Week 1 vocab: Before European Contact Read: Hamnett, Chapter 1, pp. 17-28.

1. Primary Source: a document or physical object which was written or created during the
time under study. These sources were present during an experience or time period and
offer an inside view of a particular event.

2. Secondary Source: interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are on or
more steps removed from the event. Secondary sources may have pictures quotes or
graphics of primary sources in them.

3. History: interpreting the past. Understanding the present. The study of people across
time. A knowledge production process. Sources. Historicity and epistemology. Power
and politics?

4. Popol Vuh: Popol Vuh is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ
people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit the Guatemalan Highlands, Mexican
Chiapas, Campeche and Quintana Roo states, and areas of Belize

5. INAH: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) in 1939 represents a major

advancement in the preservation and dissemination of that knowledge under the
auspices of the modern state.

6. Beringia: based on the work of anthropologists and by examining the artifacts found by
archaeologists… the most widely accepted migration theory is the Beringia crossing
theory.

7. First Peoples of the Americas:

Week 2 : The First Mexicans Read: Hamnett, Chapter 2, pp. 29-60.Read: Jaffary, pp. 16-42
The Rise of the Aztecs Read: Hamnett, Chapter 2, pp. 60-76. Read: Jaffray, pp. 43-55

1. Altepetl: The altepetl, in Pre-Columbian and Spanish conquest-era Aztec society,

was the local, ethnically based political entity. It is usually translated into English
as "city-state". The word is a combination of the Nahuatl words ā-tl, meaning
water, and tepē-tl, meaning mountain.
2. Mexicas:
a. Mexicas means people from Mexico. Hence, Mexicano or Mexican means
the same as Mexica, people from Mexico. The City of Tenochtitlan was
built in the middle of Lake Texcoco. Anahuac or the Valley of Mexico was
full of lakes at the time the first Europeans came to Mexico.
b. The Mexica, or Mexicas, were a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of
the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Aztec Empire. They were
the last Nahua-speaking immigrants to enter the Basin of Mexico after the
Toltec decline. Wikipedia
3. Olmecs: The Olmecs were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization.
Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical
lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has
been speculated that the Olmecs derived in part from the neighboring Mokaya or
Mixe–Zoque cultures. Wikipedia
4. Teotihuacan:
a. Founded when they saw the eagle eating a snake on a cactus.
b. is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of
Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, 40 kilometres (25 mi)
northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is known today as the
site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids
built in the pre-Columbian Americas. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half
of the first millennium (1 CE to 500 CE), Teotihuacan was the largest city
in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at 125,000 or
more,[2][3] making it at least the sixth-largest city in the world during its
epoch.[4] After the collapse of Teotihuacan, central Mexico was
dominated by the Toltecs of Tula until about 1150 CE.
c. The city covered eight square miles; 80 to 90 percent of the total
population of the valley resided in Teotihuacan. Apart from the pyramids,
Teotihuacan is also anthropologically significant for its complex, multi-
family residential compounds, the Avenue of the Dead, and its vibrant,
well-preserved murals. Additionally, Teotihuacan exported fine obsidian
tools that are found throughout Mesoamerica. The city is thought to have
been established around 100 BCE, with major monuments continuously
under construction until about 250 CE.[2] The city may have lasted until
sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries CE, but its major monuments
were sacked and systematically burned around 550 CE.
 d. Teotihuacan began as a religious center in the Mexican Highlands around
the first century CE. It became the largest and most populated center in
the pre-Columbian Americas. Teotihuacan was home to multi-floor
apartment compounds built to accommodate the large population.[2] The
term Teotihuacan (or Teotihuacano) is also used for the whole civilization
and cultural complex associated with the site.
e. Although it is a subject of debate whether Teotihuacan was the center of a
state empire, its influence throughout Mesoamerica is well documented;
evidence of Teotihuacano presence can be seen at numerous sites in
Veracruz and the Maya region. The later Aztecs saw these magnificent
ruins and claimed a common ancestry with the Teotihuacanos, modifying
and adopting aspects of their culture. The ethnicity of the inhabitants of
Teotihuacan is the subject of debate. Possible candidates are the Nahua,
Otomi, or Totonac ethnic groups. Scholars have suggested that
Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic state since they find cultural aspects
connected to the Maya as well as Oto-Pamean people.
f. The city and the archaeological site are located in what is now the San
Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México, approximately 40
kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Mexico City. The site covers a total surface
area of 83 square kilometres (32 sq mi) and was designated a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 1987.[5] It is the most visited archaeological site in
Mexico, receiving 4,185,017 visitors in 2017.[6]
5. Development of agriculture in Mesoamerica: Around 7,000 years ago, agriculture
emerged in Mesoamerica, including the domestication of maize, beans, and
squash, causing major changes in the plants that people cultivated. Three sisters
agriculture had spread across Mexico by 3,500 years ago, though they originated
at different times.
6. Chichimecs: Chichimeca is the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico
generically applied to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who were established
in present-day Bajio region of Mexico. Chichimeca carried the same sense as the
Roman term "barbarian" to describe Germanic tribes.
7. Florentine Codex: The Florentine Codex is a 16th-century ethnographic research
study in Mesoamerica by the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún.
Sahagún originally titled it: La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España.
After a translation mistake, it was given the name Historia general de las Cosas
de Nueva España.
8. Codex Mendoza: The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, believed to have been
created around the year 1541. It contains a history of both the Aztec rulers and
their conquests as well as a description of the daily life of pre-conquest Aztec
society.
9. Codex Duran: Also known as the Durán Codex, The History of the Indies of New
Spain was completed in about 1581. Durán also wrote Book of the Gods and
Rites (1574–1576), and Ancient Calendar (c. 1579).[1] He was fluent in Nahuatl,
the Aztec language, and was therefore able to consult natives and Aztec codices
as well as work done by earlier friars. His empathetic nature allowed him to gain
 the confidence of many native people who would not share their stories with
Europeans, and was able to document many previously unknown folktales and
legends that make his work unique
a. Diego Durán (c. 1537 – 1588) was a Dominican friar best known for his
authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture
of the Aztecs, The History of the Indies of New Spain, a book that was
much criticised in his lifetime for helping the "heathen" maintain their
culture
10. Historia Eclesiástica Indiana: Written in 1595, Fray Mendieta's work presents the
history of the advent of Christianity in the Caribbean and Mexican regions as a
consequence of the Spanish conquest. He illustrates the triumph and tragedy of
the missionary effort and the difficulties in the conversion of the Indians, conflicts
between spiritual ends and material interests. This edition of translated sections
also presents some translated sections from Mendieta's letters, including a letter
addressed to King Philip II of Spain.

