Chapter 6

Chapter 6: I feel confused

Going into midterms, in this chapter I was really concerned on which notes to take. I started to try and remember a lot of little details, but I wasn’t sure if I needed to remember those exact details or just remember general trends about each group Maybe I’m just losing confidence in myself because I’m nervous about the exam. I think that this chapter was especially difficult to read because we’re looking at a lot of little groups. It would have been fine if it was just divided this way:
  1. Africa
  2. Mesoamerica
  3. Andes River
  4. Civilization-less People
But it’s not. There are many subcategories under each one:
Africa
  • Meroe
  • Axum
  • Niger River
Mesoamerica
  • Maya
  • Teotihuacán
Andes River
  • Chavín
  • Moche
  • Wari and Tiwanaku
Civilization-less People
  • Bantu
  • Pueblo
  • Mound Builders
  • Pacific Oceania
It was very difficult to get my thoughts together and it fried my brain to memorize everything. I will just explain some general trends because that’s what I remember the most.
Africa: environmental variation meant that there were tons of different cultures living side-by-side.
Meroe: Held by Nubians who constantly interacted w/Egypt. They had a rainfall-based agriculture and received wealth by trading w/other groups. After trade switched to the Red Sea and they ran out of trees to cut down, their resources went away. It was conquered by Axum.
Axum: It had plow-based agriculture and traded a lot like Meroe. They built huge obelisks and the Romans respected them. They were Christian. It was destroyed b/c they ran out of resources to exploit.
Niger River: Jenne-jeno was an important city. No central authority, not a lot of inequality, and not much warfare. They had a lot of iron and had jobs dealing with iron. They stayed with people who had the same jobs as they did, like the jati system in India. They traded too b/c they didn’t have a lot of things.
Mesoamerica: They also had a lot of climates, so a lot of different groups showed up too like in Africa.
Maya: The Mayans created the number 0. They were really good at astronomy and created calendars so they could know when to plant crops. Their political system was broken and they fought with each other a lot.
Teotihuacán: It was an impressive city in Mexico. It looked planned and even had areas especially for foreigners, showing it was open to trade. It did not have a ton of writing.
Andes River: I honestly don’t remember any trend.
Chavín: The Chavín had lots of temples and their gods were usually animals.
Moche: They had many warrior-priests who ruled over them. Most of our knowledge about them is only about the upper class or their gods, not the lives of commoners.
Wari: The Wari had a central government. They built stairs on hills to irrigate plants. They did not associate much with Tiwanaku.
Tiwanaku: Their government wasn’t as centralized as the Wari’s. They had fitted buildings.
Civilization-less People: They were actually very different from each other. Their similarity is that they don't have a civilization...
  • Bantu: They were defined by their culture, which spread naturally as they traveled or as their neighbors were influenced.
  • Pueblo: 5 big pueblos led to the Chaco phenomenon. They were good astronomers who fought with each other and sometimes resorted to cannibalism because there was drought.
  • Mound Builders: They were also named the Hopewell culture, but they were named mound builders b/c that’s what they did to bury people. They also built one to align w/ eclipses.
  • Pacific Oceania: the coming of settlers destroyed parts of some islands (as usual). Women were considered dirty in Oceania. The different islands still traded even though they were separated.
The things I tried to remember about each group: something obvious that differentiates them from everyone else, their religious beliefs, if they farmed or hunted, what their homes were like.
The things I didn’t try to remember about each group: what they traded and who they traded with, what their main product was, anything that required me to read a list (like this one), and DATES. I feel like these are all important, but right now there are just too many details for me to take in. I will try again.
Overall, although the chapter confused me, it was still enjoyable to read about these cultures. They are not talked about a lot in history. I haven’t heard of most of them. I didn’t even know where Oceania was actually. I thought that it was a made up place when I first heard about it in 1984 by Orwell. I don’t usually hear about Mound Builders or the Bantu. My knowledge of African history and Native American history is very limited, and I am happy to be able to expand it in this chapter.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! :)

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