HIST 100: Engineering The Past

5.2 Incas and Aztecs

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Religion-Kaleob

Empire- Logan 

Mythology- Indea 

Architecture-Lindsay

Engineering – Pete

Mythology: Aztec mythology like many cultures is various in it’s stories. The Aztec people (1) where nomadic people when they arrived in the Valley of Mexico. The other tribes saw them as uneducated and held them in disdain. to which they studied the groups already inhabiting the land and adopted aspects of their culture. (2)The ‘Toltec’ people where a large inspiration for their creation story as the Aztec saw the Toltecs as the Roman saw the greek. One of the most popular myths was that of ‘the five suns’ which describes the era’s (four of them) preceding the then current one. The myth said that each of the previous four eras had meet ruin of a natural disaster as as such were named after there catastrophe. The last era was said to be the result of Nanahuatl the most humble aztec god and Tecuciztecatl sacrificing themselves. Nanahuatls sacrifice started the sun moving in motion and thus time and Tecuciztecatl became the moon. Like the Aztec the Inca Mythology is rich in stories though what they have is the result of oral storytelling (3) due to most of their records being destroyed by conquering peoples. like the aztec, the Inca mythology was a mixture of the beliefs of the people around them Which can be scene in the iconography of peru’s historical relics and ruins.

  1. “Aztec History and Culture.” Aztec History and Culture. 2016. Accessed February 14, 2016. http://www.history-aztec.com/.

 

2.Brundage, Burr Cartwright. The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979.

 

  1. Roza, Greg. Incan Mythology and Other Myths of the Andes. New York: Rosen Central, 2008.

 

ARCHITECTURE: The most dominant aspect of both the Aztec and Incan architecture were and are still the massive bold temples. The force behind Aztec architecture was their desire to sacrifice to their gods. Part of the awe that is experienced in both empires architecture is the fact that both were built using tools such as hammer and chisel (1). The structures are massive and it is hard to believe such work could be done with simple tools. Local materials such as wood from surround forest and local stone were used in all of their structures. Art and decorations were carved into the stone structures. Relating Aztec architecture back to their religion and beliefs, the Aztecs carved figures as decoration into the stone (3). Some being eagles, representing the sun and warriors. Serpents representing fire or water. Conch shells to represent fertility. Sea creatures and frogs representing Tlaloc symbols (1). The extremely tall large temples built by the Aztecs and Incan were a way to get closer to their gods. These temples also had double staircases facing west towards the sun. There were 13 steps on the staircases, the reasoning for 13 steps had astronomical influence. The tops of these temples were flat, with block stone tops for the purpose of sacrifice (1).

1) Legends and Chronicles staff, Aztec Architecture

http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/the-ancient-aztecs/aztec-architecture/

2) Read, K. A.. (1986). The Fleeting Moment: Cosmogony, Eschatology, and Ethics in Aztec Religion and Society. The Journal of Religious Ethics, 14(1), 113–138. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40015027

Empire:

        At its peak, the Incan Empire stretched over current day Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador and had anywhere from 4 to 37 million inhabitants (1), the reason this number has such a wide range is because the Spanish Inquisition destroyed all the Incan census records they had. The Incan Empire was the largest pre-Columbian Empire in the Americas. The capital was located in Cuzco, Peru and where they had a well-organized imperial government with a strong central administration as well as intricate political and military powers. Around 1500, the leader of the Inca, Pachacutin, helped reinforce the Imperial Empire by forcing regional tribes to be vassals for local Incan Lords (1). All was going well until Francisco Pizarro conquered Cuzco with less than 200 men in 1533 and strangled the 13th and final Incan Emperor, Atahuallpa (2). The Incan Empire lasted right around 200 years, until it came to a swift end due to the arrival of the Spanish and their European disease which wiped out up to 95% of their population. Similarly, the Aztecs were also wiped out from being conquered by the Spanish and then further destroyed by small pox, measles, typhus, influenza and diphtheria. Although they came to the same demise, The Aztec Empire’s history is rather different. The Aztec empire was located in present day Mexico and had a triple alliance between the three city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoc and Tlacopan (3). They controlled vast parts of Mesoamerica between the 14th and 16th centuries. The Aztec Empire was based off a type of government where the capital cities were paid tribute to from outside villages which made the city an imperial center with its’s political reach extending from ocean to ocean and as far south as Guatemala. In 1519, Cortez reached the Aztecs and allied with their enemies, the Nahautl, in order to dismantle the Empire (3). The Aztec Empire was slightly smaller than the Inca Empire in population, 5 million to up to 37 million respectively, and the Inca Empire covered far more land.

1)   Seaman, Rebecca M. 2013. Conflict in the early Americas: an encyclopedia of the Spanish Empire’s Aztec, Incan, and Mayan conquests. http://ebooks.abc-clio.com/?isbn=9781598847772. (188-189)

2)   History.com Staff, Pizarro Executes Last Inca Emperor. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pizarro-executes-last-inca-emperor.