Week 3 Vocab: Hamnett, pp. 77-92. / Jaffray, pp. 57-104

1. Syncretism: Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, while blending practices

of various schools of thought.
2. Spanish Military Conquest: The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its
final victory on 13 August 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native
Tlaxcalan warriors led by Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor
Cuauhtemoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.

3. Xólotl: In Aztec mythology, Xolotl was a god of fire and lightning. He was commonly
depicted as a dog-headed man and was a soul-guide for the dead. He was also god
of twins, monsters, misfortune, sickness, and deformities. Xolotl is the canine brother
and twin of Quetzalcoatl, the pair being sons of the virgin Coatlicue. He is the dark
personification of Venus, the evening star, and was associated with heavenly fire.

4. Tlatoani: is the Classical Nahuatl term for the ruler of an āltepētl, a pre-Hispanic
state. It may be translated into English as "king". A cihuātlahtoāni is a female ruler, or
queen regnant. The term cuauhtlatoani refers to "vice-leader"

5. Triple Alliance: The Aztec Empire, or the Triple Alliance, was an alliance of three
Nahua altepetl city-states: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan.

6. Incomplete Conquest: ( spiritual conquest) in practice the spiritual conquest was

much more partial and incomplete than the military conquest. Many indigenous
spiritual beliefs and practices survived for centuries beneath a veneer of roman
Catholicism

7. Cofradía: a group or organization of Roman Catholic laymen in Mexico and Central

America responsible for the material care of religious images, pilgrimages, and
ceremonies

8. Spiritual Conquest: The "Spiritual Conquest" is an analytical model used to view and
interpret the European colonization of the Americas and efforts to convert indigenous
peoples to Catholicism, and later various branches of Christianity

9. La Malinche: Marina or Malintzin, more popularly known as La Malinche, was a

Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who played a key role in the Spanish
conquest of the Aztec Empire, acting as an interpreter, advisor, and intermediary for
the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.

a. Traded into slavery by mom to settle a debt or given away so that the son could be
the heir.

10. Bernal Diaz del Castillo: Bernal Díaz del Castillo was a Spanish conquistador, who
participated as a soldier in the conquest of Mexico under Hernán Cortés and late in
his life wrote an account of the events.

11. Florentine Codex, Book 12 : The Florentine Codex is a 16th-century ethnographic

research study in Mesoamerica by the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de
 Sahagún. Sahagún originally titled it: La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva
España. After a translation mistake, it was given the name Historia general de las
Cosas de Nueva España
a. The Florentine Codex, originally entitled Historia general de las cosas de Nueva
España (General History of Matters in New Spain), is a bilingual Nahuatl – Spanish
encyclopedic text, composed between 1545 and 1590. This vast work documents in
12 books the religion, natural history, cultural practices and first decades of the fall
of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The last of those books, probably its most famous
section, contains an account of the invasion of the Aztec Empire by Hernán Cortés
and his troops, ostensibly written from an indigenous point of view.

12. The Caribbean Crucible: proved to be the test ground for future conquests. Conquer
one island, establish a base of operations moved to the next island. By 1519 the
Spanish had swept across the Caribbean. Next target mainland.
a. After the prospects for quick riches were exhausted in the Caribbean
expeditions fanned out from: the base of espanola and cuba. One to Yucatan
and north to Mexico. The other towards central America, over to the south
sea (pacific ocean) and down to peru.

13. Motolinía: Toribio de Benavente Motolinia -Missionary- Toribio of Benavente, O.F.M.(

Order of Friars Minor), also known as Motolinía, was a Franciscan missionary who
was one of the famous Twelve Apostles of Mexico who arrived in New Spain in May
1524