TEMPLATE FOR NOTE TAKING (one class period)

Day: Wednesday Date: 08/11/2021 Name: Diego Burillo León

1. Key Question or Topic of During this class we had and introduction to Mesoamerica.
lecture:

2. Main Points Mesoamerica can be defined as a social construction by

or Evidence: archaeologists from North America and Europe during the
20th Century. Where the borders of this construction were
delimited by the extension of the Aztec Empire.

Much information from the native inhabitants of

Mesoamerica has been preserved throughout the centuries,
especially the ones provided by the first Europeans
chroniclers such as Diego de Landa (16th Century) and his
book “Relación de las cosas de Yucatán” which still
nowadays a primary source for Mayan calendars.
It is also worth mentioning that most of the sources written
by the indigenous people of Mesoamerica were burned,
therefore most of the sources we have access are written
not in indigenous languages but in Spanish.

Other explorers from the modern era have also contribute

to the understanding of Mesoamerica with drawings of
ruins of many different places in the area, showing how
the buildings were before their reconstruction, some
examples of this explorers are John Lloyd Stevens and
Frederick Cartherwood.
Ernst Forstemann discover and translated a Mayan code
what the now call Dresden Code.
Sylvanus Morley was an archaeologist known for his
epigraphy but is also worth mentioning he was an
American spy, specially investigating the Mexican
Government during WW2.

During the class we also discussed the topography and

climate of Mesoamerica, dividing the extreme topographic
diversity of the zone in two regions: Highlands (central-
western Mexico, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tlaxcala, etc.) and the
Lowlands (Veracruz, Yucatán, coasts, etc.). Each region
was also briefly defined with some specific characteristics,
for instance the volcanic soils, variable rainfall, existence
of obsidian and jade in the Highlands, and lime stone,
bedrock for building, natural depressions and rivers for
 communication in the Lowlands.

3. Expand with your notes In the first lecture we can realize how many groups in
from the readings Mesoamerica shared common tales in aspects with a huge
importance to all the inhabitants of the zone, such being
the case of the rediscovery of maze, a tale in which you
can find specific aspects like the presence of ants or any
other animal who is searching this grain, but also the its
conservation inside a mountain or even how a lightning
was able to open the grain by demolishing the mountain it
was in.
During the first lecture we can also understand that even
when the Mesoamerican groups had tales in common, they
also had stories which would vary depending on the zone,
for instance, the origin of human beings which differs
considerably from the Nahuas, Mixtecs and Mayas.

During the first half of the second lecture, we are

introduced to the concept of periodization by a definition
and the reason of its use throughout the history of
Mesoamerica. We can also understand the difficulties that
trying to periodize this area deals with, not only because of
the limited written sources, but because of the extension of
the territory which was home of many different groups
during the centuries.
In the second half of the article, a brief history of the
periodization in Mesoamerica is narrated, describing the
difficulties of many researchers, such as Zelia Nuttall,
Boas, Herbert Spinden, Alfonso Caso, Pedro Armillas, and
many others, throughout the years in the search of a way to
periodize the region in a correct way. Finally, during the
las years, the use of the terms Preclassic, Classic and
Postclassic have been commonly used as a way to
periodize Mesoamerica.
4. Vocabulary to learn Epigraphy: Study and interpretation of written material.

Sacbé: Road of limestone build by ancient Mayans.

Topography: Study of the form and details of the land

surface.

Epiclasic:
5. Question(s) to ask: Are the terms Oasisamerica and Aridoamerica also used
by professionals in the US and Europe, or are they mostly
used in Latin America?
 Did the inhabitants of the Highlands started using obsidian
in their tools before the people of the Lowlands due to its
easier accessibility?

Was there a period where people from the Lowlands used

stone tools meanwhile the ones from the Highlands were
using obsidian tools?

How do people or institutions name a Mayan codex?

Do we know the original names of the Mayan codex?

6. Reflect: how does this The first lecture was revealing to me, the idea of how
conflict with my current many of the people in Mesoamerica shared common tales
knowledge? without any or simply a few variations such as the one
about the rediscovery of maze was simply amazing,
because I’ve heard that story so many times, with just tiny
variations simply shows how some aspects of a common
cosmology prevail between different groups in the region.
I also enjoy reading about the difference between the tales
of the human creation because it was not until the last year
that I started noticing that this tale has a great difference
depending on the culture, but with this lecture I can now
fully understand and differentiate each different tale about
the human creation.

During the second lecture I understood the difficult of

trying to study and periodize the region of Mesoamerica,
because one is not always conscient about the extension of
this vast territory, the different cultures that lived in it, the
changes each culture had throughout its history and what
aspect should determine the period a culture was in a
specific time. Therefore, I now understand how difficult is
to periodize this region and recognize the importance of
the achievements made by various researchers.
7. Reflect: What knowledge For this class I believe many of my pasts knowledge
can I use from my other helped me, for instance, brief introductions about
classes or experience to Mesoamerica given by teachers from primary and high
better understand the school, including some tales about different cultures of the
material? region; something that was useful to understand a bit better
the second lecture was given by my final project of
archaeology from last semester, because I was able to
recognize some researchers, such as Miguel Covarrubias,
López Luján, or Piña Chan, which were mentioned in the
text. Now more than ever I believe my knowledge of
geography helped me understanding much better the
topography of Mesoamerica.
8. Restate verbal instruction NA
on homework or
assignments