Exam 8: Peoples and Civilizations of the Americas

Correct Answer:

Answered by Examlex AI Copilot

Geography played a significant role in the fact that the Maya never developed a unified and integrated state. The Maya civilization was spread out across a vast and diverse geographical area, including dense rainforests, rugged mountains, and coastal plains. This diverse landscape made communication and transportation difficult, which hindered the development of a centralized government and a unified state. Additionally, the lack of navigable rivers and the presence of natural barriers such as mountains and swamps further isolated different Maya city-states from each other. As a result, the Maya civilization remained fragmented into independent city-states, each with its own ruling elite and political system. The geographical barriers and lack of easy communication and transportation prevented the Maya from forming a cohesive and centralized state.

Correct Answer:

Verified

The Mesoamericans built on the achievements of the Olmec and other predecessors and developed new forms of political organization. As populations grew, new political forms were necessary because a greater number of products were traded and social hierarchies became more complex. Great cities were constructed to serve as centers of political life and as arenas for religious ritual and spiritual experience. These cities were dominated by increasingly impressive platforms and pyramids devoted to religious functions. Powerful elites controlled the cities and the nearby towns and rural peasantry. These elites gained the ability to mobilize growing numbers of laborers and soldiers to construct raised fields, canals, reservoirs, and aqueducts, all of which increased productivity while transforming daily life. The city's role as a religious center and commercial power provided both divine approval of and a material basis for the elite's wealth and status. This elite controlled the state bureaucracy, tax collection, and commerce. New religious and artistic interests also developed. The power of the religious and political leaders can be measured by the scale and impressive architecture at Teotihuacan and in the Maya cities. Linguistic developments and even recreation in the form of a game played on ball courts were all direct results of new political institutions. This game was associated with the creation myth and thus had deep religious meaning. There is evidence that some players were sacrificed. There were also negative consequences, such as more widespread warfare.