3)   Sandine, Al. 2015. Deadly Baggage What Cortes Brought to Mexico and How It Destroyed the Aztec Civilization. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=213008

 

Religion

The ancient South American religion of the Incas is a polytheist belief that encompasses both political and spiritual elements as an essential part of the largest empire in the Americas. This religion held a belief system and a series of religious practices that intertwined with the ideology of the ruling elite. The Incas developed systems to control and organize their massive empire, much of which was centered on the management of religious symbols and rituals. An example of this was the consistent problem of water availability and water gods and goddesses were highly worshipped and mythologized, and given sacrifices to ensure survival. The supernatural had a constant presence in Incan society, and consisted of two categories: deities and animistic forces taking human form. All of this existed in a crucial balance of forces, whether it was supernatural, political, or social. Maintenance of these forces was essential to life and the prevention of chaos. Viracocha, was the creator god who initiated life for the Incan empire. In comparison to the Aztec religion, which combined and transformed a number of rituals, mythic, and cosmic elements from heterogeneous culture grouped in the central plateau of Mesoamerica. The city of Teotihuacan was organized into four great quarters around a massive ceremonial center that archaeologists have theorized that the four-quartered city was a massive spatial symbol for the major cosmological conceptions of Aztec religion. Aztec religion also held a polytheist belief, but has major problems due to the Spanish conquests to eliminate Aztec symbols, images, and ceremonial buildings.

Spivak, Deborah E. “Incas.” Encyclopedia of Global Religion. Ed. Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade Clark Roof. Vol. 1. Los Angeles: SAGE Reference, 2012. 545-47. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

Carrasco, Davíd. “Aztec Religion.” Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 715-720. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

Engineering

The Aztecs used primitive tools such as stones, chisels, and blades to construct their buildings, structures and temples. The warm and moist climate, which made the ground sink, provided a challenge for the Aztecs to build any structure. They overcame this challenge by creating a strong foundation that could hold up to the sinking of the ground. They used a very beautiful and easy to cut volcanic stone, tezontle, to form the base for their strong foundations. They also used other stone such as rubble and limestone. They mostly carved their stones for decoration, to show texture and a visual pop. The Aztecs also used Pine and Oak wood from the surrounding forests to build the beams and doors. (1)

1) Legends and Chronicles staff, Aztec Architecture

http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/the-ancient-aztecs/aztec-architecture/

2.1 Prownian Analysis

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Hey y’all! I decided to choose the comb from amongst the other items in my bathroom. Here is my Prownian analysis.

Description: The object is of a red color. There are fine teeth-like parts on the object. These “teeth” are evenly spaced and pointy at the ends. It is about 6 or 7 inches in length and is made out of some sort of plastic.

Deduction: It looks like the object is used by an individual, but many individuals may use it. The object can be used by men, women, or children. The object is located in the bathroom primarily. The object’s purpose is to fix or arrange messy hair into a more neatly manner. The person who uses this object cares about their appearance, which makes sense because the object can enhance the appearance.

Speculation: Anybody who uses this object probably cares about their appearance and what their hair looks like. The producer of this product chose to use plastic, does this mean that the producer doesn’t care about their impact on the environment? Does the consumer of this product make a good decision to buy a plastic, rather than a wooden, ceramic, etc. , version of this object? Is it cheaper or easier to mass produce this object with plastic, rather than a more decomposable material?

Open Web source:

Freinkel, Susan. “A Brief History of Plastic’s Conquest of the World.” Scientific American. May 29, 2011. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-brief-history-of-plastic-world-conquest/.

Combs are one of the oldest tools and are/have been used by humans across many different cultures for detangling, decoration, and delousing of the hair. Amongst every other beauty/health and hygiene product, the comb has not changed very much other than the material used to make it.

 

Peer-Reviewed Source:

Kardash, O. V., and T. M. Ponomareva. 2012. “MEDIEVAL (9TH-13TH CENTURY) COMBS FROM NORTHWESTERN SIBERIA.” Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology Of Eurasia (Elsevier Science) 40, no. 2: 72-82. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed January 26, 2016).

Until the 13th Century, the native peoples of Northwestern Siberia used mostly unilateral combs made from bone or a single piece of wood. These medieval unilateral combs were not only used for hygiene but also as elements of “coiffure” and amulets.

I’m going to use the first web source to expand on the author’s method of understanding the object. The author looks at how the object came to be, how it was made as a hand tool, how people from the past would know exactly what to do with a present-day comb, and how it was not only used for hygiene, but also for decoration in the hair. The author talks about the shape, practicality, versatility, and other aspects of the comb, which compares to Prown’s methods in a way.20160125_222453 20160125_222414 20160125_222404