquered paid tribute, surrendered land, and performed military service. Local rulers served as tribute collectors in exchange for the conquered people to have Aztec protection.
What was the original mit'a system?
Mandatory public service; men conquered by the Incans between the ages of 15 and 50 provided agricultural and other forms of labor, including the construction of roads.
What is the order of the Confucian social hierarchy? (Name at least three classes)
Top Class: Emperor
Second Level: Aristocrats (landowners) & Government-Officials
Third Level: Craftsmen & Artisans
Fourth Level: Farmers
Lowest Class: Merchants
What is shamanism? Name at least one country or region where it was practiced.
A religious practice involving a shaman, who is a person with the ability to interact with spirits and believed to achieve various powers through trance. It was practiced in China and the Americas.
Name at least two Mayan religious practices.
- Mayan priests conducted ceremonies honoring many deities, such as the deities of sun, rain, and corn.
- Mayans made offerings to the gods in hopes that their prayers would be answered.
How was the Aztec society far less patriarchal than most other civilizations of the period? (Give at least three examples)
While most Aztec women worked in their homes, some became noblewomen, priestesses, midwives, healers, noblewomen or merchants.
Name at least two Incan religious practices.
- Dead rulers were mummified and continued to "rule” as they had in life.
- Priests could determine the gods' will by studying the arrangement of coca leaves in a dish or by watching the movement of a spider.
- Animism
What is the mandate of heaven?
Heaven gave the leader of China the right to rule. The people must respect that mandate and owed complete obedience to the leader. In exchange for this loyalty, the people had the right to expect good leadership. If there were problems in the dynasty (war, famine, floods, drought) this was a sign that the ruler had lost the mandate.
Why were rulers and spiritual leaders placed at the top of social hierarchies?
They were seen to have a special connection to the gods they worshiped.
Name at least three Mayan cultural advancements.
Mayans incorporated the concept of zero into their number system.
Mayans developed a complex system of writing.
Mayans learned to make rubber out of liquid collected from rubber plants.
What led to the decline of the Aztecs? (Give at least two examples)
- The Aztecs weren’t very advanced in technology, which resulted in difficult and inefficient agriculture.
- The expansion of Aztec leadership and empire eventually became too large to reasonably govern.
- The conquered people were ready to rebel against the Aztecs when the opportunity arose, which came when the Spaniards arrived in the empire.
Name at least three Incan cultural advancements.
- Incans developed the quipu, a system of knotted strings used to record numerical information for trading/engineering and record messages to be carried throughout the empire.
- Incans developed sophisticated terrace systems for the cultivation of crops such as potatoes and maize.
- Incans were especially good builders of bridges and roads.