Thoughts on the big three civilizations of the Pre-Columbian era: the Incas, the Mayans, and the Aztecs? Any good books to read or good documentaries to watch on any of them?
>>1174444
Nice quads
bumping, this is a nice topic
Why didn't they have geometry?
>>1174690
Maybe they did spaniards burned almost every book they found.
![maxresdefault[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/nx6RCX4.jpg "maxresdefault[1].jpg")
>>1174444
>good documentaries to watch
1491 by Charles C Mann is a good book on the subject
1493 also good, not as good tho
>>1174444
Sup OP
The books I can personally recommend are:
"The Universe of the Aztecs" by Jaques Soustelle (here you'll read mostly about the Aztec's religious ideology)
"The ancient kingdoms of Peru" by Nigel Davies (MUST READ IMO, the first half is about the Andes before the Incas, while the rest of the book is about them)
"The Incas" by D'Altroy (self-explanatory; you can find a version online)
"The Economic Organization of the Inca State" by John Murra (this guys is an expert on everything related to the andinian peoples before the conquest, and in this book you'll read everything related to the Inca's economy, but nontheless it's a very well written book)
"The Incas" by Pease (kinda like the one from D'Altroy, but this one is for the more "casual" reader)
>>1174690
Maybe they did, but like >>1174964 says not all of the written knowledge survived to our days (in fact, only 3 codex from the Mayans are what got pass the spanish purges), while the rest of the people in the continent never developed any way to register their history or knowledge (they did it orally though legend and tradition).
A good example of the geometry in prehispanic times are the ceramics' decoration. Many of them in many areas are decorated with geometric motives. (sorry about the english, I'm kinda bad at it)
>>1174971
Tsoukalos pls leave
>>1174690
what makes you think they didn't ? i men, they built large scale megalithic complexes of buildings that display a strong awareness of astronomy which all suggest a functional knowledge of geometry
>>1174690
Aztecs used hand, heart and arrow symbols to represent fractional distances when calculating areas of land, scientists have discovered. The researchers pored over Aztec agricultural manuscripts trying to understand how the indigenous people arrived at area calculations. Only when they factored in the pictorial glyphs did the figures make sense.
Each symbol stood for a distance that was less than the standard distance unit, called a land rod.
"These arrow, heart, and hands were similar to what we would now call fractions," del Carmen Jorge y Jorge said. "We call them units of measure smaller than the length unit. Suppose if you have inches. An inch isn’t just part of a foot, but a measure unit itself. Think of these heart, hand, and arrow as individual units."
"The Spanish conqueror who was in charge of the town was asking a lot of tribute," del Carmen Jorge y Jorge said. "The Indians wanted to prove in Spanish court that they were not able to pay the tribute the Spanish were asking."
"These are the only prehispanic documents that contain perimeter and area data, as far as I know," del Carmen Jorge y Jorge said. "Most of the documents from this time were lost."
What about this book:
Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion
Anyone read it?
invented penicilin thous yrs ago
Aztecs invented the wheel but never used it. It was a mere childrens toy for them.
>>1176160
Damn, this is cool as fuck. Makes me wonder what could've happened if only they'd had more time. From an intellectual and sociological point of view, the Aztecs were comparable to the Greek city-states.
>>1174444
Michael D. Coe is one of the leading academics re Mesoamerican civs, especially the Maya. He's written a number of works that have been successful but still scholarly.
>>1177280
Pretty sure that's incas friend.
>>1174444
The andeans and specially the Incas were arguably more advanced and powerful than the mesoamericans in a lot of things. So why the fuck did they never invent fucking writing? I know they used some kind of knots "instead" but that just cannot compete with actual writing.
>>1177387
Probably because they were so short-lived.
How come the folks in Central and South America were so much more advanced and "civilized" than their counterparts in North America?
>>1174444
annotated bibliography
art of the aztec empire
http://pastebin.com/m96zMip0
contains more types of topics/books than the title suggests
>>1177408
There were decent civilizations in the North, Cahokia, The Iroqouis, Pueblo and Proto-Pueblo, BC Indians were pretty civilized, And you fucking retard Mexico is North America
>>11774444 Interesting question
If I were to take a shot in the dark I would assume it was due to superior Agricultural techniques and better leadership or maybe that their religions offered more Unity than their northern frens
>>1177387
Some have suggested they had a writing system in their quipus and also in the sqaures you typically see in textiles. I forget the name of them.
>>1177519
YES please.
>>1178069
It's a good one.
https://mega.nz/#!rp502baL!
t7L8wKHg9jACC_9Ro2wudwm_v1-BofXgsAcRCBtZ60o
>>1179099
Why didn't they pave roads so they could use wheels?
>>1174444
The Aztecs weren't alone. They were just one (albeit the most successful one) of the Nahuatl Speaking Peoples who made city states.
>>1174444
I would include the Tarascans among the big 3. Just not much survived on them but their power was on par with the Aztecs.
>>1179524
but they did
>>1174444
500 Nations (Miniseries hosted by Kevin Costner) has a pretty good episode on the Aztecs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkI2J0FcoOc
>>1181096
I'd also add the mississipi mound builders, although we don't know too much about them
>>1174444
There's a nice documentary series by the BBC and hosted by the same guy about some mesoamerican and andean civilizations.
I've found them posted on Youtube or dailymotion.
South America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvGf0JIat0s
Episode 1: Covers the chachapoya culture
Episode 2: Covers the tiwanaku ruins
Episode 3: Covers the Chibcha culture
Episode 4: Covers the Chimu Kingdom
The mesoamerica documentary series I couldn't find on Youtube, but it's on dailymotion:
Ep. 1: The Olmecs
Ep. 2: The Taino
Ep. 3: Costa Rica
Ep. 4: Teotihuacan
There's also a pretty nice 2 part, 2 hours long in total, Inca documentary hosted by the same host as the previous documentary series and made by the BBC that can be found on either youtube or dailymotion.
It's called: "The Inca - Masters of the Clouds"
There's also a nice documentary on the Peruvian Caral ruins/civilization by the BBC as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDmm-MymkSk
The documentary is split into 5 parts on youtube.
I think these are some of the documentaries I've seen that are pretty good and worth mentioning. I might mention some more if anyone is interested.
There is also a book on the Incas that I found a little too concise but still pretty good called:
"The Incas: New Perpectives" by Gordon McEwan.
You can probably find this one easily.
>>1174444
1491 is a genuinely comprehensive book. A little biased but what book isn't.
>>1174964
>>1174444
I gotta ask. How the fuck did they build these empires without any writing?
I'm not talking about the day to day bureaucracy, i'm talking about collecting and passing on knowledge in such an efficient way that they could build those cities.
>>1186147
Protowriting, oral history and perhaps even real writing (Maya definitely had it, there are some new discoveries, which I can't currently link you to but I will try to find them, which seem to show that Aztecs had true writing too)
>>1178223
Thank you fa m
>>1181677
Thanks anon.
whoever took this picture should get some sort of award
>>1178254
There's nothing to explain, you're coming from tre prejudice of writing being needed for a great empire. The inca didn't need writing to become a great civilization. This, instead of being confusing, should shows us writing isn't essential for a civilization.
Appropiate observations: 1) Most early writing is administrative in nature. 2) The quipu you called lame and primitive was often used to keep track of numerical data for administrative pourposes
