Welcome to Advanced US History for the 2014-2015 School Year! I am very excited to be your teacher this year and am looking forward to our journey. We are going to be learning A LOT over the next nine months and a major part of your education will be this blog. Every Monday a new post will appear. Follow the directions. Watch the videos. Read the articles. Think critically about what you are learning. Then, by Sunday at 11:59PM, post a 100 word comment in the Comment Section. This post will be a quiz grade every week, so don't forget!
We will start with the question: "What was America like before it was America as we know it?". The answer is that it was very diverse and filled with millions of native tribes and cultures. One of the most fascinating were the Aztecs. They dominated the Mexico region of North America for centuries before being wiped out by Hernan Cortes in the 1500s. Visit this website to learn more about this culture.
For the comment section this week, I want you to debate the following statement: "Prehistoric cultures were not sophisticated. They had no technology, culture, belief systems or entertainment. They were basically cavemen." Is this true? Use the Aztecs, and the info you learned from this site, as proof for your answer.
Any prehistoric group of people wouldn’t have technology. But to say that they were not sophisticated is false. The Aztecs did have religion (as do most societies), and they did have entertainment. Unlike the old ancestors known as cavemen, the Aztecs spoke a Spanish dialect (which makes sense because they lived in modern-day Mexico). They had a wide variety of religion, but all had something to do with many gods being involved in the creation of the world. The Aztecs were also known for building shrines to their gods. But in relation to that, they would also build courts for a game known as Tlachtli . Gambling was also involved in those ball games, so there’s prehistoric entertainment for you. The Aztecs had their own forms of government, and they also had their ways of family. The facts given prove that the prehistoric people had a sophisticated society.
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The Aztecs weren't quite as advanced as we are today, but they were sophisticated. The
ReplyDeleteAztecs had many things that made them sophisticated. For example they had different forms of religion. The religions were very complicated yet organized. The Aztecs empire was also very strong and organized. Their empire started in 1519 and clashed together a bunch of different cultures like no one had ever seen. The Aztecs even had a certain way of running/raising a family. All this goes to say that even though the Aztecs may not have appeared to be very sophisticated, they really showed that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. (108)
The aztects were not as advanced as we are today, but that is expected we are in the 21 century and they were in the 15th century.
ReplyDeleteThey were very advanced they were in the 15th century and they had their own religion. They also had their own laws some like the ones we have today, one of the laws that they had was that you couldn’t drink wine or beer unless you were 70 or older. The aztects were very sophisticated they had weapons that other cultures didn’t have, it took the other cultures 100 more years to figure out how to make the weapons that the Aztecs had. So I say that it is not right for us to call them cave men.
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It’s true that prehistoric cultures are less sophisticated than they are today. But that doesn’t make them cavemen. One example is the Aztecs. They had a weapon for every kind of fighting such as the atlatl, maquahuitl, and the club. The government and the social make was very complicated. People who were high up in the government were called Tlatcani. Middle class people who were families are called Capuli. And then things were divided up into family members. There were also two social classes. The Pilli were the nobles and the Macehualli. They also had their own language called Nahualtl, which existed for perhaps 1400 years! The Aztecs also had a calender that is very similar to the one we have today. There are 365 days in a year. There are also four seasons. This calender helped a lot with farming, which was crucial to the Aztec culture. As you can see, prehistoric cultures are not like cavemen and were very sophisticated and organized.
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DeleteIt’s true that the Aztecs were not as smart or as sophisticated, but they did have their own ways of doing things and teaching. For example, the girls learned how to run a home, cook, and even take care of a family. Some girls today don’t even have the education to do some of those things. The boys learned how to trade and were also taught fighting skills. Most boys don’t do that because it is a different century now. So, they were very smart in doing most of those things. Also for entertainment, they would play lots of games such as Ullamaliztli, a famous Aztec ball game. They had lots of entertainment that they would do for fun. As for technology, they didn’t have that because they didn’t have most of the supplies to make the technology like many other pre-historic cultures. In conclusion, the Aztecs were very smart in what they could do in their time, but weren’t as advanced as we are now. ( 166 )
ReplyDeleteIt is true that they were not as sophisticated as we are today, but that doesn't mean they were not sophisticated at all. Because Aztecs still had their own religion and a language to communicate with their people. They have other things as well. For example, they have their own art which has a different theme to each art piece. Each art piece was made by all sorts of materials like stone, gold, silver, copper, and jewels. They also had a lot entertainment, but they didn't have much technology. So the Aztec were very sophisticated in their own time but not as much as we are today.(107)
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree with the statement of the Aztecs practically being cavemen. They did not have the modern day technology as we do today, obviously, but they had weapons including knifes and bow and arrows. They also had something like ancient poker called “Patolli”. So the technology level was not at an absolute nothing; they had games and weapons just like us today. Their entertainment is clear they had games and things to do in their free time. The first thing they built when they came to a new place to settle was a court for their favorite ball game. That game was called ‘’Ullamaliztli’’ that game was fairly famous throughout their culture also. They had a clear believe system. They believed in the sun god and the moon god and all of that stuff. They even thought that the world was going to end every fifty-two years. So they would destroy every nice thing they owned and then go into the mourning process. Then after the world didn’t end they would assure to everyone that they were safe for another fifty-two years. In conclusion they were not cavemen; they had a society and organization just as we do today.
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test 2
ReplyDeletethis is false if the Aztecs where cavemen then they would not have order but they do have order. I am pretty sure cavemen did not even no the meaning of order. Well I mean each of the Aztecs do something. Some of them make jewelry some of them make weapon they come up with games. If I lived with the Aztecs I would not mind because I think it would be fun but anyway the cavemen didn't know how to make weapons or jewelry. The Aztecs have religion to. Cavemen do not even know the definition of religion. The Aztecs believed in gods and they thought that they would die some amount of years the cavemen had like nothing on their minds. That is why I think the Aztecs are Different from cavemen. (134)
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