| A | B |
|---|
| Beringia | name for the land mass that once connected Asia and North America |
| Olmec | known as the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica |
| Mesoamerica | the area in Central America where the Aztecs and Mayans lived |
| maize | early name for corn |
| Francisco Pizarro | Spaniard who conquered the Inca |
| Ferdinand Magellan | His men were the first to sail around the world |
| cultural genocide | destroying the culture of another people by forcing them to give up their ways |
| Tikal | important Mayan city and center of their culture |
| potlatch | Northwest Pacific Indian custom where one gave away their wealth |
| encomienda | Spanish practice of giving Indians to landholders as slaves |
| Francisco Coronado | explored the American Southwest looking for Cibola, the 7 cities of gold |
| ayllu | Incan custom of having people serve their local communities by doing work that was needed |
| smallpox | this killed thousands of Native Americans as they had no natural resistance to it |
| Iroquois | Eastern Woodland tribe that had a powerful confederacy |
| socialism | when the government controls production and provides welfare, the Inca were like this |
| Andes Mountains | found in South America; it is where the Inca lived |
| Balboa | Spaniard who "discovered" the Pacific Ocean |
| mamakuna | women in Incan society chosen to serve the religion for their entire life |
| Aztecs | Mesoamerican tribe that offered many human sacrifices |
| Montezuma II | leader of the Aztecs when the Spanish arrived in 1519 |
| Columbian Exchange | the New World contributed things to Europe and European brought new things to the New World |
| Cuzco | capital of the Incan empire |
| Tenochitlan | capital city of the Aztec Empire |
| Yucatan peninsula | place where the Mayan civilization was centered |
| isthmus | a narrow strip of land that connects two larger bodies of land |
| Anasazi | Native American tribe that lived in the American Southwest and built pueblos out of mudbrick |
| Chavin | considered the "Mother culture" of the South American Native Americans around the Andes |
| Jade | the Mayan and Aztecs made jewelry out of this precious stone |
| codex | books made out of paper bark by the Aztecs and Mayans |
| chasquis | Incan runners who acted as a postal service |
| yamakuna | Incan men who were chosen to serve the religion or state for life |
| totems | a symbol that North American Indian tribes associated themselves with |
| Mita | Incan idea that people had to devote a certain time to work for the government |
| mestizo | people of mixed Indian and Spanish blood |
| agriculture | led to the establishment of villages and specialization of work |
| animism | the notion that the gods live as spirits in nature |
| land ownership | Native Americans and Europeans conflicted over their notions about this |
| conquistadors | name for Spanish soldiers who came to the New World to conquer land |
| horse | something brought by the Europeans in the Columbian Exchange |
| potato | something taken back to Europe in the Columbian Exchange |
| Popul Vuh | the Mayan story of creation |
| Hernando Cortes (Cortez) | Spaniard who conquered the Aztecs |
| Quetzalcoatl | Aztec god of creation who was supposed to return in a great ship in 1519 |
